"Goblin Market" Critical Essay Assignment

Critical Essay: “Goblin Market”

DUE DATES

Final Draft: Friday, September 19th, 2008
Revision Final Draft: Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

DESCRIPTION

Length: 2 pages

Format: typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font, 12 point

Ø The requirements for the actual body of your paper are included on the rubric.
Ø For this essay, revision final drafts are optional. One full rubric point for each of the five strands can be improved in the final draft. The points awarded for the revision will be included in the grading system as an ‘extra grade’ for those who choose to complete it. In other words, students will not be penalized for choosing not to do it, but those who do choose to revise their paper will be awarded.
Ø A copy description of this assignment can be found on the AP Lit blog, at www.juliusaplit.blogspot.com
Ø This essay will be assigned a letter grade, and will be worth a total of 40 points.

PROMPT:

In your opinion, what is the most significant theme in Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market ? Choose a theme or concept in the poem, and discuss the ways in which this theme or concept is developed in the poem. With careful reading, you should include specific examples from the poem to make your analysis stronger.

Also, you may choose to quote examples from more than one source from which to draw your analysis, including our class discussions, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, and the critical essay by W. Glasgow Phillips. Please be very careful of internet sources, if you choose to use them. If you do, you must cite your source of information. Some of the themes we discussed in class are listed below.

Innocence vs. Immorality
Purity vs. Impurity
Virtue vs. Temptation
Masculinity vs. Femininity
Buying vs. Selling
Sex vs. Abstinence
Life vs. Death
Sin vs. Redemption
Pleasure vs. Pain