Sophomore English/2016-2017
Gods and Monsters
Berger-White
Essay Assignment: The Merchant of Venice
Critic Marjorie Garber talks about the ambivalence that readers are likely to feel when reading
this play. You’ll want to make sure you know what that means; understanding ambivalence is
central to this assignment.
This assignment asks you to choose one (and only one) character from The Merchant of Venice
and to capture the way Shakespeare creates his or her complexity.
First, you need to think about that character’s most dominant trait. What quality is most apparent?
What obvious trait meets the eye or captures the imagination of most readers and audiences? This
writing should be in the first full section of your essay (after your introduction) and it should be
multiple paragraphs. I recommend two or three.
In the next section (again, two or three paragraphs), you need to think about a quality of that
character that is less apparent. This quality needs to be one that challenges, complicates, or makes
us question that more obvious trait. How is this quality hidden, obscured, or pushed below the
surface? What, upon closer scrutiny, does Shakespeare ask us to see?
The final sections must be an attempt to synthesize what has come so far. First, focus on pulling
together your thinking about this character. Given your understanding of both qualities, what do
you make of this character? At core, who is this character? How does Shakespeare make that
character complex? This should probably be two paragraphs. Then, think about the play. Given
the play in which this character appears, why is that complexity important? How does your
character figure into the meaning of the play as a whole?
Here are the primary things that I will value in this essay:
(1) A good, bold, clear, and specific introduction. This should clearly name and highlight the
two key facets of the character and argue how those qualities work together. I suggest
that you write this section last. That is, write it last and place it first.
(2) Persuasive argumentation (and balanced treatment) of both traits.
(3) Specific textual support (multiple pieces) in all body paragraphs
(4) Thorough analysis that comes directly out of your support, and that focuses on key pieces
of language.
(5) A synthesis that gets at the complexity of character and acknowledges how both qualities
are present and argues why both qualities are important to our overall understanding of
that character.
(6) Strong, clean writing. That means grammatically sound sentences, properly formatted
and cited quotations, and a clear sense of how one sentence flows into the next.
Suggested Length: Five Pages
Title: Please
Stapled: Absolutely
Font: Times New Roman, 12
Final Due: Friday, March 24th