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Drama Essay Prompts and Links for English Honors and AP* Literature and Composition
Peter Shaffer
Equus   In this play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is used to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in.  Frequently, as Henry James puts it, this friend or relative of the protagonist can be as much "the reader's friend as the protagonist's."  Write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work.

In this play, a character--not necessarily the protagonist--is 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.

In this novel, a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role.  Write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable.  Explain the significance of the madness to the work as a whole.

Although not usually identified with the detective story genre, this work does involve the investigation of a mystery.  Write an essay which identifies the mystery, explaining how the knowledge gained from the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.  Do not merely summarize the plot.


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