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