Below is the instruction that precedes part one of Exam #1 and the final.  Part one is structured as a series of quotations from the plays, each followed by a thematic question.  The instructions below tell you exactly how to structure your one-paragraph response to the thematic question.

Part One.  Please write a one-paragraph response to the following questions.  Your response should (1) offer an overall answer to the question using (2) specifics from the quotation for support and (3) make connections to other places in the play.  The best responses will begin with a sentence that clearly answers the question (and so serves as your paragraph’s topic sentence); in support of the answer, the response will then analyze some of the language or imagery from the quotation and turn to 2 or 3 other places in the play that similarly address the theme.   

Your Job: For Mon. March 9, and again on Wed, May 6, you will write a question. It will consist of 2 parts:

1. A short quotation (2-10 lines) from one play.

2. A question that identifies a theme to be explored both through reference to language in the quote and to other moments in the play

Here's what it should look like:

Hotspur.      Let them come!

They come like sacrifices in their trim,

And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war

All hot and bleeding will we offer them.

The mailed Mars shall on his alter sit

Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire

To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,

And yet not ours! Come, let me taste my horse,

Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt

Against the bosom of the Prince fo Wales.

Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,

Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corpse. (H4 Part One, 4.1.113-124)

How and why is Hotspur excited about the upcoming battle, and how does that anticipation contrast with the values associated with Hal or Falstaff?

Here's another example:

Falstaff: Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest in the state of
innocency Adam fell; and what should poor Jack
Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I
have more flesh than another man, and therefore more
frailty. (3.3.151-54)

What does Falstaff reveal about himself here, and how does that revelation serve as a critique of other characters in the play?

Here's an example of a first sentence/topic sentence:

By comparing himself to Adam, Falstaff reveals himself as fully human: weak, vulnerable, conflicted--that is, fallible [answers "what"]. For all his bluster, there's a humility to Falstaff that in some ways aligns him with the king and serves as a sharp critique of the "heroic" Hotspur.