Read, listen, and study

Choose one or more of the adaptations below.

Listen to and read along with the stories, and construct a written response. You may find questions and study tips page by page, consider the questions that follow, or with approval from an instructor, develop your own questions. Meet with a tutor to edit your work and submit it to an instructor.

Beginning

Tell another story which has a heroine or hero similar to a character in one of the stories. Compare the personalities of the two portrayals.

Intermediate

Compare several stories from different parts of the world with a hero or heroine similar to a character in one of the stories. Which typical lessons do the different characters offer?

Advanced

In a simple form of tragedy, a hero might be expected to serve as a lesson of human conduct. A moral mistake by the hero might lead to downfall from which the audience may study as an example to avoid. If one of the stories were seen in such a way, who would be the hero? Were mistakes made which we ought to avoid? Which brave or clever aspects are worth adaptation? How do the events described in the story compare to other, more fully developed tragedies?

An allegory is a story where the characters and their actions are all symbolic in a coherent fashion of other concepts, events, or situations, an extended metaphor of many parts. If the story can be read as an allegory, describe the other concept, event, or situation for which the story may serve as metaphor. How does the advice of the allegory apply? Try outlining an original allegory.