TheTempest/Metamorphosis

Requirements:  I expect to see a focused argumentative thesis with supporting points based on textual analysis.  Use the text as support, meaning, you must build your argument through close reading and explanation of actual passages in the text.  Fully develop your analysis.  A quotation from the text will not illustrate your thesis on its own.  You must teach the reader, through close reading and elaboration upon details in the passages, how it relates to your thesis.  It is also better to elaborate in detail upon one example than to bring in too many undeveloped examples.  The page length should be 3-5 pages in a reasonably sized font, 12 point times new roman, for example.  PAPERS SHORTER THAN 4 PAGES DO NOT FULFILL THE REQUIREMENTS AND WILL BE SUBSTANTIALLY PENALIZED.  Please provide citations in MLA style and a works cited list if you reference works outside of the primary text.

1.  Stephen Orgel writes that “[T]he family paradigm that emerges from Shakespeare’s imagination is a distinctly unstable one” (207).  Explain, developing a thesis that argues how this instability affects The Tempest (or any other text we have read).  As a way of focusing your thesis, think about how the “family paradigm” might shape itself according to other dynamics in the play, such as art vs. nature. Though this is a short essay you may also connect this topic to the reading of the fairy tales.

2.  George Lamming argues that Caliban in The Tempest is “outside the orbit of human” (162).  Explain what he means by this.  State whether you disagree or agree explaining in your own terms why you think this is so in The Tempest.  For example, you might look to the role of language.  You might also compare Caliban to Prospero.  Is Prospero, within the “orbit of the human” (162). 

4. How does The Metamorphosis complicate the traditional family paradigm? Pick one character in particular (besides Gregor) and explain his/her significance. How do any of the texts re-orient or reimagine family structure?

5.  Kevin Sweeney argues that the Metamorphosis leaves “unresolved questions about the limits of responsibility towards those whose personhood is in doubt” (152).  In other words, our de-humanization of others can become a way of limiting our responsibility toward them.  Explain this argument in relation to one or two texts we have read in class.

6. Nina Pelikan Strauss argues that the Metamorphosis illustrates the breakdown of masculine identity that occurs in the desire for a feminine one.  What do you think The Metamorphosis is actually about? (May combine with other questions).