Hamlet and A streetcar named desire
For this paper, I ask you to read Lakoffs article and think about two characters we have encountered: Hamlets Ophelia and A Streetcar Named Desires Blanche DuBois. Questions to consider as you construct your essays: How does language place them in the social worlds of the plays in which they appear? How does each use language? How do other characters use language toward them? To what degree does each control the terms of her own story? To what degree do men determine their stories for them?
How you engage those questions in the paper is up to you, but I will ask that you follow this sequence of topics (whether you actually provide section headings, and what you actually title whatever section headings you do provide, is up to you):
Introduction and Thesis (The paper’s title is all that you need for this initial section.)
Lakoffs Article
Ophelia
Blanche DuBois
Conclusion (Don’t entitle your concluding section “Conclusion.”)
(Conclusions shouldnt just recapitulate what has come before. For this conclusion, I ask you to consider how Ophelia and Blanches lack of power through language might contribute to the descent of each into madness.)
