Shakespeare Short Paper Topics

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For the following topics, you are to draw on four of the most relevant plays for your answer (or the number specified in the question).

Discuss theatricality as a subject within the plays. OR "Much of Renaissance art is really about art itself, whatever its apparent topic." Discuss.
Compare and contrast the endings of two of the tragedies with two of the comedies, discussing whether some seem more justified than others (and why). Be sure to consider both thematic and aesthetic implications. OR Shakespeare's endings as they enforce and resist closure.
Discuss the differences between male and female uses of language. OR Discuss the importance of sexual politics in shaping dramatic and thematic development.
Compare and contrast the treatment of nature in four of the plays. Discuss how nature is defined and how it contributes to the dramatic and thematic development of the plays.
Discuss the place/role/position of children in Macbeth, Kinq Lear, Winter's Tale, and Tempest. What is their relationship to parents/adults in the plays? What might they represent thematically?
We have discussed the concept of desire throughout the quarter. How would you define this term? Compare and contrast the manner in which desire shapes the dramatic and thematic development of the plays.
Discuss the question of identity in four of the plays. In what does one's identity lie: social order, role-playing, nature, and/or somewhere else?

--MarthineSatris 16:23, 7 September 2007 (PDT)