Sample Essay Titles
Recap: the following tasks have already been set in Specification 9695 papers 31-33 for all three texts
- In what ways and with what dramatic effects does Fugard present characters who face moral choices in these plays?
- Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of ‘white guilt’ in ‘The Train Driver’ and ‘Have you seen us?’
- Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of prejudice in these plays.
- Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of South Africa in these plays.
- In what ways and with what dramatic effects, does Fugard present feelings of guilt in these plays?
- Discuss Fugard’s dramatic presentation of good listeners in these plays.
On Coming Home
Question 1
How does Fugard develop the strong theme of religious belief as the play and how, exactly is it concluded?
Indicative content
- While AIDs and its consequences dominate the first half of the play the ending in infused with references to religious belief and its place in the lives of the illiterate but humbly penitent Alfred, Oupa, and, finally, Oupa’s father.
- Veronica appears to retain a simple quotidian faith which she has inherited from her Grandparents: ‘Thank you God’ although it not in evidence as she described her time in Cape Town and as an AIDS victim. Alfred’s faint is as innocent in the present as he recalls it as a child: ‘church picnics….. singing hymns all the way’.
- He starts to acknowledge its limitations as AIDS takes hold of her: ‘we pray, we sing hymns on Sunday……. But there she lies’. But this does not limit his desire to seek help for Veronica.
- Nonetheless he has plainly developed a conscience as a result of his simple devotion. The whole…
