Drama Essay Assignment:
Choose ONE of the following prompts about ONE of the plays to discuss in an essay of three pages. Bear in mind that you must support your response with TWO sources from the databases.
Twelve Angry Men:
• Explain how personal insight influenced any three jurors’ understanding of the case.
• Compare and contrast rational versus irrational arguments for guilt by no more than three of the jurors.
• Discuss how the conditions in the jury room correlate to the jurors’ attitudes.
• Discuss the significance of “class” in the play.
• Why is the idea of anonymity so important in the play?
• Choose a quotation from one of the characters which you found particularly salient and explain its significance. (See list of quotations in separate file.)
Hamlet:
• “To be or not to be” is the famous question that Hamlet poses in Act Three, Scene One. Explore this speech. What does he mean by this famous question? What events of the play prompt this speech?
• Like Hamlet, Laertes is a son confronted with a father’s death. To what extent does he function as a foil to Hamlet? What do they have in common? How do they differ?
• Why does Hamlet delay killing Claudius? How many times does he have the opportunity to attack Claudius? What are his reasons for not doing so? What does his delaying reveal about his nature?
• Think about Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia. Does he love her? Does he stop loving her? Did he ever love her? What evidence can you find in the play to support your opinion?
• Analyze Hamlet’s “antic disposition.” Is his madness feigned or real? What purpose does it serve him? Does he ever slip from his “acts” of madness into true insanity?
Remember that Shakespeare, in the style of the great Greek playwrights, wrote his plays in verse, so format the quotations the same way you would cite lines from poetry.