1) British poet William Blake, believing Satan to be the true hero of Paradise Lost, said that John Milton
was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Do you think
that the poem encourages the reader to ultimately sympathize with Satan, or do you think Satan’s
charisma is merely a ruse to show the allure of evil? Remember that this isn’t about your personal feelings
regarding religion; rather, it’s about how you see the text functioning.
2) Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina begins with one of the most famous lines in Western literature: “All happy
families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” What do you think is the conception of
family in King Lear and how does it compare to the conception of family in ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore? Try to
think in terms of how certain characters expect familial relations to function and how those familial
relations actually function in the text. You don’t have to limit yourself to blood family, meaning that you can
talk about families created through marriage. Obviously the incest is important, but try to think about how
the incest might disrupt what the characters see as a stable family relationship and how family
relationships might be similarly destabilized in King Lear.
3) What do you think Doctor Faustus has to say about human psychology and its relation to power? What
does it mean to have power? Think about the things that characters do when they have power. We know
the cliché about how power corrupts, but think about the specific types of corruption that happen. Think
about comparing the type of person Doctor Faustus thinks himself to be with the type of person he actually
is. Regarding the scholarly sources: I want you to show that you can integrate other writers’ thinking with
your own. For this paper, all you have to do is find two scholarly sources about the texts you’re writing on,
and quote each writer correctly once. You might want to find people who generally agree with your take
on the text and approvingly quote them. You might also want to find someone you disagree with–for
example, if you think Satan is not the hero, you can find and quote someone who does and explain why you
disagree.
Sample Solution
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