Argumentative Essay based on Tragedy in Sarah Ruhl’s “Eurydice”
I will attach the pdf of the play “Eurydice”
Essay Prompt: Discuss how “Eurydice”, in its tragic elements, deals with the problem of knowledge or self-knowledge. Some ideas: you might think about how your play represents ideas of truth/illusion or certainty/uncertainty or freedom/limitations; or about how knowledge is related to the protagonist’s actions and fate, to his/her confrontation with a higher order, or to his/her suffering.
The questions to think about, to develop an argument, are: what kind of knowledge about herself specifically does she gain? And why is this character development here?
does knowledge help characters overcome tragedy, or does knowledge actually bring on tragedy? How does Ruhl’s play see this?
This essay should be at least 5 full pages in length. It should have a clear but concise introduction and statement of argument (an interpretive claim) at the start, which should then be followed in the body of the essay by evidence and close reading from the text(s) that supports that argument. It should avoid unnecessary plot summary. Focus on the core of what you have to say and on analysis of the specific details of the text (passages, words, images, other elements, etc) that help you support your claim. A well-written essay should develop and deepen the claim as it goes along. It should be organized in well-ordered paragraphs, even if this means leaving out some of your ideas and emphasizing others to make for a unified discussion.
