Please read the following three excerpts. Use ONE of them, along with TWO other works of your own choosing from our syllabus, to support your argument in response to one of the following prompts. Whichever prompt you choose, be sure you take a clear line of argument (you should organize your paper into one single thesis with examples, exceptions from it, and so on) rather than just listing many different possibilities.

1. For the artists we’ve read, art is ultimately more important than nature as a way of understanding our own humanity. Do you agree or disagree? Use texts to support your answer.
2. To be monstrous can mean many things: using examples from the artists we’ve read this semester, please make an argument about monstrosity and what it has to do with being human.
3. According to the authors we have read this semester, would you say emotion is primarily a source for good (either artistically or in the world), or a liability? Use your texts to support your answer.

Grading criteria

•How clear and organized is your writing? Can I perceive what your main argument is and follow it throughout?

•Do you demonstrate an accurate understanding of the texts you discuss?

•Do you use sufficient well-chosen specific evidence (often, direct quotations) to support your main claim?

•Do you *explain* your evidence clearly so I can see how you understand it and how it fits into your argument?

•Does your essay show originality (ideas and analysis that go beyond what we discussed in class)?

FAQ

What sources can I use? Your assigned books, your notes for class and the syllabus, and a dictionary. All analysis and wording (except quotations, of course) must be your own, though you may draw on class discussion and lecture. You shouldn’t receive assistance from anyone else or from online sources such as Wikipedia, Sparknotes, etc.—this will be considered academic dishonesty. (An online dictionary is okay, though, if that’s all you have).

Do I need to cite? You do not need to include a works cited since you should only be quoting/drawing from class materials. Please do include quotation marks and a page or line number parenthetically (5) when you quote directly from a text, and make sure it’s clear which text it is. You do not need to worry about citing lecture notes in this case.

How long should this essay be? The length is flexible, but I think it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to fully answer the question in less than 3-4 paragraphs, so aim for that as a minimum. Ideally, you want to have room to introduce your argument, support it with a range of evidence from all three of your works, and then conclude the essay in a way that brings your ideas together.

What if I run out of time? The essay is set to auto-submit after the time is up, so I should receive your draft in whatever state it was in at that point.

Can I quote from other parts of the works that are excerpted below? Yes. You are welcome to draw on other parts of Frankenstein, for example. But make sure that you 1) use at least one direct quotation from this specific passage, and 2) only count Frankenstein as a whole as one of your three works – the other two should be different.

Quotation One: Wordsworth’s “I wandered lonely as a Cloud.”

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Quotation Two, from Tennyson’s Mariana

The sparrow’s chirrup on the roof,

The slow clock ticking, and the sound

Which to the wooing wind aloof

The poplar made, did all confound

Her sense; but most she loathed the hour

When the thick-moted sunbeam lay

Athwart the chambers, and the day

Was sloping toward his western bower.

Then said she, “I am very dreary,

He will not come,” she said;

She wept, “I am aweary, aweary,

Oh God, that I were dead!”

Quotation Three, from Shelley’s Frankenstein

I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed; and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds, while a grin wrinkled his cheeks. He might have spoken, but I did not hear; one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped and rushed downstairs. I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited, where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life.

Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then, but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.