Oedipus+In-Class+Assessment

= **2003 AP English Literature and Composition** Free-Response Questions = **Question 3** (Suggested time - 40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.) 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 to be struck by lightning 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 choose another novel or play of comparable quality. Avoid mere plot summary.

An American Tragedy Anna Karenina Antigone Beloved Crime and Punishment Death of a Salesman Ethan Frome Faust Fences For Whom the Bell Tolls Frankenstein Hedda Gabbler King Lear Light in August Long Day's Journey into Night Lord Jim Macbeth Medea Moby Dick Oedipus Rex Phedre Ragtime Sent for You Yesterday Tess of the D'Urbervilles Things Fall Apart