A‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello Please write a 5-page

A‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ Midsummer Night’s Dream and Othello Please write a 5-page paper on one of the following topics. If you don’t like any of them, you are very welcome to choose your own topic; however, if that is the case, please consult with me before getting started. Papers should have an introduction and a conclusion and propose and defend a substantial thesis (argument) by giving ample textual support. Your paper should be typed and virtually flawless in terms of grammar and mechanics. Please make some meaningful references to the primary texts, historical context (Bedford Companion to Shakespeare), secondary sources (from the Necessary Shakespeare and/or one article on Canvas), your own peer-reviewed sources (two sources: print or from an online database (MLA, JSTOR, Project Muse)). Please incorporate reference to the research into your essay and append a list of works cited at the end of your paper. Your paper is due 10/20 at 4 p.m. EXAMPLE: Neely argues that Desdemona, like Emilia is “indifferent to reputation” (Neely 224). Short quotations from Shakespeare’s text (quotations of less than four lines of text) should be incorporated into your paper in the following way. EXAMPLE: When Iago arrives in Cyprus, he vows to make from Desdemona’s goodness a net “that shall enmesh them all” (). Use longer, block quotes only when you are going to analyze the passage in detail; otherwise, paraphrase the background information, and quote only the significant portions. If you use long quotations, make sure that you discuss them after you introduce them. Block quotations should be laid out in the following way: EXAMPLE: When Iago arrives in Cyprus, he takes the audience into his confidence, vowing that I’ll pour this pestilence into his ear, That she repeals him for her body’s lust, And by how much she strives do him good, She shall undo her credit with the Moor. So I will turn her virtue into pitch, And out of her own goodness make the net That shall enmesh them all. () (Everything should be double spaced.) Please consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (latest edition) and our MLA handout on Canvas for the proper format for a list of “Works Cited.” TOPICS 1. In his introduction to Shakespearean comedy, David Bevington points out that “Attempting to define precisely what constitutes a ‘Shakespearean comedy,’ much less defining the genre, is a daunting task” (73). Writing about A Midsummer Night’s Dream or As You Like It, please discuss the extent to which it might be challenging to categorize either one of those plays as a comedy. 2. Please discuss the significance of the mechanicals and the play-within-the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In what way do they reinforce the themes illusion and reality? 3. After Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius come back from the Athenian woods, Hippolyta states: But all the story of the night told over, And all their minds transfigur’d so together, More witnesseth than fancy’s images, And grows to something of great constancy; But howsoever, strange and admirable. (. 23-27) Please discuss the extent to which this quotation reflects the characters’ (including Titania’s) experience of love and desire. 4. Critics have suggested that A Midsummer Night’s Dream consists of binary opposites, such as court-country, order-disorder, love-lust, reason-imagination. Choose one or two themes that you think are the most important and explain their relevance in the play. Moreover, please consider why those dichotomies are useful in analyzing the play. However, at the same time, please analyze the extent to which MSND deconstructs or challenges those opposites. Why is the subversion of binary opposites important as far as theme is concerned? 5. Stephen Greenblatt mentions that Shakespeare started to reflect on power struggles between men and women in The Taming of the Shrew. Please analyze how anxiety about feminine power and female self-assertion are also exemplified in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 6. Gitanjali Shahani mentions in her article “The Spicéd Indian Air in Early Modern England” that “the play thus invokes England’s proto-colonial, mercantile present. Its fairy world effectively captures the tensions between pre-capitali‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍st modalities of everyday social relations and emerging capitalist rituals of value, exchange, and conspicuous consumption” (130). Reflecting on the main characters and the Indian changeling, to what extent do you agree with her argument? 1. In his article, “Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor,’ Daniel Vitkus argues: A baptized Moor turned Turk, Othello is “doubly damned” for backsliding. Sent out to lead a crusade against Islamic imperialism, he “turns Turk” and becomes the enemy within. He has “traduced” the state of Venice and converted to the black Muslim Other, the Europeans’ phobic fantasy: Othello has become the ugly stereotype. His identity as “the noble Moor of Venice” dissolves as he reverts to the identity of the black devil and exhibits the worst features of the stereotypical “cruel Moor” or Turk-jealousy, violence, mercilessness, faithlessness, lawlessness, despair. Faced with this terrible identity, one that “shows horrible and grim” (1. 202), Othello enacts his own punishment and damns himself by killing the Turk he has become. (176) Please discuss the extent to which you agree and/or disagree with Daniel Vitkus’s evaluation of Othello. 1. Kim F. Hall argues about Othello: The often excruciating dilemmas of the characters are made all the more painful because what each character—and the audience—sees is so obviously driven by powerful cultural commonplaces, by stories about love, sexuality, race, and gender. The play tantalizes the audience with the possibility that the characters might transcend these shaping conceptions even as it recirculates them in various forms. (1) Pondering our class discussions, please compose an essay that discusses the complex representation of race and/or gender in this tragedy. Key Features: 1. An introduction that leads gracefully to the thesis. Maybe define relevant terms (Oxford English Dictionary) and put them in the context of the play you are going to analyze. 2. Please include relevant historical context, such as references to race, gender, and setting in the Early Modern Period (see BCS and our research articles). 3. Maybe discuss two opposing viewpoints from your peer-reviewed research articles concerning the topic you are going to write about. What is the shared context, and what is the problem in that your paper is going to resolve? 4. Please make sure that your “friction-intense” thesis will answer the central question you have asked about your play. To what extent does the thesis answer the question you have asked about your play? Does your thesis present an argument about your topic and say in a nutshell what you wish to emphasize – your central idea, the point you want to make about your topic. Your thesis should be as specific as possible and foreshadow the body paragraphs. Maybe include a core argument, a counterargument, reasons, and the larger picture in your thesis. 5. The body should elaborate your thesis, providing evidence in form of textual support. The body paragraphs should be appropriately organized, including use of clear topic sentences and your analysis of the play should reinforce your topic sentences. The paragraphs should be in logical order and use transitions to show links between ideas. Bear in mind that the body paragraphs should develop, complicate, and advance your argument. Maybe consider a counterargument and refute it? 6. Analysis and interpretation that is supported with specific textual evidence from the drama (minimum four quotes or references to either MSND or Othello). Please document your source by using our MLA format (compare Rules for Writers or our MLA style guide on Canvas). 7. Don’t forget to develop, complicate, and advance your argument by maybe considering a counterargument and a refutation. 8. At least three references (parenthetical in-text citation) to secondary literature (3 articles from our online database or print sources) in MLA style. 9. A conclusion that provides closure to the essay and considers the implication of your argument. 10. MLA Style (heading, margins, title, line spacing, page numbering, parenthetical citation, and a Works Cited Page). 11. Observan‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ce of the conventions of standard written English.