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Public Recommended List of Plays with
The Open Question Essay Prompts and Links 

Tennessee Williams
1970 Essay Prompt:  Choose a character from one of Miller's plays and write an essay in which you (A) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists, and (B) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards.  Avoid mere plot summary.

The Glass Menagerie
1971 Essay Prompt:  The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to discover.  However, in other works  (for example, Measure for Measure), the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gredually.  Why do you think Tennessee Williams chose The Glass Menagerieas his title?  Write a well-organized eassy that shows how the significance of this choice of title is developed through the use of  such devices as contrast, repetition, allusion, and point of view.

In this play, a character who appears briefly, or does not apppear at all, is a significant presence.  Write an essay that shows how this character functions in this work.  You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters.

In this play, a character who appears briefly, or does not apppear at all, is a significant presence.  Write an essay that shows how this character functions in this work.  You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters.

This play includes a scene of social occasionófor example, weddings, funerals, partiesówhich reveals the values of the characters and the society in which they live.  In a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

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.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof   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.

A Streetcar Named Desire  This play depicts a conflict between a parent or parental figure and a son or daughter.  Write a well-organized essay that analyzes the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.  Avoid plot summary.

This play uses contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that arecentral to the meaning of the work.  Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the overall meaning of the work.

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 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.      Cat on a Hot Tin Roof;    Baby Doll & Tiger Tail.


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