Literary Analysis Essay: Responding to a Critical Lens
Your Task:
Write a literary analysis paper that interprets how the critical lens quotation connects to Romeo and Juliet.

What is a Critical Lens?
Like the lenses in a pair of glasses, or the lens of a camera, the quote brings what we are looking at into focus, and gives us a way to analyze, interpret, and think about the text. Choose one below to explore throughout your essay:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” -Zora Neale Hurston
“We are our choices.” -Jean-Paul Sartre
“It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvements.” –John Steinbeck

Step One: Interpret one critical lens quote.
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Step Two: Relate the quotation to Romeo and Juliet.
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Step Three: Create a thesis statement that addresses the text and critical lens.
What are the “big ideas” or thematic topics in the play? What is the Shakespeare suggesting about these topics? Turn this into your thesis statement by connecting these ideas to the play.

A thesis statement: tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. makes a claim that others might dispute. is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

Some possible thesis starters: (You do not need to use these!)

1. Shakespeare presents that ______________________________(thematic topic)

__________________________________________________________________________________(commentary about the thematic topic)

2. In Romeo and