While you can decide what topic you want to write about for your midterm paper, here are a few
questions and themes you can consider addressing (though if you do decide to write on
something outside of these prompts, I encourage you to vet it with me over email, during office
hours, or during an appointment you make with me outside of office hours).
Civilizations and nature: As we discussed in class, Gilgamesh devotes a considerable section of
both its beginning and its end to a celebration of city life and civilization: Gilgamesh, by the end
of the poem, abandons his quest for eternal life and himself proclaims the greatness of the city of
Uruk. Enkidu, too, is taken from a natural state and civilized by his encounter with Shamhat and
his introduction to man-made products. However, we can also make an argument that the epic
poem shows some grave concern with the effects of city life and civilization, particularly in what
happens to Enkidu and his reactions to the civilizing process (see his curse of Shamhat--7.58-86-and his death). What do you think the text is arguing about civilization and its effect on humans
and the natural world?
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This is also a prompt you might consider using for other texts that we read.
Right action: The texts we have read for this class present some contrasting views on what the
right thing to do is in complex situations. How does the text define what is right to do in
complicated situations–how do the characters determine what is the right thing to do? What
seems to be the message in the text about how to determine good action, or what is a
contradiction in that message and why does it matter that we notice it?
Role of women/gender roles: As we’ve seen in the texts we’ve read so far, while many texts
focus on male characters (Enkidu and Gilgamesh, Arjuna), female characters are crucial to the
story. For example, Gilgamesh might be the hero and namesake of The Epic of Gilgamesh, but
women like Shamhat, the Tavern Keeper, and Gilgamesh’s mother play important roles in
guiding the plot. Pick a text and argue for the role that women play in it. What is
powerful/important about them? What agency do they have, and/or how are they disempowered
(consider, for example, that Medea can be left by Jason without any consequences from the
state/the law, but that she is also very powerful and makes sure there are consequences; or,
consider that Sakuntala, for all her shyness and lovesickness, makes an eloquent defense of
herself when the king can’t remember her)?
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For this one, be careful not to impose too many ideas we might have about women onto
texts from a long time ago: try to read them in context (and also avoid overly general
statements like “back in the day”—you can use the texts themselves for how they show
what was expected of women, as when Ismene tells us that women are supposed to keep
their heads down in Antigone).
Duty: If duty is what is “due,” then what defines what is due, according to the text– is it society,
responsibility to another individual, honor? How should duty be demonstrated or fulfilled, and
what are some complications that get in the way of fulfilling duty? What does the characters
response to their duty/duties, their failure to fulfill their duty, or the complications that arise in
trying to fulfill duty, reveal about the nature of duty and what duty should be?
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Note that, while the text may seem to enthusiastically encourage one idea about duty (for
example, Krishna's defense of Arjuna's duty as warrior), there are other voices to attend
to that complicate that reading. Your job is to consider what voice to listen to most in
your interpretation and to highlight in your paper (for example, you might show flaws in
Krishna's logic and highlight Arjuna's concerns).
Be sure to use the proper vocabulary/definition when talking about duty in the text you
discuss. In the Bhagavad-Gita and Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, your duty is
your dharma.
Minor character analysis: While we have been focusing on some of the major characters in these
works, there are also some characters with lesser roles who speak fewer lines or are not one of
the "larger than life" figures in the text. While we may be inclined to forget them in favor of
more colorful or more present characters, their inclusion in the works is still important and
purposeful: they may help us understand something about one of the characters, or give us a
more nuanced understanding of some of the issues/themes in the text (consider Siduri's advice to
Gilgamesh, or the tutor and nurse in Medea—why are those two characters included in the
play?). How does a minor character reveal an essential point of the work, or how can we
understand that character in a larger perspective?
Quests and journeys: According to Thomas Foster, “The real reason for a quest never involves
the stated reason. In fact, more often than not, the quester fails at the stated task. So why do they
go and why do we care? They go because of the stated task, mistakenly believing that it is their
real mission. We know, however, that their quest is educational. They don’t know enough about
the only subject that really matters: themselves. The real reason for a quest is always selfknowledge. That’s why questers are so often young, inexperienced, immature, sheltered. Fortyfive-year-old men either have self-knowledge or they’re never going to get it, while your average
sixteen-to-seventeen-year-old kid is likely to have a long way to go in the self-knowledge
department” (15). Keeping this definition of quest in mind, consider these questions: In many of
the texts, characters are "seeking" something that has been promised them by fate, or that they
desire for their own personal benefit; sometimes what they seek is an answer to a troubling
question. According to your text, what is worth seeking out, and why? How does what the
character seeks define him/her, and how does the text use the quest to make a larger point or
deliver a message? What does the quest help the characters discover, and what is the point of
having them go on this quest?
Heroism/leadership: What defines heroism and being a hero, and why--alternately, what defines
being a good leader and why? Does your text portray, ultimately, its leaders and heroes as
virtuous and good at what they do, and how does the text make that portrayal? If we see these
leaders/heroes as being flawed according to the text (NOT just our own, contemporary ideas of
what makes a good leader!), why is the text pointing out these flaws--what's the larger message
about good rulership and heroism?
Love in other texts: How does the text present love, and what is it? Does love occur between people, or
does the character define love in another way (i.e., love of duty): what should we love, and why?
According to the text, what do we owe to what/who we love, and why–what are the obligations of love?