For this essay, please write a 6-paragraph essay using the literary works “Hamlet”, and “Fifth Business” by Robertson Davies, and the two poems “Storm Fear” and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Please follow the format below:
General Instructions:
- Write in the third person
- Please use direct quotations from each work wherever applicable (no need for proper references, just the quote)
- When a quote is listed, please explain it and tie it back to the thesis
- Avoid using the formulaic sub-theses approach; each body paragraph should be unique and not a repetition of the thesis
- Avoid general comments/generalties
- Integrate quotes smoothly and naturally within the sentence
- Support arguments clearly and concisely
- This essay isn’t a pure summary of these works!
- Each Body paragraph needs a topic sentence that provides an opinion and links to the thesis without simply repeating the thesis
- Avoid phrases such as “This shows that” or “This illustrates that”
Introduction Paragraph:
- Provide brief context/background for each work (essentially a simplification of the most important themes of each work)
- Lead into the thesis
- The thesis and the essay as a whole should NOT contain any keywords or phrases from the essay topic (ie “understanding of themselves” and “place in the world.”
- It should be only approximately 100 words
Body Paragraph 1: Hamlet by Shakespeare
- Potential quotations to use: “This bodes some strange eruption to our state,” “A little more kin, less than kind,” “I doubt some foul play,” ”
- Perhaps talk about the time of the play (Elizabethan Era and how that influenced some of his decisions)
- The motif of acting
- Include some references to Hamlet’s soliloquies (even the first sentence of each soliloquy)
- Talk about some other characters like Claudius and Horatio
- Talk about the speech between Polonius and Ophelia
Body Paragraph 2: Fifth Business by Roberston Davies
- Talk about Dunstan Ramsay’s early life, including the snowball event
- Talk about the Hero’s Journey in the context of this novel
- The motif of the stone that Percy threw at him; he symbolically carries around with him his whole life
- Talk about Carl Gustave Jung’s theories of the Animus, and Anima, the Ego, the Superego
- Talk about his interactions with Mary Dempster
- Use a few direct quotations from key moments
Body Paragraph 3: Storm Fear by Robert Frost
- When talking about the poem, refer to Frost as the “persona.”
- A central theme/idea in all of his poetry is the conflict of man and nature even though we are inherently connected to nature
- Again, a few direct quotations with deep explanation
Body Paragraph 4: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
- When talking about the poem, refer to Frost as the “persona.”
- A central theme/idea in all of his poetry is the conflict between man and nature, even though we are inherently connected to nature
- Again, a few direct quotations with deep explanation
Conclusion Paragraph:
- Here, do not simply summarize the essay but, explain how the endings of the all these works themselves ties all back to the thesis
- For example, for hamlet talk about how his inevitable death was a representation of the thesis