As your syllabus notes, your final paper for this course is due on October 12. You may have until midnight to turn it in. An assignment tab has been created on our Canvas site through which you can upload your paper once you have completed it.
This paper should be 6-7 pages in length, double-spaced, with the pages numbered and one-inch margins. Please use a twelve-point font like Times. If you submit your paper as a word document, I can then make comments on the document, which is not the case if you turn in a PDF.
You do NOT need to provide a bibliography. Passages quoted from the play should have their act, scene, and line numbers indicated parenthetically, as I do on our PowerPoint slides. For example: 3.2.114-117.
Please feel encouraged to seek me out to discuss the assignment. Sometimes an email exchange is particularly useful as it gets you writing. It’s generally most productive for you to have begun to think about a topic in which you are interested before reaching out to me
Paper Assignment: Choose from any of the nine topics listed below, each of which is broad and will need refining on your part. In fact, part of your grade for this paper is based on how you refine and shape your paper so that it has a compelling point. Some of these topics blur into one another. Do NOT be concerned if you feel as if your paper is answering or engaging with multiple topics. That is perfectly acceptable.
If you would like to develop your own prompt entirely, please clear it with me before you begin writing.
Paper Topics:
Mental Wellness. Consider the play’s depiction of King Lear’s mental confusion, as opposed to Edgar’s impersonation of a Bedlam beggar. Why would Shakespeare couple these two situations, in which one character is experiencing mental decline and another decides to “act” mentally unwell? What larger point do you think Shakespeare is making by representing mental infirmities, authentic or otherwise, in the manner he does?
The Family Unit. Both fathers in this play, Gloucester and Lear, disown a child, and in so doing subsequently realize they have made a terrible mistake. By virtue of these mistakes, to what degree do you think Shakespeare is questioning the traditional “patriarchal” family structure? Does Shakespeare use a strategy of “subversion and containment,” whereby a radical criticism of patriarchy is proposed and then qualified? How might you explain the contradictory messages regarding families in this play, in which we see terrible parenting but also an emphasis on forgiving fathers for their mistakes?
The Fool. What role does the Fool serve in King Lear? Why do you think he disappears in the third act? How do his language games, in your view, benefit and enrich the play?
Virtuous Disobedience. Consider those characters, such as Kent, the First Servant, or the Fool, who knowingly risk disobeying their social superiors. What do you think Shakespeare intends us to take from the staging of such behavior?
Politics and King Lear. Based on this play, how would you characterize Shakespeare’s attitude toward monarchy? Generally positive? Negative? Conflicted? Explain your thinking by referencing specific moments in the play.
Edgar and Cordelia. Recall that in his rewriting of the end of King Lear, Nahum Tate has Edgar and Cordelia marry. Beyond being wronged by their fathers, are they similar characters? If not, how would you explain their differences? Is one discernibly more sympathetic than the other? Is it significant that one is a son and the other a daughter?
Wordplay. The language of King Lear can constitute a paper topic in and of itself. Focus on one or two keywords in the play. It helps to have a searchable electronic version of the play; here is one (http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/full.html) that conforms closely, but not perfectly, with the version of the play we read. Once you’ve selected a word or words that feel significant in how they are deployed in the play, look up their early modern meaning(s) by searching in the Oxford English Dictionary. This link (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/o/oed/) should get you to the OED, provided you are logged on as a Michigan student. Otherwise go to Quick Links on the University of Michigan homepage, click on Library Catalogue and search OED. With these definitions in hand, go back through the text and consider what sentiments these words are evoking. Ultimately your essay should consider the following question: How does focusing on a particular word (on its meanings and usage) illuminate something central to the play’s themes or structure as a whole?
Letters. Consider all of the letters that are written and sent in this play. What does Shakespeare’s reliance on written communication reveal to us about the design of King Lear? Is there a particular function in the play that letters serve?
Poverty. Several notable passages in King Lear address income and social inequality. Who are the figures most associated with drawing our attention to poverty in the play? Do you regard this literary work as one that radically proposes social change, or do you see the proposals offered here as qualified?
General Advice For Your Paper:
Your essay should have a clear point; that is, it should offer an argument that is supported in your prose via recourse to pertinent passages in the play.
Avoid saying really general things about King Lear, or praising Shakespeare for being a “genius” or writing “timeless” works, etc.
Again, please do not feel obliged to handle the entire range of responses proposed by each topic. Rather, try to isolate one aspect of a given question or questions and explore them fully in your paper.
Also, avoid trying to cover the entire play chronologically, scene by scene; these papers usually lack focus and the kind of close reading that are essential for a successful paper. Your main point should organize your paper, not the play. A paper that marches through the play from beginning to end typically ends up summarizing what happens in the play.
Write your paper with me as your intended audience: someone who is familiar with Shakespeare’s works.
Regardless of your topic, make sure—in your paper—that you are using the language of King Lear to buttress your interpretations.
You should quote liberally from the play and then indicate why the passage you have drawn our attention to is interesting. Quote a handful of lines at a time so that you can really examine how these lines work. If you look at the PowerPoints for the course, you’ll notice how most of the slides are organized around a few lines from a given moment in a given play. Organize your paper in a similar manner.
