University Exam Paper on King Lear: How to get started? Focus? Main points?

Hello,

I have to turn in an essay (10 pages) on the basis of William Shakespeare's King Lear IV iii 9-23, and discuss important aspects of the play. In my discussion, I can draw to other texts I've read in the course. Also, I have to look up the word 'passion' (line 13) in the OED and apply relevant information and quotations from the entry to my discussion of the text.

The problem:

- I don't know how to get started? Intro-thesis?

- Which aspects of the play would be best to focus on?

- How to make it fluent, coherent?

Hi, AGD!

Don't worry about an intro/thesis when you are blocked. Just pick up a pen and notebook and start writing everything you remember about the play. How it made you feel, what you learned, what it was about, what characters come to mind; write it all out in a scribble if you want, and soon the ideas will really start to come. When the ideas strike you, scribble a circle around them and keep writing. At the end you should have a few things to focus on, and you can begin organizing your paper.

The thesis will also present itself in free-writing. What really sticks in your mind about King Lear IV?

I hope this helps!

Blue skies!

jeannie

Hello,

Thanks for your answer :-) Well, I've already done that. And few of the things that came to mind was anger, rejection, passion, blindness, ignorance and love. The thing is though, I have to focus on passion, because it's the main point in the piece I was given. I just don't know if it's really the important points of the play I should write about? I'm scared that I will miss something...

White snow! (At least in Denmark)

Have a nice day.

If you can provide at least a rough draft, that would be helpful...

Just start writing here if you want and don't worry so much about the grammar for now.

On this page are a lot of annoying advertisements, but it has a discussion of passion as a source of trouble novelguide.com/kinglear/themeanalysis.html

good luck with this! It is a great project. The thing to do is just start writing paragraphs. Write the intro later based on what you come up with. Read an article about it, write a para about what the article says, and repeat that process for other articles.

Use a topic sentence for every para. The topic sentence tells the main idea of the para. This makes it easy! Write a sentence about an article about King Lear. Then, explain your sentence for a whole paragraph. Give that para a thoughtful conclusion sentence that evaluates of scrutinizes your idea expressed in the para.

Most importantly, write this as something you really care about. That is where inspiration comes from. This play is one of the most important works in all of literature, so go deep into it as a matter of your own scholarship. Writing is just discussion.

10 pages = 30 paragraphs, but 2 paragraphs are accounted for by the intro and conclusion. So... you need maybe 28 paragraphs! That is 28 sentences with a paragraph of explanation for each.

When you read, make notes and underline important parts. Every observation you make will cover a paragraph. I could write a 10 page paper aout this play in about 5 hours. It can be easy and satisfying. Writing academic papers is nothing but a sophisticated form of discussion!! :-0

And you cite these good readings from class, really giving a meaningful discussion.

:-)