Essay question: 'The world of Shakespeare’s history plays is a man’s world.' Discuss.
In answering this essay question, the student chose to write about the role of Rosalind in As You Like It.
Q. How could this be improved?
TUTOR'S REPLY
While this is a brave attempt to challenge the proposition in the question by writing about a female character in Shakespeare who plays an active role, the choice of play is inappropriate insofar as As You Like It is conventionally regarded as a comedy, not a history.
It is important to recognise when a question invites you to deal with the critical issues to do with concepts of genre. In the present case, the syllabus studied included Henry IV Part 1 and Julius Caesar - both are based on historical source material and would have been appropriate choices of text for this particular question.
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