In a thoughtful, well-organized analytical essay, grounding your response in a close, detailed reading of the text at hand, please address one of the following topics. These topics pose general, theme-based questions. In formulating your essay topic, you will want to articulate your topic in the form of a more specific question about the text you’ve chosen to work with. You may use any of the texts we’ve read beginning with “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”
1.Concentrating on any one of the readings we’ve done so far, consider the relationship between appearances and reality. How are appearances used to deceive or to manipulate? What does this text seem to be saying about the difference between what we think we perceive and what is actually true? How do characters use masks (real or figurative) to deceive those around them?
2.Discuss the theme of passion as it relates to any one of the texts we’ve read thus far. Here you can focus either on passion in the context of romantic love or on passion in the sense of any strong feeling or emotion. What does your text seem to be saying about passion, particularly when passion is in conflict with other more rational values?
3.Choose any one of the texts we’ve read thus far, and identify what you consider to be its central message with respect to human destiny. In several of the texts we’ve read, characters or authors appear to be struggling to determine their purpose in life or to chart their own course. What does freedom look like in your text? How does your text balance human agency with the idea of a pre-ordained fate.
