Questions:
Please answer two of the three questions. Each answer should fill two double-spaced pages in 11 point Times New Roman font. Your answer should demonstrate an analytical examination of the texts, incorporating quotations and explaining their importance. Your essay should begin with a basic thesis statement and then proceed to support that thesis in an organized way
1) Many of the plays we have read and films we have watched this semester have portrayed marriage as a problematic institution. What seems to be the primary problem with marriage in these plays/films? How have the plays/films demonstrated this? How have the plays/films portrayed this difficulty similarly and differently? Your answer should include references to at least three of the plays or films we have studied this semester, though your essay need not grant equal attention to each of the three.
2) We studied Shakespeare’s *Taming of the Shrew* and then we studied three adaptations of his play. How do these adaptations demonstrate that the family tensions in *Taming fo the Shrew* are continually relevant across time and cultures? How do the adaptations demonstrate that plays must or can adapt to address differing audiences? In this answer you should compose a thesis answering the questions, discuss how family tensions are portrayed in Shakespeare’s original, and then discuss how the adaptations maintain and adjust his story.
3) Oscar Wilde’s *The Importance of Being Earnest* and George Bernard Shaw’s *Pygmalion* were written within approximately a decade of each other in England. Class and manners are important themes in both plays. What are the plays saying about the British class system and social mores? Do they have similar messages or do they differ on their portrayals of the upper classes? What comedic techniques do the twoplays use to impart their message to audiences? What formal qualities do the written version of the two plays share?
Course Material:
• Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
• My Fair Lady
• 10 Things I hate about You
• ISI Life Mein
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen