Home > Essay Lab Group > Discussion Board

I am working on writing an essay on The Tempest by Shakespeare. I would like to address the two themes Beauty & Virtue. I have narrowed it down to the characters I want to address. Miranda is consistently portrayed as a beautiful if not naive girl, but yet, throughout the play it is evident that she influences the more obviously powerful men. Perhaps too somehow I could make a tie to whether she's compatible with Ferdinand? Also, I would like to talk about Caliban and how maybe Shakespeare manipulated his character by portraying him as such an ugly creature?
I am just stuck on expansion and where to start...

I think that a comparison/contrast approach for the themes of beauty and virtue might work well. You could compare and contrast Miranda and Caliban. They are the two archetypal presentations of beauty and ugliness, with virtue (or lack thereof) in ratios commensurate to their physical attractiveness.

You appear to be quite clear on what you want to cover in your essay, but are unable to proceed because you are not able to decide on the details of how you will present your ideas.

In situations like this is to a technique called "brain dump". Just write down what ever you have to say without bothering about the presentation. Once you have done this, it will be very easy to revise this first draft to improve the presentation and language.

It looks like you have two subjects: beauty and virtue. You should narrow it down to one, and create a theme from that one subject. Then in your analysis, try the block method rather than the point-by-point method. That should work well for your essay. If you have any problems, send me a message.