Writing about drama:
Use this rubric in conjunction with the Basic Response Paper handout.
The focus of this paper will be most effective if you take care to limit the scope of your thesis. Remember, your page limit—3-5 pages—does not give you sufficient room to analyze the entire play and all of its components. A more effective thesis will narrow the topic to one dominant aspect of the text.
The most basic approaches include examining one, but no more than two characters; selecting major characters seems logical choice. You can establish how you will examine the character is several ways. The following list is not complete: you may discuss how a character develops over the course of the play; you can examine how two characters embody the conflict; you can discuss how the text provides insight into the character—looking at stage directions; if possible, you might consider how staging would influence the character. While looking at the character over the course of the entire play is a standard approach, you could choose to examine one particular actor scene that you feel best illustrates your thesis.
Another approach would be to focus on setting; this would include both the literary and technical aspects. Again, concentrating on one act/scene or looking at how the stage is set at the opening. In this case, the paper is not just to describe what the setting looks like; the important emphasis in this paper is HOW the setting/staging works to establish theme/conflict, etc. A paper that simply describes the setting will not be considered complete.
Another approach would be to examine the plays theme[s]. Remember, long plays, especially, will often have a range of thematic possibilities. Your thesis would identify only one and develop how that is represented. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO PRESENT EVERY POSSIBLE THEME.
While not every play contains symbols, depending on the text you choose, you can examine how a prop becomes a major symbol in the text. Here, you would expand the concrete thing’s possible symbolic values. Most importantly, you would attach those values to a character or a theme.
Just remember that part of the introduction, besides identifying the title and author, must establish the limits you are placing on the text. You need to explain why you have chosen to focus your analysis as you have.
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