HUM 3 professor instruction
Overview. You will be answering a question, but your response should be based upon your close reading of the text(s). Your essay should demonstrate your ability to develop a reasonable, arguable, and sophisticated interpretation of some text or issue, relating it to the larger work from which it is taken.
4-5 pages, typed and double-spaced.
Use MLA format.
Requirements:
Thesis. Your essay must be governed by a thesis that (a) responds directly to the essay topic, (b) is arguable, and (c) is stated at the end of the first paragraph having clearly defined all the central terms.
Textual Support. Your thesis must be supported by major interpretive claims (topic sentences) that are supported by at least one appropriate quote per body paragraph. Your ability to select, interpret, and apply the appropriate textual evidence is key to doing well with the essay.
Reasoning. You must consistently use and apply logical reasoning in developing your thesis.
Writing. Your essay must be written well. There should be no awkward sentences, rough transitions between paragraphs, incoherent paragraphs, extraneous information/unnecessary sentences, typos, or stylistic errors.
Topics:
1. In Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter XV, he writes:
“Many writers have imagined republics and principalities that have never been seen nor known to exist in reality. For there is such a distance between how one lives and how one ought to live, that anyone who abandons what is done for what ought to be done achieves his downfall rather than his preservation. A man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain himself to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity.” (p. 53)
How does Machiavelli develop this idea in the rest of his book? (Give at least two solid examples.) Does his critique of “imagined republics” apply to More’s Utopia? Use one or two examples from More’s book to support your claim.)-(I don’t have More’s book of Utopia)—(You can answer 2.3.4 since I provided The Tempest and Prince already)
2. Analyze Gonzalo’s speech in The Tempest V.1.205-213 in terms of its relationship to the rest of the play focusing on the degree to which it accurately reflects/analyzes the events of the play itself. How does it serve as a commentary on the political philosophy represented by the play as a whole?
3. Do you think the political philosophy of The Tempest (the play taken as a whole, not the view of a particular character) more closely resembles that of The Prince or Utopia? (You need not limit yourself to artificially choosing between the two books, but you need to form some kind of interpretation regarding the political philosophy taken by the play in terms of the ideas represented in the other two books.)
4. How should we read The Prince? Is it a serious guidebook on political strategy? Is it meant to be taken ironically? Is it a subtle defense of republicanism? Or . . . ? Defend your position while also explaining why others might read this text differently.
Tips:
• Make sure you answer the question.
• Make sure you present sufficient textual evidence to support your points, integrating those quotes, paraphrases, and allusions into YOUR OWN argument. DO NOT USE DROP QUOTES.
• Make sure you have a clear, arguable, sophisticated, and complex thesis. Make sure your first paragraph introduces that thesis.
• Make sure every paragraph is coherent, supporting one specific point that serves to develop, explain, and/or support your thesis.
• Make sure your essay contains NO EXTRANEOUS INFORMATION.
• Make sure it is easy to follow your argument. If I have to struggle to figure what you’re talking about, or how the texts support your argument . . . your grade starts to plummet.