Description
For the longer essay, I want you to pick two things we read or watched this semester and compare the portrayal of evil in them. You could pick your two favorite texts, or two things that made you think the hardest, or two things that you think paired well, or maybe two things that depicted evil in wildly different ways. It’s up to you. But in any case, I’d like you to write an analytical essay comparing and contrasting evil in these two works.
The topic is largely open-ended, so that you have space to explore. But (to get you started) you might try to think about macro-issues: the larger philosophical, psychological, theological features of evil that appear in some of these works and how they square with one another; or you might, instead, think about individual characters/figures we’ve discussed who have evil tendencies or features, and what binds them or separates them from one another across time and space; or you might try to dissect some of the contextual socio-cultural issues that inform the composition of these texts (which I tried to highlight in most of my lectures) in order to get a behind-the-scenes perspective on evil in the literature, and the ways in which these contexts help shape the texts you compare, etc.
You should have a clear argument (a thesis) and you should back up your argument with evidence from the texts/films, to demonstrate that you are engaging directly with the material.
List of materials that we have read/watch to pick from:
Homer Odyssey 11, 24
Virgil Aeneid 6
Dante Inferno
Milton Paradise Lost
Prudentius Psychomachia
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
George A. Romero Night of the Living Dead (1968) (Film)
George A. Romero Day of the Dead (1985) (Film)
Please use 2 of these materials and only these materials for the comparison