Assignment
Choose one of the following prompts (or combine more than one) as a topic for your third essay on drama:
1. In many ways, Trifles OR Los Vendidos can be considered calls to social action. What are the plays suggesting about the roles of women and/or Mexican-American or other migrant workers in their respective times and societies? In what ways are these roles still with us today? What actions are the authors advocating for to achieve social justice? Are these actions still relevant in contemporary times? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
2. Write an analysis of how Oedipus the King conforms to the definition of tragedy. Use the definition from pages 623-627 (or consult Aristotle's Poetics), and explain where each element can be found in the play, and how it works to advance the action. Does the play produce the intended effects of tragedy (pity and fear) for an audience? Why or why not? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
3. Write an analysis of the function of dramatic or "tragic" irony in Oedipus the King. What effect does that irony have on the audience? On arousing the emotions of tragedy? How does it contribute to the sense of inevitability in the play? What does the play suggest about the effects of power on leaders and its relationship to tyranny? Does power inevitably lead to tyranny, and what qualities in the leader might influence this evolution? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
4. Write an analysis of whether Glengarry Glen Ross can be considered a modern tragedy. What elements of the play conform to the definition of tragedy? Can Shelley Levene be considered a tragic hero?
Why or why not? How have the tragic elements been updated to fit a contemporary setting? What is the effect? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
5. Write an analysis of Glengarry Glen Ross as an examination of the American Dream, contemporary business practices, and/or neoliberal, free market capitalism. What is the play suggesting about the benefits or pitfalls of these practices? Does the play draw a clear distinction between the salesman and the confidence man? Why or why not? What light does this shed on the Wall Street practices that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, and the likelihood that they could do so again? Support your assertions with evidence from the text.
For further advice, see Chapter 25 on Writing Arguments about Drama. Also review Chapters Two and Seven and Chapter 12 of What, Why, and How? As always, good essays begin with interesting introductions that capture the reader's attention, introduce the author and title of the work and its subject, and propose a thesis that your essay will argue. Good body paragraphs begin with a topic sentence that relates to some part of the thesis, and then develop the topic in detail, using events and quotes from the work as evidence to support the writer's claims. They also include commentary, developing the implications of the events under discussion. Good body paragraphs close with summary sentences that wrap up your point and relate back to the topic sentence. Conclusions should reflect back on the thesis, theme, and subject of the work, and end with a "clincher": a final sentence or thought that the reader can take away from both the work and your discussion of it.
Finished essays should be four to five pages in length, word processed and double spaced. Edit and proofread your essays carefully, eliminating unnecessary words, checking accuracy of quotes, correcting errors, and making every word count! Include page numbers in parentheses after your quotes.