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Welcome to the School House Books Online Services Public Recommended List of Plays with The Open Question Essay Prompts and Links |
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Doctor Faustus Choose a complex character from this play who might--on the bisis of the character's actions alone--be considered evil or immoral. Then write a well-organized essay that analyzes how and why the full presentation of the character in the play makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Avoid plot summary. In this play, a characterónot necessarily the protagonistóis pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Write a well-organized essay that identifies each conflicting force and explain how this plaguing conflict within one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Critique Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel or play and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers any answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. |