Using your books and your notes, write a developed, well-organized, compare and contrast essay
of 6-8 pages (1800-2400 words) based on one of the following prompts:

Speeches Achieve Purpose: “To succeed in creating a convincing character, the dramatist needs to give the audience a sense that characters have inner thoughts and feelings.” Explore the ways in which Shakespeare and Stoppard made use of monologs and/or soliloquies to develop characters/themes.

Structures Cause Effects: Plays employ various kinds of structural divisions such as act and scene divisions, even carefully placed character entrances and exits. Discuss the dramatic uses made of these divisions in both Shakespeare and Stoppard’s plays.

Dramatic Irony: “As the action of the play unfolds, dramatic tension is often produced by the contrast of concealment and revelation.” Examine Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in light of this statement.

Genre: Despite both plays touching on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Stoppard takes an unconventional and comedic approach. Compare and contrast the differences between Shakespeare’s tragedy and Stoppard’s tragicomedy. How is each genre achieved?

1. Be sure to provide a “three-pronged” thesis statement so that you may discuss at least three effects. Examples of this can be found on our class website.
2. Use academic language and properly cited direct quotations with parenthetical references
   (Act, scene, lines).
3. Organize your essay around scenes, but also be willing to provide contrasting examples to highlight unique differences between plays.
4. Use the conclusion to provide an evaluation of the use of conventions, specifically evaluating the choices the two playwrights made. This is the “What, How, Why?” section of your essay.

The grading rubric is based on the following:

• Knowledge and Understanding
• Response to the essay prompt
• Appreciation of the literary conventions of the genre
• Organization and development
• Language

Format: typed, 1800-2400 word MLA style essay

Due: Wednesday, March 15th