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Sonnets Essays and Research Papers

Instructions for Sonnets College Essay Examples

Title: Shakespeares Sonnets

Total Pages: 3 Words: 1120 Sources: 0 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: Directions:

Respond to ONE (1) of the following prompts.

Write a competent 1,000 word essay for the same.

'C' Option = 500 words

See the PURDUE OWL for help regarding MLA DOCUMENTATION.

Be sure to address the prompt directly in the thesis!

Develop your answer accordingly.

Write in your own words and use short/exact primary source quotations as examples in your body paragraphs.

You may (optional) use secondary sources.

However, DOCUMENT ANY/ALL SOURCES that you use in your exam via complete parenthetical and bibliographic citations!

Note: A symbol is (in general terms) anything that stands for something else.

Note: A literary theme is a subject/idea of significance.


Final Essay Prompts (Select ONE):

1. Discuss seasonal symbolism in Shakespeare?s Sonnets. Use three (3) literary works as examples.

2. Discuss the theme of the sublime in Romantic prose OR poetry. Use three (3) literary works as examples.

3. Discuss the theme of imperialism in ONE (1) literary work from the Victorian era. Use examples.

4. Discuss the theme of discovery in ONE (1) literary work from the Modern era (1890-1970). Use examples.

Remember: SUBMIT ORIGINAL WORK; CITE ALL SOURCES!

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: Shakespeare

Total Pages: 3 Words: 933 References: 0 Citation Style: None Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: I need an expert on Shakespeare who will have the specific books needed for this paper. Let me know if it is possible, because I need to order 6 additional 3 page papers and a final 10 page paper on this subject matter between now and Oct. 27th using the books. The books you need are: Title - Riverside Shakespeare by William Shakespeare, The Cambridge Companion by Margreta de Grazia and Stanley Wells, and the films: 1. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (Directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, 1998). 2. ELIZABETH w/Cate Blanchett. 1998.

Read from listed readings reading and see the listed films, keep notes, then write a thoughtful, formal response. Be mindful to cite specific passages from the texts to support your assertions and your main points. Cite from the texts listed and refer to specific incidents in the films.

Essay Subject Matter: Shakespeare - The Poet of Love

READINGs:

Riverside:

“General Introduction,” 1-26;

Sonnets,” pp. 1839-1842;

Sonnets for Discussion: 1, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 23, 26, 29, 30, 31, 36, 40, 55, 57, 73, 80, 87, 94, 106, 116, 126, 135, 138.

Cambridge Companion:

"Shakespeare's Life" (1-12)

"The Reproduction of Shakespeare's Texts" (13-30);

"Shakespeare and the Craft of Language" (49-64);

"Playhouses, Players, and Playgoers in Shakespeare's Time" (99-114)

FILM

1. SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE (Directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, with Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench, 1998)

2. ELIZABETH w/Cate Blanchett. 1998.

WEB SITES

Shakespeare's Sonnets
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/shakesonnets/

The Great Chain of Being
http://www.stanford.edu/class/engl174b/chain.html

DISCUSSION Material for Essay:
The sonnets present a variety of often conflicting views on love, ranging from the romantic to the comic, from the sincere to the cynical. In your critical essay, there are a number of questions to be answered. You may choose to select one and focus on it rather trying to encompass the entire sonnet sequence in your answer—or you may take a more general and comparative perspective. Here are some possibilities:

Contrast Sonnet 18 in terms of the “immortality conceit” used with the apparent “deep” realism of Sonnet 138, in which a view of love as “mutual deception” is given. What other sonnets express the “immortality conceit” and which of them is the best, in your opinion, and why?

Concerning the delicate and intricate structure of the sonnet, explicate any one sonnet in terms of its prosody (rhyme, meter, and other musical devices such as alliteration), its rhetoric (metaphor, simile, and other tropes), and its versification (sequence, stanza, quatrain, couplet, and line—iambic pentameter). How does a Shakespearean sonnet differ from a Petrarchan sonnet? What is the aesthetic worth of a sonnet in terms of musicality?

In which sonnets does the “Dark Lady” appear? Why is she or he given this name? Is the unknown “dark lady” of the sonnets perhaps a man, indicating a homosexual subtext to the sequence? Is it possible that the Dark Lady was an African slave? Who have been suggested as possible candidates for the Dark Lady? How are these possibilities expressed in the sonnets?

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is not only a delightful contemporary drama written by an outstanding playwright, Tom Stoppard, but it also provides an exceptional insight into the historical circumstances under which Shakespeare wrote. In the film, Stoppard dramatizes a number of important issues of the time, issues that separate us, as an audience, from those who went to see stage performances of Shakespeare's plays. For example, what effect to you think the prohibition against women actors had on the writing of plays? Why was this prohibition so strongly maintained? Why did such a prohibition exist? How does ELIZABETH add to the historical context necessary to understanding Shakespeare's drama?

In the movie, one of the characters is a Puritan. What is the historical background of closing of the theaters under the Oliver Cromwell? When and why were the theaters closed, what are the reasons given in the act of Parliament that closed them, and can you see an historical parallel developing in today's audiences concerning sex and violence? What is the role of sex and violence in Shakespeare's plays?

Our understanding of the impact Shakespeare's plays had on an audience is clouded if our relationship to the play is through a modern medium—in the case of this class, film—and not a stage production. Performances viewed in this medium, film, are quite different than stage drama. The most apparent difference between film and stage drama is that the former is recorded performance—a “mediated” and not “immediate” experience—while the latter is spontaneous because it is live. This is an enormous difference because it means that one of the essential aspects of live, stage theater— “interactivity”—is lost in film. This loss is crucial because Elizabethan-Jacobean drama maintained a performance-audience relationship that is not present even in stage drama today—the audience of Shakespeare's time was active, not passive. Although is it considered normal that today's audiences are passive, whether at a film or stage performance, that was not the case in Shakespeare's time. For example, it is not unusual in one of Shakespeare's plays for a character to “step out” of the play's story and directly address a question or comment to the audience as an “aside.” The limitations of the medium of film prevent this level of interactivity and habit, while convention and custom prevent such participation even when it is possible in a stage drama. Even attempts to use an “interactive” media such as the internet to perform Shakespeare, while to some extent resolving the issue of interactivity, are unable to overcome the lack of “intersubjectivity” in media other than stage drama—that is, the ability of the “person” behind the “persona” to come through. How do you think film performance differs from stage performance? What are some of the greatest differences? Research what are known as the structural “dramatic unities” that are inherited from the Greeks by the Elizabethans and explain how the medium of film inherently lends itself to violating these unities. Please give close attention to the classical unities of time and place.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: John Donne

Total Pages: 5 Words: 1489 Works Cited: 0 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Essay

Essay Instructions: I need an essay on ONE of the three Holy Sonnets listed below, together with a line-by-line paraphrase of the poem.

Donne in his Holy Sonnets (sonnets were traditionally love poems, so love poems to God) frequently recollects the poems he wrote as a secular (or as he says, “profane,” as opposed to sacred) love poet. Choose from III (“Oh, might those sighs and tears”), XIII (“What if this present”) and XIX (“Oh, to vex me”).

ONE of these three Holy Sonnets (III, XIII, XIX) are to be discussed in relation to Donne’s secular love poetry. I need a paraphrase and a close discussion of the language and imagery of the poem. One can refer to other of Donne's religious poems. Please discuss the Holy Sonnet you choose in relation to Donne’s secular love poetry. You may wish to view the Holy Sonnet as a “correction” of his posture as a love poet, as a continuation of that posture, or as a mix of both. You may wish also to consider what adjustments are brought about by the circumstance that Donne's love-relationships are with women but in the Holy Sonnets he relates to a God traditionally conceived as male . Also of possible interest in the Holy Sonnets is Donne’s guilt in relation to his former love affairs.

Excerpt From Essay:

Title: shakespeare's sonnets 71 and 73

Total Pages: 2 Words: 703 Bibliography: 0 Citation Style: MLA Document Type: Research Paper

Essay Instructions: I want you to analyze Shakespeare's sonnets 71 and 73. How are they related? Also, mention some elements of the poetry-rhythym,tone
The writer name-sunandmike

Excerpt From Essay:

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