ENG 212 Final, Fall 2005

English 212 (Fall 2005) Mark Bayer FINAL EXAMINATION Due: 20 January, by email to mark@aub.edu.lb General Directions : Write three coherent, well -argued essays on three different topics, one each from each of the three sections. Each of the essays should not exceed three double spaced pages. Remember that you will have to discuss at least f our different plays (one of which must be Hamlet) on the examination, so plan accordingly. GOOD LUCK! PART ONE - PLAYING 1) Poems [i.e. dramatic poems or plays] imitate both to delight and teach; and delight, to move men to take that goodness in hand, which without delight they would play as from a stranger; and teach, to make them know that goodness whereunto they a -Philip Sidney, A Defence of Poetry (1595) of 2) deviates from the prevalent cultural norms in the Renaissance. Examples of these characters might be Orlando, the dispossessed heir in As You Like It, the mechanicals in Dream, the friars in Measure for Measure or Romeo and Juliet, the country bumpkins in As You Like It and , the otherworldly Glendower in 1 Henry IV, bastard in King Lear, or any number of other possibilities. Choose one figure in one play and examine how he or she does or does not conform to presumed audience expectations. PART TWO COMEDY 1) Northrop Fr OTE: If you choose this question DO NOT devote significant discussion to .. 2) fulfilling for the various brides and grooms. In fact the only happily married couple in ANY Shakespeare play seems to be the Macbeths th reference to marriage in two Shakespeare portrays marriage. Why and how on the surface ? PART THREE King Lear 1) During the Romantic period, many famous poets thought that King Lear stage, indeed that it was impossible to perform, yet they revered Down to Read King Lear the page. Why might someone t hink that King Lear 2) Discuss the relationship of the main plot (Lear and his daughters) to the subplot (Gloucester and his sons). How are the two complementary, reinforcing the same general themes ? Some things to consider might include (but are certainly not limited to) family relations and succession, madness, and blindness (both physical and spiritual).