AP Shakespeare Essay 2025-26
Due Wednesday, 2/18 (period 1); due Thursday 2/19 (period 7)
Read A.C. Bradley’s “Shakespearean Tragedy” (in your Macbeth Signet edition) or Maynard Mack’s “The World of Hamlet” (in your Hamlet Signet edition) or any other legitimate critic’s peer reviewed essay in order to find some point with which you disagree. Then, based on an in-depth analysis of evidence from the play, explain how and why you disagree with that point.
Please develop your own thesis for this assignment; if you need help with a thesis, please feel free to see me or to read the thesis statement articles/link in the Schoology Writing Tips folder. You could also watch thesis-writing videos in AP Classroom or on YouTube; point in fact, some AP teachers in my FB feed sing the praises of YouTube’s “Garden of Eden” videos.
You should follow the MLA format at Purdue Owl, and after submitting your final draft to Turnitin, please turn in a printed copy during class. Please also turn in the outside source, highlighting the mistaken point and any other mistaken claims that your essay takes to task.
To find essays other than the ones by Maynard and Mack, you can look at those in the back of the Signet editions, in a library book on reserve, or in research databases like JSTOR, Bloom's Literature, or Gale Literature Resource Center.
You can access the electronic library sources by the link on your Schoology homepage, through this link, or by the QR code in the Swisher Library.
Click here for passwords if accessing the Swisher Library’s research databases from outside of The Bolles School.
If you are prompted for usernames and passwords on the links below, please find them all listed on SCHOOLOGY or ask Mr. Nesselrode.
Academic journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences.
Find up-to-date full-text criticisms, author biographies, overviews, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras.
Extensive reference essays and literary criticism examining the lives of great authors—from William Shakespeare to J. K. Rowling—and their works throughout history from a wide range of scholarly and critical sources.
The following books are available for 1 day checkout and are located in Mr. Nesselrode's office. Please just see him or a library staff member for access.
Shakespeare without tears
by
Our naked frailties: sensational art and meaning in Macbeth
by
