Paper topics for "The Tempest"

There will be two stages to this assignment.
1) Gathering Evidence: Due Friday, Feb. 6 in class.
Select one of the following topics. Go through the play and make a list of quotations that you could use as evidence for your paper. (You don't have to write out the entire quotation, but write enough that you'll remember what you're referring to.) You should have at least 8-10 examples, and probably more. Write down anything that could possibly be useful--you will go through these later and sort them out. Then start to think about which pieces of evidence are most relevant, how to make connections between pieces of evidence, what the evidence reveals about the play, and what kind of argument you might be able to make.

2) Paper: Due Friday, Feb. 13 in class.
Using the evidence you gathered, write a 4-5 page analytical paper on “The Tempest.” This paper should have a clear thesis statement and should be grounded in evidence from the text in question, including quotations. Your paper’s argument should attempt to answer both “how” and “why:” how does Shakespeare use a particular theme, and why do you think he employs it that way? Close reading should be the foundation for your analysis, with attention paid to the details of language: symbolism, imagery, metaphors, word choice, and/or poetic technique, where applicable.

Topics
1. Discuss Shakespeare’s use of images of performance, acting, and theatricality in “The Tempest.” Focus your argument closely on an element of this theme, such as Prospero’s “staging” of scenes, Antonio “acting” the part of Duke, or Ariel creating theatrical illusions.

2. Discuss one example of the opposition between “art”/“magic” and “nature” in “The Tempest.” Choose a particular scene or passage to analyze. You might compare Ariel or Prospero as “art” and Caliban as “nature;” discuss Gonzalo’s imagined commonwealth; or analyze natural imagery and metaphors in a scene of your choosing.

3. Compare Ferdinand and Miranda’s description of love as “slavery” or servitude in Act 3, scene 1 with Shakespeare’s depiction of either Caliban or Ariel as slaves or servants. Why does Shakespeare use the language of slavery for both kinds of relationships? (If you choose Caliban, you might discuss him either as Prospero’s slave or as Stephano’s slave.)

4. Discuss Prospero and Caliban’s relationship as a parent-child relationship. There is much “parenting” imagery in the play and many examples of parents and children. In what ways does Prospero function as an adoptive parent to Caliban? How does that relationship compare to other parent-child relationships? Be sure not to merely judge Prospero (“he is a bad father to Caliban and a good father to Miranda”) or to list the differences, but to analyze how Shakespeare uses the idea of parenthood figuratively and symbolically.

5. “The Tempest” takes place in a single day; most of the “action” takes place before the play begins. Choose one or two scenes or passages in order to analyze the theme of memory in the play. How is memory used or manipulated by the various characters? What does memory (or forgetting) provide or offer—does it teach? grant power? create pain or weakness?

6. Choose one or two examples to analyze how Shakespeare use the imagery of sleep or dreams. How does Shakespeare use sleep to represent issues of power and control? of art and imagination? How does he draw parallels between the dream-world and the world of the theater?