How do the characters of Griselda and Bartleby engage with and manage superior power? Consider points of similarity and difference in crafting your thesis and supporting arguments.
The key danger of this topic is focusing on irrelevant or non-controversial similarities and differences. Remember that you need to develop a thesis and arguments that another informed reader of these stories could disagree with. So, for example, to argue that one work is medieval while another is modern would not be an argument that someone could reasonably disagree with. Work to develop sophisticated and perhaps surprising connections and distinctions between the two characters and their methods.
Be careful as well not to rely on assumptions about the Middle Ages that you might be wrong about. Instead, pay attention to what the text teaches you about cultural attitudes through the comments of the narrator and the host.
Email a copy of the paper to me at wpeek@stonehill.edu by 8:00am on the due date, and bring a hard copy of your paper to class with your folder.
