Essay should cover three major literature works, Othello, The Duchess of Malfi, and Paradise Lost, in roughly equal measure.
At LEAST 900 Words
Choose one prompt of the following three:
1. In a detailed, thoughtful essay supported by textual examples, using at least one villain from each text, discuss how villainy manifests itself, along with its causes, motivations, tactics, and consequences. What cultural ideas might the villain represent? Does the villain, through his/her statements and actions, critique cultural norms of morality and proper social roles/customs? Is the evil they represent simply a subversion of good, or does it offer new ways of looking at the world? Does the villain have traits in common with the work’s protagonist? Do we sympathize with the villain at any point?
2. Four quotes on the nature of madness from various philosophers/writers: 1) The possibility of madness is therefore implicit in the very phenomenon of passion, 2) It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane, 3) No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness, 4) Madness in great ones must not unwatched go. There’s some obvious examples of madness/insanity in these texts—Othello, Ferdinand, the Cardinal, but you may be able to make arguments for less (??) obvious cases as well—Iago, Desdemona, Satan, Sin, Death, any of the devils who give speeches, the Duchess herself, etc. Choose at least three characters to discuss (at least one from each text) and use the one (or a combination of) the above quotes as a departure point for your essay. You can use one quote to deal with all of your characters, or you can mix/match characters and quotes as you see fit. In a detailed, thoughtful essay supported by textual examples, discuss the causes and consequences of madness in these characters and also, possibly, to what extent each madness is produced by the social world of the play–its norms, rules, and repressions—and/or to what extent the madness is a result of individual psychology, obsessions, neuroses, etc.
3. Because it provides a lot of rich subject matter, I’m going to essentially reboot the gender question from the midterm, with a bit more emphasis on the interactions between men and women. Anxieties over masculine identity/social roles in these texts often lead to various kinds of oppression and violence against women characters. In a detailed, thoughtful essay supported by textual examples, discuss the representation of both masculine and feminine roles, the ways in which these roles influence interactions between the sexes, whether these relationships conform to or challenge traditional social roles/paradigms, and the consequences these social roles create for both male and female characters. In terms of organizing the essay, it may help to discuss characters in pairs; for example, you could write an essay that deals with Othello/Desdemona, The Duchess/Ferdinand, and Adam/Eve, or one that tackles Iago/Emilia, Julia/The Cardinal, Satan/Sin, et