Shakespeare

    Develop an argument that responds to ONE of the following topics.   1) Doubling appears at the level of plot, character, language, and theme in both A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors. Analyze the contribution of a very specific example of doubling in one of these plays. (Example: It could be something as specific as the image of a double cherry in Helena's monologue in the middle of A Midsummer Night's Dream.) How does your example contribute to, or problematize, the pattern and the meaning of doubles in the play? (Remember: patterns repeat, vary, evolve, or develop anomalies.) 2) Shakespeare invented the frame narrative that introduces and concludes The Comedy of Errors. How does the playwright develop and use the characters and story of the parental couple? As you are brainstorming, it would be helpful to think about their specific, textual similarities and differences with the younger couples in The Comedy of Errors, and with the older couples in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hippolyta and Theseus, and Oberon and Titania).—Note: you do not have the space to discuss all these couples in your short paper, but this process of contrast/comparison will help you refine your thinking about Egeon and Emilia/Lady Abbess. 3) In both comedies, the law and the father figure are intertwined. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Egeus uses the law as a weapon against his child. In The Comedy of Errors, the father is the potential victim of the law. Discuss one example of a law's interference in human affairs in one of the plays. How does the law threaten the comedic resolution of the plot?   4) While friendship competes with heterosexual pairing in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors presents three pairs of siblings that interconnect with the romantic relationships. Analyze one instance (a dialogue, an image, name-calling, etc.) in which siblinghood influences a relationship, plot development, language pattern, or theme in The Comedy of Errors. 5) In either A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Comedy of Errors, analyze an example of one of the critical terms or literary devices introduced in class presentations or readings. What do the device and the specific textual example contribute to the play? How do they contribute to the complexity of the comedy? 6) Theseus and Bottom both discuss poetry/poets in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Analyze an instance of self-conscious artistry or metatheatricality in The Comedy of Errors. What do the device and example contribute to the play? How do they contribute to the play's complexity?