RESEARCH ESSAY ON THE PLAY OTHELLO
English 30-1 AOL: Critical/Analytical Essay (To what extent is Othello a tragic hero?) For this assignment, you are required to write a well-organized and developed essay that explores the extent to which Othello is a tragic hero. You will need to reference William Shakespeare’s play, Othello, as well as academic sources. Research You’ll need to reference 3 sources in addition to the SparkNotes excerpts (total of 4 sources on your works cited page). The following are some sites you can use for your research: https://scholar.google.ca/ http://www.learnalberta.ca/OnlineReferenceCentre.aspx https://about.jstor.org/oa-and-free/ https://doaj.org/ *Use boolean operators: conjunctions that can narrow or broaden your search. The three basic boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. *Edmonton Public Library has a chat feature that allows you to talk with a librarian. They are incredible resources, so feel free to reach out. Just log into EPL, and click on the ‘Chat with EPL’ tab. Look for articles about tragic hero, Aristotle’s tragic hero, Shakespeare’s tragic hero, and/or Othello. The goal of your research is to gain an insightful understanding of what a tragic hero is, and then determine to what extent Othello is a tragic hero using evidence from the play. Please remember that you can also use the articles I provided: Tragic Hero – Examples and Definition of Tragic Hero The Tragic Hero Through the Ages Britannica Literary Criticism and Theory: The Tragic Hero The Aristotelian Concept of the Tragic Hero Evolution of the Tragic Hero: A Shift from God to Man Structure This is meant to be a concise and focused essay of 800-1000 words. Introduction: Explores the general definition of a tragic hero, and provides your answer to the question, “To what extent is Othello a tragic hero?” Ensure to have a TAG. For example, “Based on this definition of tragic hero, William Shakespeare’s titular character from Othello is/is not a tragic hero,” or “Though Othello has many characteristics of an Aristotlian tragic hero, he does not meet all the criteria, and therefore cannot be defined as one.” Body: It’s up to you to determine how to organize the body of your essay. You may want to have a paragraph for each characteristic of a tragic hero, a paragraph for each of your references, or – depending on your thesis – a paragraph that looks at how Othello is a tragic hero, and one that looks at how he’s not. Regardless of how you choose to organize your paragraphs, you must cite your sources. When quoting or paraphrasing from the document of excerpts I gave you, please use this parenthetical citation: (SparkNotes handout, 7) Page from where the example comes. Try your best to include the act and scene from where your examples (quoted or paraphrased come). For example: In Act 4, scene 2, Othello questions if Desdemona’s beautiful skin was meant to be a canvas “Made to write “whore” upon” (SparkNotes handout, 21). Conclusion: Summarizes your findings, and clarifies your answer to the prompting question. Works Cited: An alphabetical listing of the sources you referenced in your essay. Ensure to include the following: SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/othello/. **Please keep in mind that SparkNotes is NOT considered an academic source; however, this is the website I used to create the document of excerpts from where you will likely get the quotations for your essay. Use citationmachine.net to help you with creating your parenthetical citations, as well as your works cited page: https://www.citationmachine.net/mla8 Your work will be assessed on the criteria provided on the following page.