Download the attachment for more details, but in short: Assignment: Write an essay (at least 750 words) that defends a thesis you developed through a close critical reading/analysis of one (or two) literary works listed below and supported by at least one secondary source. This essay relies mainly on textual support from the primary text, but includes at least one secondary source that supports/sustains the student’s argument. Do not confuse “critical analysis” with “plot summary”; the goal is to develop, sustain, and advance a thesis based on a critique of the primary text but supported in part by at least one secondary source. Choice of two topics—write on only one: 1. Analyze one soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Othello so that you can show how the speech’s imagery helps us to understand what Iago or Othello is thinking and doing at that point of the play. Use the discussion boards to ask questions—there is an entire section in the discussion boards for the speeches. You are analyzing the speech to give a sense of HOW Iago and Othello explain their thoughts—you do not want to merely summarize the speech. As with Essays 1 and 2, this is thesis driven—you are not given a thesis here as in Essay 1, but must invent one as in Essay 2. So, the thesis should say something about how the speech reveals Iago or Othello’s character and what they are thinking at this point in the play. You will want to go through the speech and examine how each line builds up the speech—go through it line by line (not to summarize though), to show how it all comes together through the specific imagery in the speech. The soliloquies are: Iago: Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 367-88 (1.3.367-88) Iago: 2.1.269-95 Iago: 2.3.299-325 Iago: 3.3.336-345 Iago: 4.1.93-103 Othello: 5.2.1-22 You will want to formulate a clear thesis (a statement about what you believe the speech says or does most strikingly, in your opinion) and develop your argument showing how it achieves this by drawing evidence from such elements as simile, metaphor, vocabulary/diction, symbol, rhyme, etc. Use the elements discussed in the Backpack Literature chapters and in our discussions as your guide. Your goal is in no way here to summarize the speech. Rather, go through each line very carefully, explaining how each image adds to the speech’s overall impact and progress—each of Iago’s speeches shows us how his thinking is developing and how his plan comes together. Othello’s speech shows us the result of Iago’s work on him—Othello is possessed by the idea that Desdemona has not only been unfaithful to him, but will bewitch and cheat on other men. 2. In an argument using either of the following pairs of speeches, compare and contrast the ideas expressed by either Troy or Rose in Fences. In this essay, you will want to really dig into how Troy and Rose express themselves, what they have wanted out of life, and what they have wanted from each other. You do not want to compare Troy’s speeches to Rose’s—rather, look at how the characters develop and change between the two speeches each gives. In other words, as with the first choice, your goal here is to go through the speeches very carefully, showing how the language shows us who these characters are. Troy’s speech at the end of Act 1 Scene 3 on page 1053 that begins, ‘I don’t want him to be like me…’ down through ‘I can’t give nothing else,’ and Troy describing his father in Act 1 Scene 4 in the long set of speeches that begins, ‘Sometimes I wish I hadn’t known my daddy…’ on page 1058 ending with ‘the matter of a few years’ on p 1060. 2. Rose’s speech in 2.1 that begins on page 1068 with: ‘I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be’ through to ‘don’t even know nobody’s giving!’ on 1070, and her speech in 2.5 on page 1084 beginning with ‘You can’t be nobody buy who you are…’ to ‘the best of what’s in me.’ You will want to formulate a clear thesis (a statement about what you believe the speeches say or do most strikingly, in your opinion, to develop the common themes) and develop your argument showing how they achieve this by drawing evidence from such elements as simile, metaphor, vocabulary/diction, symbol, rhyme, etc. Use the elements discussed in the Backpack Literature chapters and in our discussions as your guide.