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Dr. Brady St. Thomas More College
Literary Analysis Essay: Hamlet and The Unnatural and Accidental Women
Length: 1500-2000 words
Weight: 30%
Due: Consult Canvas
Task
Use your knowledge of close reading strategies to write a literary analysis paper on a topic from
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and/or Clements’ The Accidental and Unnatural Women.
Learning Objectives
In this assignment, students will demonstrate their ability to:
Analyze a literary text
Apply the building blocks of paragraphs
Construct a logical, supportable argument
Find sufficient evidence to support their argument
Demonstrate analysis of that evidence to support their argument
Organize an argument using academic rhetoric and organization
Write clear prose
Use MLA style to document sources
Assignment Instructions
1. Choose one of the following six essay topics to respond to. Make sure to support your
discussion with specific quotations from the play(s).
2. Consult the Assessment list on page 3 to ensure your essay has all necessary
components: revise your essay as necessary to ensure it fulfills the essay requirements.
3. Save your essay as a Word file or PDF and submit it via Canvas.
Topics
1) Agree or disagree with the following statement: Hamlet is the biggest threat to Elsinore’s
security and stability.
2) In his speech to Reynaldo, Polonius asserts that a “bait of falsehood take[s] this carp of
truth” (Shakespeare 2.1.70). Essentially, Polonius is arguing that it is reasonable to use
lies and deception to uncover the truth (or phrased slightly differently, that the end
justifies the means). In your opinion, does the play ultimately support or condemn this
point of view? Make sure your analysis goes beyond Polonius to consider other
examples of deception in the play.
3) Discuss Ron’s role in the The Unnatural and Accidental Women. What function does his
character fill in the play? Why might Clements have included this character?
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Dr. Brady St. Thomas More College
4) Discuss how Clements uses the Deer Woman myth in The Unnatural and Accidental
Women. Make sure your essay is argumentative, i.e., why does Clements use the Deer
Woman myth?
You may find the following questions helpful when thinking about this topic:
What is the Deer Woman myth? Is there one version or multiple versions?
Which character(s) are associated with the Deer woman myth? How do you
know?
How does the Deer Woman myth fit into the play’s larger ideas and
concerns?
Does Clements challenge or revise the Deer Woman myth in her play?
Why/why not?
5) Compare and contrast the motifs of water and drowning in Hamlet and The Unnatural
and Accidental Women. Remember that a strong essay will have a unifying thesis that
connects your discussion of the two plays under one central argument.
6) In a typical revenge drama, “the revenger loses … [their] humanity and dies
appropriately to restore order” (Bamford 153). This is true of Hamlet, but not of The
Unnatural and Accidental Women: Hamlet dies, but Rebecca does not. Why is Rebecca
able to avoid the descent into madness and death which is the revenger's traditional
fate, while Hamlet does not?
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Dr. Brady St. Thomas More College
Assessment (34 points total)
NOTE: Plagiarized assignments will receive a zero. This includes acts such as copying another
student’s work, mosaic plagiarism, or using ChatGTP to complete the assignment.
Paragraph Content and Structure (9 points)
The first paragraph must:
Begin with an attention-grabbing sentence (or ‘hook’) that introduces the general topic
being discussed.
Have a thesis statement that makes a focused, specific claim about the play’s treatment
of the chosen essay topic.
Contain a route map that corresponds to the body paragraphs’ main points.
The body paragraphs (minimum 2 paragraphs) must:
Begin with a topic sentence that states the paragraph’s main and controlling idea.
End with a concluding sentence that reiterates how the paragraph proved its claim.
Use transition phrases between different ideas and between paragraphs.
Be internally coherent and distinct from each other in content and argument (i.e., one
distinct main claim per body paragraph)
The conclusion must:
Echo the essay’s thesis and provide a brief summary of the essay’s argument.
Leave the reader with something to think about, such as the topic’s wider significance or
a question for further thought or study.
Argumentation (18 points)
In terms of analysis, the essay will contain:
Supporting claims that are directly related to, and develop, the central argument.
Accurate and well-articulated logic and reasoning: the essay shows how it reaches its
conclusions.
A relevant objection and compelling counterargument.
Independent thought and original insights into the essay topic.
In terms of textual evidence and close reading, the essay will:
Support major claims with textual evidence (minimum of 1 quotation per body
paragraph).
Choose textual evidence with care, with an eye to the most relevant evidence for each
claim.
Use close reading techniques to analyze evidence, with analysis that explicitly supports
the paragraph’s topic sentence and/or the thesis statement.
Be correct: no factual inaccuracies will be present in the evidence or the explanation of
evidence.
Use literary terminology when appropriate: terminology will be used correctly.
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Dr. Brady St. Thomas More College
Grammar and Style (3 points)
The essay will:
Have quotations that are introduced by a signal phrase and smoothly integrated into the
surrounding sentences.
Contain comprehensible sentences, with mostly clear prose. Pay special attention to
avoiding the following major grammatical errors:
o Sentence fragments
o Comma splices
o Fused (run-on) sentences
o Dangling modifiers
Demonstrate awareness of its audience via a confident, academic tone (note: academic
writing should be clear and relatively concise—don’t use unnecessarily long and/or
obscure words in an attempt to sound ‘academic’).
MLA Style and Essay Format (4 points)
The essay must:
Be written in a legible 12-point font, double-spaced, and fall within the word count.
Contain an academic two-part title that suggests the essay’s argument and includes the
title(s) of the play(s) being written about.
Follow MLA style, including:
o Proper in-text citations for all paraphrasing and quotations
o A Works Cited page with properly formatted entries.
