Who is responsible for the death of the queen?
The Drawbridge Exercise:
Every time he left for a visit to his outlying districts, the jealous and powerful king warned his young, pretty wife: “Do not leave the castle while I am gone, or I will punish you when I return!”
But the king took many trips, and as the years passed, the young queen grew lonely. Despite her husband’s warnings, she decided one day to venture outside the castle and take a boyfriend, who lived in the countryside nearby.
The castle was situated on an island in a wide, fast-flowing river. A drawbridge linked the island to the mainland at the narrowest point in the river.
“Surely my husband will not return before me,” she thought, and ordered the servant to lower the drawbridge and leave it down until she returned. After spending the afternoon with her boyfriend, the young queen returned to the drawbridge–Only to find it blocked by a gateman wildly waving a long, cruel knife.
“Do not attempt to cross this bridge, Queen, or I will have to kill you,” he cried. “The King ordered me to do so.”
Fearing for her life, the queen returned to her boyfriend and asked him for help. “Our relationship is only a romantic one,” he said. – “I cannot risk trouble with the King. I will not help.”
The queen then sought out a boatman on the river, explained her plight to him and asked him to take her across the river in his boat. “I will do it, but only if you pay the money: five marks.”
“But I have no money with me!” the queen protested. “That is too bad. No money, no, ride,” the boatman said flatly.
Her fear growing, the queen ran crying to the home of a friend and, after explaining her desperate situation, begged for enough money to pay the boatman his fee.
“If you had not disobeyed your husband this would not have happened,” the friend said. “I will give you no money.”
With dawn approaching and her last resource exhausted, the queen returned to the bridge in desperation, and, while waiting to cross to the castle, was killed by the gateman.
Please follow these guidelines when answering the essay question:
1. Your opening sentence must get the reader’s attention. (Do not open with a question or a quotation. Use your imagination to create an original thought that is a complete sentence.)
2. Your thesis sentence must be the last sentence of your introduction and answer the assigned question.
3. Your body paragraph must prove your thesis to be true.
4. Your conclusion must state why your thesis is important.
5. Each paragraph must be 5-7 sentences and the total length of your essay should be three paragraphs (introduction, body, conclusion).
6. Write only in the 3rd person. (Do not use I, you, we, us, me, or any other phrase outside of the 3rd person.)
