Discuss the form of the play. This can mean many things, including:
Narrative structure (the order in which events are told, the information that is included or left out, how the
sequence of events follows a certain pattern, etc.)
Choice of characters
Symbols (physical objects, events, people or places that represent some larger idea)
Motifs (images, words or phrases, or other elements that repeat throughout the story)
Style (choice of words, sentence structure, rhythm)
Dramatic features, including staging, lighting, division into acts and scenes
Literary theory lens application—for this play, consider Marxist, cultural, and/or gender lenses
Relate form to content, especially theme (the one-sentence overview of what the author is trying to suggest)
Give specific examples drawn from the play that illustrate the form and how it relates to the content
Explain how the examples work (how they support the theme being described)
Have a thesis—a single, unified point about the relationship between form and content, to which every part of
the paper relates.
Sample thesis layout: August Wilson’s The Piano lesson uses [form] to suggest that [content—directly state
your theme here].
The question is: “• How do ghosts function as a motif or symbol?” in the short story “Piano Lesson”