Paper #2

At their core, plays are humanist endeavors; that is, they tell us what it is to be human and how we should live. Though the works we have been examining in the second part of the semester tend to look less and less like the more traditional plays we read earlier in the semester, they still have a message and they still seek to communicate something about life. So, the question I pose to you in this prompt is: what does the play you’re examining have to tell us about how to live?

The challenge with this prompt is to come up with a surprising thesis. You may be tempted to say that “Mother Courage” Is about how war and capitalism are bad, or that “Endgame” is about how life is meaningless, but obviously there’s more to it than that. Challenge yourself and your group members to make a claim that is both subtle and surprising; think about the ways that the author qualifies or limits his or her claim about how to live, and emphasize what is unique about the play’s message.

Another key to creating a surprising thesis statement will be explaining how the play’s formal features inform the way we understand the play’s message. One question you may find it helpful to consider is: “why is this a play?” The writer could have written an essay, a novel, or worked in some other genre, but he or she chose to write a play. What is it about the nature of drama that makes it the perfect medium for the writer’s message?

You can write about any work we’ve read since Paper #1 (i.e. “Life Is a Dream” and after). The final length should be 4-5 pages double-spaced.

A strong essay will:

- Have a clear, specific, precisely-worded thesis statement that directly answers the question posed by the prompt. The idea itself will be surprising, reflecting a deep level of engagement with the text.

- Contain several paragraphs of close analysis of both the play's structure and its language. This analysis will reflect close and careful consideration of the text at hand, and all analysis will relate clearly and directly back to the thesis statement; in other words, you will choose passages relevant to the idea you present in your thesis and your analysis of these passages will serve to move your argument forward.

- Be relatively free of plot summary. Please assume that your paper's audience has read the play already. Your space in this essay in precious, and devoting any room that could used for analysis to plot summary will hurt your grade a great deal.

- Be well-structured and organized. The argument will unfold in a clear and logical manner. All paragraphs will have strong and clear topic sentences.

- Be polished on the sentence level. The prose will be simple, straightforward, clear, and easy to read and understand. The text will be free of errors in spelling, grammar, and document design.