English 211 Paper Topic
Fall 2002

Honors Increment students will have a different topic assignment

Rules

I want you to write an intelligent, well-supported five-page paper on one of the following topics. I do not want you to use outside sources on this paper (since I would prefer this to be an exercise of your analytical skills). However, if you do use outside sources, be sure to document the paper carefully. Even if you do not quote or paraphrase outside sources that you have consulted (including people who proofread your paper), please include them in a bibliography at the end of the paper.  See my statement on plagiarism.

Please respect my intelligence when you set up your paper.  I prefer Times New Roman as your font (and I know that you can stretch the apparent length of your paper by using Courier New).  Don't try to fudge the margins.  Realize that when I say "five pages," I intend for you to reach at least the bottom of the fifth page. It is better for a paper to be a little too long than for it to be a little too short, but don't resort to what is generally known as BS.  If you're having trouble developing your paper adequately, bring me the rough draft and I will help.

All quotations from the text must be documented NOT by page number, but by act, scene and line number, and you must show that the lines are verse lines rather than prose when indeed they are verse. You can do this either by setting the passage apart (indent and single space) and doing a hard return at the end of the verse line, or by using a slash to indicate that you have reached the end of the line. Example of incorporating a quotation without using indentation (as if this were a passage in your paper--imagine this double spaced):

At one point, Polonius says, "I will find/ Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed/ Within the center" (II.ii.157-159). This statement illustrates how little Polonius understands the difficulty of finding the truth.

As you can see, you have to identify the speaker, quote the lines, indicate the position of the end of lines, and keep the spelling, punctuation and capitalization of the original. The parenthetical documentation of act, scene, and line number comes at the end of the quotation, outside the quotation mark but inside the period. If you don't understand how to do this, come see me for a more detailed explanation. You will also notice that it is appropriate to use the present tense when describing action in a work of literature.  

This paper is due by the last day of class.  Late papers will be given a 10-point grade penalty. 

Topics (choose one):

1. Do a character analysis of one of the minor characters in Hamlet: Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, etc. Make general statements about the nature of their characters and support those generalizations with specific lines from the play. Be sure that you do NOT simply run through a scene by scene description of what the character does. I want you begin with a thesis and come to conclusions about how we are expected to react to these characters.

2. Do a close reading of Hamlet's "Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" soliloquy or Claudius's "Oh, my offense is rank" soliloquy. In a close reading, you look carefully at every line and word in the passage and explicate them: that is, you not only say what is being said (a sort of paraphrase); you also say WHY it is being said by the character. What is the character revealing about himself in the speech? How does it help explain his attitude and behavior? 

3. Discuss Hamlet's attraction to suicide over the course of the play, especially what he says in is soliloquies. Why do you think he is attracted to it, and how does his attitude change as the play progresses?

4. Watch the Mel Gibson or Sir Laurence Olivier versions of Hamlet. Write a paper that evaluates the way the movie cuts and rearranges the text. What sort of interpretive impact comes as a result of these cuts and rearrangements of the text? Do the changes affect the overall interpretation of the play?

Please heed my advice about not using outside sources. I hate failing people for this class, but I’ve done it before and will do it again if I find that you have plagiarized your paper in any way.  Remember to include a bibliographic citation of your text.

To Statement on Plagiarism
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