2003 FRQ #3
Post date: Sep 25, 2013 3:54:15 PM
According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely t be struck by lighting than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning."
Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
You may choose a work from the list below or another novel or play of comparable quality. Avoid mere plot summary.
An American Tragedy A Light in August
Anna Karenina A Long Day's Journey into Night
Antigone Lord Jim
Beloved MacBeth
Crime and Punishment Media
Death of a Salesman Moby Dick
Ethan Fromme Oedipus Rex
Faust Phedre
Fences Ragtime
For Whom the Bell Tolls Sent for You Yesterday
Frankenstein Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Heda Gabler Things Fall Apart
King Lear