English 102 / Essay Assignment #2

Kronbeck

Essay #2

This essay is very similar to essay #1, except this time, you will use a literary theory to help you determine the story’s theme. Thus, for this essay, you may choose to follow ONE the following prompts:

1) Write an essay in which you attempt a critical reading of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” How does this critical lens help you determine the story’s theme? What specific literary elements, such as plot, characterization, symbol, point of view, tone, or style does Gilman use to convey her theme?

2) Write an essay in which you attempt a critical reading of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” How does this critical lens help you determine the story’s theme? What specific literary elements, such as plot, characterization, symbol, point of view, tone, or style does Melville use to convey his theme?

If you attempt a psychoanalytic reading, consider how any elements of the author’s psychology (experience, repression, behavior, or motives) or characters’ psychology are reflected in the theme of the story.

If you attempt a feminist reading, illustrate what the story might be implying about patriarchal culture, and/or the status of women in society. How is the author attempting to uncover these matters in her story?

If you attempt a Marxist reading, explain what social commentary the story offers. What does the story observe about certain aspects of society, such as capitalism, social classes, the working world, or politics? What is the plight of certain character(s) in the story?

If you attempt a new historical reading, consider how the text exposes insights into current events of the period or into the author’s life. Is the author critiquing anything about their society? How so?

Here are some sample thesis statements:

Psychoanalytic reading: Melville demonstrates the Lawyer’s inability to understand Bartleby’s psychology through his unreliable first person narrative, the symbolism of the wall he constructs in the office, and the mistaken symbolism he attributes to the dead letters.

Marxist reading: Melville uses the lawyer’s limited omniscient point of view, Bartleby’s dissident behavior, and symbolism through minor characters to illustrate the unfairness in life for lower class workers in a capitalistic society.

Feminist reading: In order to illustrate women’s consciousness and responses when trying to obtain freedom under their husbands’ confinement and pressure in patriarchal culture, Gilman uses the narrator’s developing illusions of the yellow wallpaper to symbolize the narrator’s evolutional stages of mindset.

New historical reading: Using the intimate first-person perspective, dynamic narrator characterization, and macabre imagery, Gilman argues that the isolating "rest cure" worsens the narrator’s depression, and that the constrained stimulation actually exacerbates the original symptoms; thus, it must be done away with completely as an acceptable treatment.

Criteria:

· Your introduction must briefly summarize the story.

· Your thesis must be the last sentence of your introduction. Your thesis must reveal your overall position. Be sure to tie together the specific elements of fiction the author uses to convey a specific theme through your preferred critical lens.

· You must cite a portion of the story in each body paragraph.

· You must use at least one supplemental source for this essay. You can use one of the supplemental readings from the reading guides OR you may do some extra research, especially on the different schools of literary criticism, specific interpretations of the stories, or biographical information about the authors. As this is not a research paper, please limit extra sources to two only.

· Your essay must reach at least 5 pages.

· In your conclusion, don’t merely reiterate your points. Be sure to also push forward your argument in some way.

· Your essay must follow MLA format in your in text citations and works cited page.

· Remember to turn in your peer editing sheets and proof of any Writing Center visits (for extra credit).