City College of San Francisco Feminism in King Lear Discussion

!!!!choose one topic!!!

?1?Just about every character in the play undergoes a profound change or series of changes, directly or indirectly, as a result of Lear dividing his kingdom. Closely chart one character’s transformation—describe his/her important qualities when the play started, what events or ideas caused the change, and the extent of the change. Did the character learn from the change or did it destroy him/her or both? What is Shakespeare saying about human nature with this character and/or the impact of the Lear’s division?

?2?Perform a feminist reading of the play—what might Shakespeare be implying about the treatment of women and what power does to gender relations. You can look at male attitudes toward women and the roles men are trapped in too.

?3?Lear has three daughters; Gloucester has two sons. Explore each character as a father, and what Shakespeare might be implying about parent-child relationships and obligations in general. You also might look at how their offspring treat them. Form a theory about family relations (and/or filial piety) as they work (and don’t work) in the play.

For this paper, you are required to quote from at least two outside sources, at least one scholarly text (more are encouraged) about King Lear in your essay. You can use any texts you want as long as come from legitimate sources—the article or book must be written by someone with an academic position (professor of English, for instance) and/or published in an academic journal. In other words, Wikipedia or www.gradesaver.com do not cut it since that information is by definition common knowledge or meant for cheating. (Wikipedia is a good place to find academic sources in the References section at the bottom of the page.)

Considerations:

• You must quote the play or directly summarize scenes from the play at least five times. Students often get too far away from textual proof when making claims about Shakespeare.
• You also need to quote or summarize at least two outside sources. At least one of these should be an academic article that focuses on the play. The other can be an article about your theme (insanity, filial piety, feminism, Marxism, Freudianism, etc)
• Make sure your sentences are concise and not needlessly wordy. Cut out unneeded plot descriptions.
• Spend at least two paragraphs at the end of your essay, before the conclusion, stepping back from the plot and scene-by-scene analysis to synthesize all your observations. Comment on the big picture message of the play. What is Shakespeare saying here?
• Use MLA to cite sources, even when they are assigned readings. You do not need to cite Act and Scene numbers, just pages.
• Your essay should follow 2016 MLA format and be at least five (full) pages long and no more than seven.