Final Paper Assignment
REQUIREMENTS:
3-4 pages (not including the Works Cited page)
MLA format: Times New Roman, 12pt font, double-spaced
MLA style in-text citations and Works Cited Page
For your final paper this semester, you will write a thesis-driven essay of literary interpretation on any of the texts we’ve read since our last paper. Remember that an interpretation answers the “so what?” question after you make an observation about the text.
Possible Brainstorming Process: read à make an observation about detail or theme à ask “why does this matter?” à answer
The answer will be your thesis, which you will then back up with details from the text.
The texts you can choose to write about:
A. The Merchant of Venice
B. “The Miller’s Tale”
C. Telling Tales
D. Beowulf
You may write about any topic or question. Below are some possible questions to get you started:
1. Who is the main character in The Merchant of Venice? Provide strong reasons for why you consider this character the main character.
2. What are the connections between the various plots and subplots of The Merchant of Venice? How might one subplot help the audience understand other subplots or the main plot? How might the various plots and subplots advance the theme(s) of the play?
3. DIFFICULT OPTION: You are staging a production of The Merchant of Venice and are asked to set the play somewhere other than Renaissance Italy. What time and place would you choose? What costumes, sets, and props would you use? Describe how your choices will resonate with what you consider the key themes of the play and help communicate those themes to your audience.
4. Is “The Miller’s Tale” sexist? Does it portray Alisoun in a negative light or a positive light? Is she oppressed or empowered? Or a combination, somewhere in between? Discuss details like her choices, her motivation for her choices, her treatment by the men in her life, and her treatment of the men in her life, etc.
5. How does “The Miller’s Tale” quyt the “Knight’s Tale” of noble love? Why does the Miller push back against the Knight’s portrayal of love? What does the Miller’s story suggest about “human nature”?
6. What does Telling Tales suggest about the idea of universally-relatable literature? Would Chaucer recognize his own work in Agbabi’s retelling? Should we care about what Chaucer would think?
7. Much of the literature we read this semester was originally read aloud instead of silently, as we tend to read now. Many readers say that Agbabi’s Telling Tales is more suited to being read aloud, and indeed, her poetry borrows from rap quite often. What is the effect of reading the text silently vs reading aloud? Think about any of the texts we’ve read recently – The Merchant of Venice, “The Miller’s Tale, Telling Tales Beowulf – what changes when we read it aloud? (Other than perhaps making it easier to comprehend.) Think about performing a play, reading a poem aloud during a feast, etc. Use specific details from ONE text to discuss this question.
8. What are the qualities of a hero in Beowulf? What does that suggest about the text’s view of society?
9. Is Grendel as monstrous as the text makes him out to be? What factors might mitigate his monstrosity? Or, what factors prove he is as monstrous as the text claims?
10. DIFFICULT OPTION: Discuss two or more texts from throughout the course of the semester through the lens of a theme we’ve discussed. For example, analyze “The Miller’s Tale” and Silence through the lens of gender; analyze The King of Tars and Beowulf through the lens of race; analyze Silence and The Merchant of Venice through the lens of social status and acceptance; etc. This prompt is harder than it might seem. Choose this prompt only if you’ve already been making connections across texts.
