Jonathan P. Lamb's Courses

Essay 2
Rhetorical Analysis of a Shakespearean Reproduction or Adaptation

In this 5-6 page paper, you will analyze the way a Shakespearean reproduction or adaptation makes a definition argument. Your analysis should focus the questions of what the film defines, how the film defines it, why it defines it that way, and what it means for the film to define in that way for those reasons. Your audience for the essay will be readers who are familiar with the film and the Shakespearean play it reproduces or adapts and who look to you for a thoughtful analysis of how the film defines a modern concept by remaking or adapting a 400 year-old play.

Unless you’ve stumbled onto something far more compelling, use the film you found for SRA #2. The two assignments form a streamlined process, and you should refer to the questions on the SRA assignment sheet to jump-start your thinking about the film. You should also familiarize yourself with the Shakespearean source play, bear in mind the conventions of writing about film that we discussed in class, and apply what you learned about analysis in Essay 1.

It’s important not just to tell but to show, not just to describe but to explain how the film, which is simply another kind of text, makes a definition argument. This means you’ll have to:
• discuss the Shakespearean source text being adapted
• discuss how the film alters the source text
• analyze many aspects of the film, including dialogue, casting choices, acting choices, directing choices, setting, music, cinematography, etc.
• provide adequate explanation that the film defines what you say it defines, a task that will occur in tandem with your explanation of how the film defines that concept.
You should also consider the following aspects of the film:
• the intended audience
• the cultural context in which the film was made
• where and when the film was released and how that fact is significant
• the reasons and evidence offered in support of the definition argument (logos)
• the chain of reasoning by which the film makes the definition argument
• the appeals to the audience's emotions or to the filmmaker’s credibility (pathos and ethos)
• what is at stake in the definition argument (what is to be gained or lost in it?)

A bulk of the essay will comprise your analysis of how the film makes a definition argument, and thus your thesis statement should encapsulate and articulate the process of definition you detail in the body of the paper. A strong, focused thesis, for example, should not simply state that “Branagh’s Henry V defines war” or that “Branagh’s Henry V defines war as the dirty aggression of just and charismatic men” but that “by means of its selective cutting of Shakespeare’s play, its sympathetic portrayal of the king, and its distinctive cinematographic techniques, Branagh’s Henry V defines war as the dirty aggression of just and charismatic men.”

Format: The essay should be typed, double-spaced with 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins all around. Be sure to place quoted text within quotation marks and type your name, the date, and a title at the top of the first page.

For a grade C or better, your paper should:
- have undergone the paper workshop
- be properly formatted
- be clearly written and free of grammatical errors or typos
- analyze and explain, rather than simply describe, the film
- provide evidence for analytic claims.

A superior essay will:
- contain a thesis statement that encompasses how and why the film defines what it does
- take into account possible contexts (historical and otherwise)
- show some cognizance of the film’s intended audience(s)
- articulate as clearly as possible how the film defines what it defines
- offer some sense of what it means or what it tells us that the film defines what it does in the way it does for the reasons it does.