Sunday, February 10, 2008

Biting off more than I can chew?

Here is my first paragraph/intro/thesis statement to the midterm I just finished.

The notion of love at first sight is a reoccurring theme in many of William Shakespeare’s works. Creating worlds teeming with naïve youth and scheming villains, Shakespeare skillfully sets his characters up to fall madly in love as soon as their eyes meet. My critical analysis will consist of the deconstruction of romantic love and the objectification of the female counterparts via the institutional love within the realm of Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Othello the Moor of Venice. Here, I will look closely at the relationship between the two sets of lovers and expose the use of love as a method of belittling the female.

This essay has to be between 1,200 and 1,500 words. By the end of my first draft I ended up with 1,820. Looks like I have some trimming to do. Perhaps the topic that I chose to write on is more than can fit in a three to four paged essay. NOTE: Mine is three pages single spaced. Love is a big thing in the world of literature and can't be thrown out there on four sheets of 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of crisp white copy paper. People write entire dissertations on this stuff and I'm trying to cut it down to 1,500 word midterm paper. The fact that it is a midterm and not even a final paper is a little disconcerting for the loaded notion of LOVE. So the big question is: am I butchering/disgracing the realm of institutional love or is everyone else completely nuts?



My current away message says:

Yay! I finished my midterm! Now onto:

1. Writing 576 blog
2. Posting 2 comments on other 576 blogs
3. Preparing this weeks dinners
4. Finish reading the last 400 pages of Spacial Topics in Calamity Physics
5. Finish reading dryer than dry Eudora Welty stories
6. Start reading The Member of the Wedding
7. Post initial response to The Member of the Wedding
8. Prepare hour and a half presentation
9. Read all secondary criticism assigned
10. Regain my sanity

...This is the life of an english major

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