Thesis Statements

“Homer’s eighth-century epic The Iliad is among the oldest known pieces of literature in the Western world. Written with incredible attention to character and detail, everything from the general mythology and setting to the specific lives consumed by the depicted conflict between the Argive and Trojan forces is catalogued with care and precision. This not only allows insight to the world view of a writer from a time and culture long since passed, but also serves to heighten one’s knowledge of contrasting modern practices through reflection caused by their archaic nature.”

“By comparing and contrasting one character’s perspective of reality with another’s, the author can turn an otherwise mundane work of prose into something memorable and unique. Stories such as ‘The Memory Priest of the Creech People’ and ‘Love For $17.50’ are stories that use juxtaposed perceptions of reality in precisely this way, and though they would seem to invite a disconnect between the reader and the characters, examination will reveal the validity of this method.”

“One of the more persistent questions regarding Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’ is that of genre – more specifically, whether or not it falls under a romance or an epic. It is, however, neither; rather, it combines and subverts the genres and the disparate expectations that they form in the reader in such a way that the tale is, in the end, a third thing all together. It is in this way that it subverts audience expectation as well, by providing something familiar almost the entire way throughout and then turning it on its head at the very end. Through reader-response theory, an understanding as to why Chaucer would engage in such subversion can be attempted; understanding not only that Chaucer did this, but why he would endeavour to do it, is an important aspect of the interpretation of ‘The Knight’s Tale’.”

Title: Romeo and Juliet Author: William Shakespeare Character: Tybalt THESIS: “Romeo and Juliet’s Tybalt is quick-tempered, disagreeable, and violent in nature towards the majority of the cast that he interacts with, and as such can rightfully be called the antagonist of the play.” Evidence 1: Role in the fight between Montagues and Capulets during Act I Scene i, and his unwillingness to help bring it to a quick stop. Evidence 2: Argumentative nature with Lord Capulet, a member of his own family, in Act I Scene ii Transitional Sentence: “While Tybalt’s antagonistic attitude perhaps makes some sort of sense when it is towards members of the Montague family, they are not the sole recipients of his ire, and he is just as disagreeable towards those within his own Capulet clan.” Evidence 3: ???