You can look closely at Lears mental statedid he truly lose his mind? If so, when? Did he regain it? Or did he have it to begin with? What might Shakespeare be saying about the cause of madness, and the effects it causes in the world? You can also look at the other characters who pretend to be insane. What use might acting like a Bedlam beggar (insane homeless person) or a fool have in the world Shakespeare describes? -You must quote the play or directly summarize scenes from the play at least five times. Students often get too far away from textual proof when making claims about Shakespeare. You also need to quote or summarize at least two outside sources. At least one of these should be an academic article that focuses on the play. The other can be an article about your theme (insanity, filial piety, feminism, Marxism, Freudianism, etc) Make sure your sentences are concise and not needlessly wordy. Cut out unneeded plot descriptions. Spend at least two paragraphs at the end of your essay, before the conclusion, stepping back from the plot and scene-by-scene analysis to synthesize all your observations. Comment on the big picture message of the play. What is Shakespeare saying here? Use MLA to cite sources, even when they are assigned readings. You do not need to cite Act and Scene numbers, just pages. Your essay should follow 2016 MLA format and be at least five (full) pages long and no more than seven. For this paper, you are required to quote from at least two outside sources, at least one scholarly text (more are encouraged) about King Lear in your essay. You can use any texts you want as long as come from legitimate sourcesthe article or book must be written by someone with an academic position (professor of English, for instance) and/or published in an academic journal. In other words, Wikipedia or do not cut it since that information is by definition common knowledge or meant for cheating. (Wikipedia is a good place to find academic sources in the References section at the bottom of the page.) I suggest reading a few articles to see what the experts have said about King Lear, and then choose a topic that appeals to you based on these sources. Your other source(s) can be from newspapers, magazines, and credible websites and might be about the play or background information on topics that help explain a particular theme (psychology, political science, history, gender roles, etc). Avoid biographical info on Shakespeare since it doesn’t directly tell us much about the play. Below is the grading rubric Analysis How well does the writer go beyond describing and summarizing the text to explain the meaning? The writer should do this often, especially in the thesis statement, in topic sentences in the body paragraphs, and after quotes and summaries . How interesting is the theory the writer is applying to the texts? How often do they return to it in the body? Supporting evidence How well did the writer select quotes and summaries to prove their theory about the meaning? Is there enough proof? Are the quotes and summaries concise–only long enough to prove the theory? This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeOrganization Did the writer follow a clear and logical order of ideas? Does the writer use topic sentences to refer back to the thesis enough? Are there distraction side points that do not fit the theory? Style, grammar, and citation Were the sentences clear and easy to understand? Were there distracting grammatical issues? Was the style of writing pleasurable to read, with a good flow, variety of sentence structure, and well-chosen words?
