The+Princess+and+the+Dragon

=You will be assigned to small groups. Choose one person to read the story below to the group. Having read the story, your task is to come up with a //unanimous// decision on who was responsible for the death of the Princess. There are six characters in the story and you need to rank them in order of responsibility, from the most to the least responsible. You will then have to justify your decision to the other groups.=

Characters:

 * 1) The Princess
 * 2) The Prince
 * 3) The Dragon
 * 4) The Lover
 * 5) The Ferryman
 * 6) The Best Friend

===The Princess lived a rather dull life, married to a very handsome, rich Prince. They lived in a huge castle, surrounded by a very wide and deep moat. The Prince loved his wife, but spent a great deal of time travelling around the country on business, leaving his wife neglected and alone in the castle for long periods of time. He was also very jealous, and had installed a Dragon in the moat to keep his wife away from other men. The dragon was nocturnal and would kill anyone trying to cross the drawbridge into the castle at night. It was only possible to get to and from the castle during the day.===

===One morning the Princess said goodbye to her Prince, knowing he would be all day and that night not returning until early the next day. She was very bored in the castle as he was always leaving her alone with nothing to do, and so she decided to go and visit her lover. She went off to visit her man, and they had such a wonderful and exhausting time that they fell asleep. When she woke up it was dark!===

===The Princess ran off to see if the ferryman would take her across the deep and wide moat to the castle door. She ran and ran and found him at his ferry, but he would not take her without the correct payment. And she was a few coins short. Although she pleaded with him, the ferryman would not take her across the moat.===

===So the Princess had only one thing to try and do now. She had to try and get past the Dragon on the drawbridge. She got up to the gate, tried to run past, but the Dragon woke up, smiled, and gobbled her up.===

=Discussion Posting=

In assigning responsibility to the different characters in your group discussions, you are implicitly or even explicitly suggesting that those with the greatest blame should have done something else. One or more of the characters is responsible in part for the death of the princess. To avoid the tragic death of a person, one or more of the characters needed to do something differently. What they chose to do was at least unwise if not in some moral sense wrong. Write a thoughtful response (around 250-300 words) to the task below. Post on your class discussion page in the toolbar on the left. No need to comment on others responses yet though you are free to do so. You will comment on other posts later.


 * Please explain your personal take on how much responsibility rests with each character. What ethical principles (rules for behavior) or values (i.e. integrity, honesty, courage, respect, autonomy, chastity, etc) are at the heart of your reasoning?

Reading: van de Lagemaat p.p. 376-the top of 385