Synthesis Paper 

Instructions:

Your paper must focus on texts from our reading list (you can also include other materials). Select one of the themes listed below and two or three  of the texts assigned in this course. Then write a paper 3 pages single  spaced in which you explain how each of the two or three texts(ey  must be by at least two authorsxplores the selected theme, comparing  and contrasting the authors!pproaches. For example, if you chose the  doppelg§er/double theme, you might select Mary ShelleyàFrankenstein, Edgar Allan Poeàélliam Wilson,!nd Robert Louis StevensonàStrange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  or arkheim(or just two of these texts). In your introduction, you  could explain in general terms the literary significances of  doppelg§ers or doubles (e.g., what they can symbolize or their  psychological implications) and then explain how each text develops this  theme in similar and/or different ways. Then, in your conclusion, you  could identify overall thematic patterns and key innovations made by  each author. When discussing texts published during different eras, you  might also consult secondary sources and provide some historical context  (e.g., the influence of Charles Darwinàevolutionary theories on the  depiction of Mr. Hyde or on The Island of Doctor Moreau; the influence of the New Woman stereotype on the female vampires in Dracula). This historical approach is, however, optional. Here is the list of themes from which you may choose:

1) the doppelg§er or double

2) the monster (could be moral and/or physical monsters)

3) the femme fatale (Beatrice Rappaccini, Ligeia, Carmilla, the three female vampires in Dracula, and the vampirized Lucy Westenra can be viewed as femmes fatales)

4)  the figure of the Gothic scientist (Aylmer, Rappaccini, Baglioni,  Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Dr. Moreau, Van Helsing, Dr. Seward)

5) the Gothic villain

6) the Gothic heroine

7)  portrayals of mental illness (the narrator of )geia, oderick Usher,  William Wilson, the narrator of (e Tell-Tale Heart, enfield in Dracula, Eleanor Vance in The Haunting of Hill House)

8) the supernatural

9) Gothic buildings

10) vampires.