In your paper, you should select two moments in the play in which a character or characters discuss poetry, art, or literature, and construct an argument comparing the arguments the characters make, and the manner in which those arguments are made.

Guidelines: Write an essay which addresses one of the following topics. Your essay should be 4 full pages, double-spaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font. It should be saved as a .doc or .docx file.
Make sure to quote relevant passages in your essay. More specifically, make sure to focus on a few small passages or key moments so that you can analyze the author’s language closely. You will be rewarded for effective close reading of select moments of the texts you choose to write about.
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, characters repeatedly discuss poetry, art, and drama. There are speeches about the power of poetry, speeches that critique poetry, arguments about how to stage plays, and criticisms of plays. Some of these sections are incredibly artful and serious, others are comic or satirical, and some can’t be reduced simply to seriousness or comedy. In your paper, you should select two moments in the play in which a character or characters discuss poetry, art, or literature, and construct an argument comparing the arguments the characters make, and the manner in which those arguments are made. So, you should analyze not only what the characters say about poetry, art, or drama, but the way in which they say it. What is Shakespeare trying to communicate in these scenes? Why does he have characters express different ideas about the arts? Does he seem to favor or disparage a particular point of view, and how does he let us know where he stands? At times he is writing poetry about poetry, or a play about plays—how does he use the formal tricks of poetry and drama to comment on art itself?

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