Paper #5, on A Midsummer Night's Dream, is due in class on Thursday November 30. The performance review should include a paragraph on the Hoffman film and one on the Cal Poly Theater Department live production. Please attach your ticket stub to the paper.

At this time also hand in a clean copy of what you consider the best paper you've written for the course. (This could be a second copy of your paper #5) It must be one page only, clearly legible, have your name at the top, and sport a snappy, informative title. Affix one dollar to this paper to defray duplication costs. Your bound edition of the class anthology including your own paper, entitled Shakespeare Boiled Down, will be distributed at the final exam.

The final exam will be held at scheduled times only:

Section 1--Tuesday December 5, 10:10-12:00

Section 2--Tuesday December 5, 1:10-3:00

The exam will consist of two parts:

Part I will contain an identified quotation from each of the five plays studied this quarter. Some will have appeared on a quiz, others will have been discussed in class. You will be asked to comment on each in terms of:

a) movement of the plot

b) character revelation

c) theme

d) emotional effect on the viewer or reader

e) tricks of language and imagery

Example: Henry V 4.1. [see sample answer below]

Part II consists of a one hour essay covering three of the five plays studied. You will have the opportunity to to select one of three topics. These are sample topics, one or more of which may be included in the three you select from. This essay question also counts for GWR credit.

1. Making and unfolding error (WT 4.1.2) as theme and structural principle.

2. The love of power and the power of love

3. Theatricality on stage: illusion and deception, representation (mirroring), audience, costume, role-playing, hamming, bad acting, good acting, stepping out of character

4. The conventions of history, comedy and tragedy.

5. Class structure

6. God, gods and the supernatural or superhuman

7. Gender

8. Age

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Sample answer to sample short answer question on the final example. Written in longhand between 3:35 and 3:45 p.m. Tuesday November 14 2000.

This passage occurs at the end of Henry's long soliloquy during the night before the fianl battle at Agincourt. The soliloquy expresses his pain at bearing the burden of kingship while being no stronger a person than the common soldier who sleeps peacefully while the king has the responsibility of the nation's welfare on his shoulder supported only by the illusions of "ceremony" which he must maintain while others rest in their beds. This is the low point in his trial of leadership, but after asking God for help and admitting that his efforts at expiating his father's sin failed, he finds new heart to lead his men into victorious battle.

The prayer expresses his typical political savvy, cynicism, and sense of leadership, begging the God he sees a s awarlike force to help maintain the illusion of possible victory that will keep his men from losing hope.

The theme here is of inspiration and persuasion as an instrument of political power. The theme is also one of how religion mixes with politics and military strategy.

The emotional effect on the reader is mixed. We sympathize with Henry's vulnerability and honesty in an unguarded moment, but we are confirmed in a sense that much of his rhetoric is hollow.

One trick of language is found in his typical tactic of passing a fault on to the responsibility to others, even in the sight of God. It's his father's fault and not his own for which he asks forgiveness.