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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was it that make Molloy’s previous suicide attempts unsuccessful?

2. What does Molloy say is “not an easy matter” (24)?

3. What does Molloy say he has in place of principles?

4. Under what condition does Molloy say he might have loved the charcoal burner?

5. What did Lousse offer Molloy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Molloy’s system for sucking stones?

2. How does Molloy’s disability affect him?

3. Why does Molloy say that his previous attempts at suicide were unsuccessful?

4. What is Molloy’s distinction between death and being put to death?

5. What does Molloy say keeps him going?

6. Why was Molloy taken to the police station?

7. How does Molloy say he and his mother refer to each other?

8. How long was Molloy on the road before he met Lousse, and how long did he stay with Lousse?

9. Who are A and C, and what drama does Molloy watch them play out?

10. What is Molloy’s relationship with writing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When is Molloy most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 2

What is the role of women in Molloy, or of parents? How do Molloy and Moran treat the people around them, and what do they expect of women? Are they ‘normal’ men who expect ‘normal’ things of women, or are they ambiguous or asexual? What role does physical or emotional love play in Molloy, whether it is between men or women?

Essay Topic 3

Molloy is a book in which Beckett has created a world for his character to live in, but it is a world that only sometimes resembles our world of experiences and observations. What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a whole world for a character, with rules that apply only to that world, and are not even always explained? Is this an ultimately fruitful enterprise for Beckett, or does the artificiality of the enterprise work against him? Take a position on one side or the other.

(see the answer keys)

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