Your first 4 to 5 page (1000 to 1,250 words) essay will be an exercise in close reading of an important passage in Measure for Measure which you will then connect to other key passages that amplify and deepen the theme or question you develop. Choose early. You’ll want to take notes for documentation as you reread. Your paper should have an arguable thesis—shoot for a level two or three thesis Be prepared to defend your thesis and show reasonable progress when you confer with me on that date.
Explore all of the scenes of which Lucio is a part. From the details of these scenes—what he says, what is said to him, what he actually does, how he is viewed by others—analyze Lucio’s character and what it is Shakespeare is able to say through him. What kind of man is Lucio and what larger themes, commentary, does his character suggest?