Fall 2005

Essay 2: Textual Analysis
King Lear

Overview:  This essay assignment asks you to look at King Lear at the micro level.  That means looking at words and how they are used.

    Your instructor will choose one of the following sets of lines from King Lear, all of which are available to you as film clips.You must have a broadband connection to view the clips.

"Reason not the need." II, iv, 261-284,  pp. 57-8 Ian Holm [1] 2:05 Sir Laurence Olivier [1] 1:35 James Earl Jones [1] 1:54

"It smells of mortality." IV, vi, 131-146,  pp. 101-2 Ian Holm [2] 0:50 Sir Laurence Olivier [2] 1:22 James Earl Jones [2] 1:12

"And my poor fool is hanged." V, iii, 305-17,  pp. 127-8 Ian Holm [3] 1:37 Sir Laurence Olivier [3] 1:34 James Earl Jones [3] 1:01

(productions: Ian Holm 1998, Sir Laurence Olivier 1984, James Earl Jones 1974 -clips are real media. To access the clips you must use a username and password. These clips are for instructional use and may not be reproduced or retransmitted.)

 

Your job:  Analyze the language of these lines closely in order to make a claim that you can argue for.  The language is your evidence and arguing for the claim is your essay.  You may draw on the lectures and/or your discussions in section.

Please note:  Your job is to concentrate on these lines, but as you think about them and make your argument, you will almost certainly find yourself drawn to think about other parts of the play--or even the play as a whole.  Making such connections is a good idea.  Be sure that what you say about the rest of the play is grounded in what you have to say about these lines.

   

Your essay should be 4-5 pages and will count for 30% of your writing grade. 

Preparing for the Essay:

Paying attention to details:  Read the lines several times, and watch the film clips to see how the lines are spoken by the actors. You might even consider memorizing the lines.  Next, mark the  words that catch your attention. We will call these your key words. Why do you think you noticed them?  Paraphrase the whole speech (or speeches) in order to make sure you understand what is being said. 
    Now you're ready to use the pre-writing grid (pdf version of the grid ), which will help you to gather your evidence in an organized way and to work inductively from that evidence.

Readings from the Writer's Handbook:
1. "What is analysis?" (introductory material, p. 44),
2. "Integrating Quotations Stylistically" (90-93), and
3. "Integrating Quotations Logically" (86-89).

A successful essay will do the following:

• Provide a detailed but coherent close reading* that is unified by an arguable thesis.
• Demonstrate an ability to go beyond competently explaining the literal meaning of the words, phrases, and lines to make a logical argument about what the text suggests.
• Give the reader sufficient evidence to support the argument for your particular interpretation, even if the text is ambiguous.
• Connect all claims to your evidence (in the form of specific quotations from the text) with logical warrants. 
• Punctuate all quotations correctly and use proper citation format.
• Keep the reader on track by means of clear signals, clear paragraphing, interesting topic sentences, and relevant evidence in the form of quotations from the text.

*Close reading is reading at the micro level.  "In literary criticism, close reading describes the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text. Such a reading places great emphasis on the particular over the general, paying close attention to individual words, syntax, and the order in which sentences and ideas unfold as they are read" (Wikipedia).  In lecture, Prof. Van Sant will model close reading for you (using Act I, sc. ii, lines 1-22, pp. 14-15).

Thinking about Audience . . .

Study guides about texts often provide superficial plot summaries that give the reader little sense of a literary work's language or the fact that literary works often transmit complex or conflicting messages.  Consider how your essay could provide considerably more depth and argumentation than a traditional study guide on Shakespeare's King Lear that is aimed at college students.