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Paper One Instructions Unlike your close-reading assignments, you must assert and defend a specific interpretation of your chosen text to successfully complete this paper assignment. In your thesis statement, you will state your interpretation of the work. Your interpretation must be specific. For instance, it is not enough to argue that “Lear is mad”. On the other hand, if you were to offer the interpretation that “Lear’s madness is the result of the king’s affront to god”, then your argument would be specific enough to bring focus to your paper. Also in your thesis statement, you will explain the significance of your interpretation of the text. In other words, you will make clear to your audience why your interpretation is important to our understanding of the play or poem. Using the thesis above regarding Lear’s madness, I would add to this statement about the work a sentence declaring what my reading brings to the conversation about Shakespeare’s text. Such a statement might read, “Lear’s madness is the result of the king’s affront to god when he broke with Divine Right. This is significant because it demonstrates the ideological power of this political belief during the early modern period”. Note that this thesis statement lays out a clearly articulated argument or interpretation of Shakespeare’s play, that Lear’s madness results from his denial of the Divine Right of Kings. The statement: – Makes clear, in succinct language, the claim I want to make about the text (my interpretation) – It also incorporates King Lear’s historical context, demonstrating my knowledge of information from lecture and synthesizing this information with my claim about the work. Note, as importantly, the statement illustrates what makes my argument significant to understanding Shakespeare’s work. My argument contributes to discussions of the play by linking the “ideological power” of theories like Divine Right to King Lear through an analysis of Lear’s madness. A strong thesis statement is fundamental to a successful paper. If you do not clearly state your interpretation at the beginning of your paper, your composition will be without an obvious direction or focus. Likewise, if you do not explain the significance of your interpretation, then the reader will not understand what you are bringing to the table in regard to conversations about Shakespearean texts.
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Spend time carefully crafting your thesis statement. The language of your statement must be clear and specific in its wording. It is a worthwhile practice to re-read your thesis statement after writing your paper to make sure the statement reflects the body of your paper. ********************* As in the case of your close-reading assignments, *textual evidence*—quoted lines, word choices, soliloquies, etc.—is mandatory. You must gather textual evidence from the whole of the play or poem to successfully assert and defend your interpretation. For instance, if I were to search out evidence supporting my claim regarding Lear’s madness, I might find in act two scene four the following lines that illustrate the king’s failing mind. Lear exclaims, [ … ] Touch me with noble anger, And let not women’s weapons, water drops, Stain my man’s cheeks.—No, you unnatural hags, I will have such revenges on you both That all the world shall—I will do such things— What they are yet I know not, but they shall be The terrors of the earth! You think I’ll weep. No, I’ll not weep. I have full cause of weeping, but this heart [Storm and tempest] Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws Or ere I’ll weep—Oh Fool! I shall go mad! (II.iv.318-29). First of all, I would note Lear’s reference to his lost royal title: he desires to be filled with “noble anger”, recalling the nobility he partially surrendered in act one (I.iii.318). Pointing to this reference bolsters my claim about how Lear’s lost power is linked to his casting off of the most royal of titles: Divine Monarch. Lear’s request to the gods fails him, and instead of royal behavior, Lear demonstrates his growing madness with his disjointed language. The several dashes throughout the passage indicate breaks in his thought, like his thinking is interrupted. Most poignant is his almost meaningless claim, bookended by dashes, that he will “—[do] such things—” (I.iv.322). Lear is feeling his powerlessness; he can only conjure in the most vague terms the revenge he will have on his daughters. His powerless state is reiterated when he admits that “what they are yet I know not”, unthinkingly playing out the role of the doting old man ascribed to his by Regan and Goneril (I.iv.324). The cracking of Lear’s heart into “a hundred thousand flaws” is accomplished both by the tempest and by the daughter’s treatment of the weak and disoriented Lear (I.iv.28). The King confesses to his own deranged mind when he passionately exclaims to the Fool, “Oh, Fool! I shall go mad!” (I.iv.329). Having identified the
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reference to royalty (and hence divinity) early in the passage, I can link Lear’s deep fears of madness to his surrender of the crown and consequent affront to god. Using the evidence I found throughout the play to support my thesis, I would provide in my paper careful and thorough explanations of just how that line, passage, aside, etc. is directly linked to my thesis. Without providing that link between your textual evidence and your interpretation, the purpose of including your close-reading of that evidence is lost on the reader. Your textual evidence must be: – Carefully close-read and explained, and – Clearly connected to your thesis
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From Annotations to Close-Readings to Interpretation to Thesis Statement The following is a recommended guide to constructing your paper. 1. Choose the text that most interests you. 2. Review your initial annotations or notes taken while reading the work. Search these notes for any ideas in your comments that could be developed into a thesis. 3. Return to your close-reading assignments and notes for the same purpose. 4. Having hit upon an idea, do some writing on this topic. What about this part of the play or poem interested you? Can you whittle this general idea down to a focused interpretation that incorporates the course material? If so… 5. Test your theory against the play or poem. Is there enough evidence to support your interpretation? 6. Having developed your interpretation and gathered your evidence, draft your thesis statement. Remember: your thesis statement is the foundation of your paper. It must be clear and specific. 7. Write an outline to organize your argument. Incorporate into this outline your textual evidence and lecture material. 8. Draft your paper. 9. Return to your thesis statement: does this statement still reflect your argument?
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Details: – You may write on: – any of the sonnets covered in class (if you are interested in analyzing a text that we did not discuss, please contact me) – King Lear – Macbeth – Your paper must be 3 full pages in length, double-spaced, regular margins – Your paper must use MLA formatting (see Purdue’s OWL for reference) – Your paper must have a title – Your paper must include a Works Cited page – You will turn in a hard copy of your paper at the beginning of class on 2/13.
The post Your interpretation must be specific. For instance, it is not enough to argue that “Lear is mad”. On the other hand, if you were to offer the interpretation that “Lear’s madness is the result of the king’s affront to god”, then your argument would be specific enough to bring focus to your paper. appeared first on Versed Writers.
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