(due Friday, November 30)
 
 
 

1)  Educating Henry.  There are in Henry V lots of references to Henry's life as Prince Hal.  A number of his old friends appear in the play.  The King himself says that he has made use of his "wilder days" (1.2.267-8); they have been an education of sorts.  Without having read the plays in which we find Prince Hal, what can you infer from Henry V about both the nature of the King's wilder days and their value as a profitable educational experience?  How do the effects of that "education" reveal themselves in specific incidents in the play?  Explore this topic in a 500-750-word essay of at least five paragraphs.

 
 

2)  Absolution in "Combat" by C. K. Williams.  Near the end of this poem (93-99), the Jewish narrator says of the young German woman (with whom he had a frustrating affair) and her mother, the widow of a Nazi, "I wonder . . . if I might have been an implement for them, not of atonement . . . / but of absolution, what they'd have used to get them shed of something rankling--history, it would be" (98).  In an essay of 500-750 words and at least five paragraphs, explore the concept of absolution in this poem--not neglecting the title.  In your conclusion--only if possible--relate the concept to a parallel experience of yours or observations of your own. 3)  The Dog's Woman.  This is a three-part assignment based on "The Dog" by C. K. Williams (86).  In the first part, write a commentary--one meaty paragraph may suffice--on that poem.  Think of this commentary as an analytical summary, one that seizes on key details to elucidate the poem's thematic concerns.  For the second part, write a poem of your own in first person from the woman's point of view.  This poem should be a stylistic imitation or emulation.  It should consist of at least eight lines and no more than 16; each line should consist of at least 20 syllables and no more than 26.  It should have a title.  Then, for the third part of the assignment, write a commentary on this poem of yours.

 
 

4)  "To Boldly Go": Frankenstein and the Male Quest.  Write a 500-750-word essay of at least five paragraphs that sees this novel by Mary Shelley as a woman's critique of the misguided masculine quest for self-sufficiency, the traditional heroic ideal.  5)  You Are How Others Treat You.  Write a 500-750-word personal essay--that is, an essay based on your own observations and experience--that explores the thesis that nurture, as much as--if not more than--nature, determines character.  In particular, your essay (which can narrative in structure) should develop the idea that if you treat a fellow being as an "it," you may create a monster.