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Essay Instructions: Merchant of Venice has been criticized as an anti Semitic play. Do you agree with this view of the play? Elaborate on your response. (I don''t care how you answer this, I just want it to make sense and sound good.)

Essay Instructions: *****Delivery Date/ Delivery time setting for this order form is not working--- I pushed "Delivery in 23 hours or less" and it gave me the date "October 12" ..... I need it TODAY, October 23rd, by 5pm EST.

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Prompt: Think up one major question about a major theme/ idea in Merchant of Venice and then comment on it. Use one or two quotes. Thanks.

Essay Instructions: Must come up with a complex original thesis about the merchant of venice, it is extremely important that the paper begin with a valid thesis. Must have at least two secondary sources from literary critics preferably from MLA international or a peer reviewed journal such as the Shakespeare quarterly or the Renaissance Quarterly. The paper should perform close readings of the play while also incorporating literary criticism, and new ideas should be presented along with the analysization of the literary critics (can either refute or support the critics in order to support the thesis). Try to avoid block quotes, and use language suitable for a college senior. If you can't come up with a thesis about the merchant of venice, either twelfth night, richard II, or Titus maybe be written on as well, but it can only be written on one.

Essay Instructions: In a focused analytical essay of about 5-6 double-spaced pages, discuss one of the following topics. state your thesis in your introductory paragraph and support your important claims with textual evidence (including carefully selected quotations). The quality of your thesis will e an important criterion in my assessment of your essay: be sure that it makes a claim that does indeed need the work of your essay to demonstrate (a thesis that is vague or obviously true from the outset is not a strong one).
You may use secondary sources of criticism, but avoid the mistake of substituting a critic's ideas for your own thinking. Any secondary sources you use must be acknowledged according to MLA or chicago style conventions.
Use the following as a starting point for fashioning your own coherent discussion. Feel free to add or omit questions as you see fit, but be sure to indicate your inquiry questions in the text of your discussion (I won't be consulting this list of topics when I read your essay. I'll be expecting for you to explain clearly the analytical work your essay is doing.)

How does Laucelot Gobbo's relationship with and treatment of his father (see act two scene two lines 33-112) reflect other child-parent relationships in The Merchant of Venice? Consider (although you do not necessarily have to write on all of the following): Jessica and Shylock, Portia and her father, and even Antonio as a possible father-figure to Bassanio. How do children treat their parents in the play, and what does such treatment tell us about the world of the play?

Just ideas of what I came up with....
I was going to write about the children and parents option two for the
essay. I started looking at each pair compared to Gobbo and his
father. Then I picked up on the respect pattern and how each parental
figure respects and takes after their child, but they don't
necessarily receive the same back from the kids in most cases. At the
same time this lack of respect back could be contributed to the
generation gap and changing times. Also that the children don't
directly respect their parents, they still understand their reasoning
for such events, but don't see eye to eye in achieving such events.
As just one example Portia's father passing and leaving the caskets to
help her find true love shows that he is caring to her. Portia
understands she wants to fall in love, but her father is essentially
telling her she must do it this way.
Perhaps included in this could be the communication barriers that are
put in place between parents and children and the value towards
different ideals. Also, that even after many years of Shakespeare
writing this, much of these same patterns are still occurring today.

And then incorporating the Frye piece into it as another source....
To help give your discussion a sharper focus or stronger base you might
consider using Northrup Frye's article, "The Argument of Comedy" (on
e-reserve). Typically in comedy, Frye argues, the older generation
oversteps its authority and causes problems for the younger generation.
By a play's end, the parent finally gives way to the son or daughter,
thus allowing for the next generation to thrive and for life to go on.
(If you haven't already, read Frye's article for the specifics of this
argument.) How well does Frye's argument seem to fit the parent-child
relationships in The Merchant of Venice? I think much of what you want
to discuss could be approached by way of considering the typical
patterns of comedy.

There are no minimum number of quotes. Just as many as needed to support the thesis.

The Merchant of Venice, ed. A. R. Braunmuller (New York: Penguin, 2000)

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