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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. According to Dolmance in the Fourth Dialogue, mankind was created to be what?

2. What role models does Dolmance detest vocally regarding his virtue-vice argument?

3. In the Third Dialogue, what topic does Eugenie broach that makes Dolmance scoff and chastise her?

4. Which character masturbates Chevalier first in the Fourth Dialogue?

5. At the beginning of this section, what crime does Dolmance admit to?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Madame de Saint-Ange acquainted with Eugenie?

2. What is the relationship between Madame de Saint-Ange and the Chevalier?

3. How does Madame de Saint-Ange recommend a married woman carry out her infidelity?

4. Describe Dolmance's defense of incest.

5. What is the value of blasphemy to the libertine?

6. What odd and incorrect theories of conception are discussed in the Third Dialogue?

7. What skill do women have for cruelty, according to Dolmance at the end of the Third Dialogue?

8. According to Sade in To the Philosphers, what is the key to happiness?

9. How does Dolmance decry religion in this section?

10. What methods does Madame recommend for avoiding pregnancy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sodomy plays an incredible role in the libertine philosophy of Dolmance. He expounds upon its pure, unadorned pleasure. Write a three-part essay about the libertine ideal as expressed through the act of sodomy:

Part 1) What reasons does Dolmance explain through the book that society has for frowning upon anal intercourse? Why is it considered unnatural and dirty? To what extend is the substance of semen made sacred through these arguments?

Part 2) Discuss the various ways in which Dolmance rebuke the arguments against sodomy. How does he connect the notion of nature to justify the value of sodomy? Aesthetically, why does Dolmance think that the anus is more perfect than the vagina?

Part 3) Discuss how Dolmance applies his beliefs about sodomy in his everyday life. What does he abstain from? What does he lecture and practice on a regular basis?

Essay Topic 2

The dialogues of The Bedroom Philosophers are intended to be perversions of Socratic dialogues, in which a philosopher takes a given dictum and dissects it, disproving it piece by piece. In an essay, choose one dialogue and discuss how the libertine dissects a given social more. What component of society is the character refuting? What does he or she find at fault in it? How does he or she disprove this fault, and what conclusion is reached?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on the topic of phalli in The Bedroom Philosophers. Discuss the order in which phalli are introduced in the narrative and how one tops the other. How are Dolmance, Chevalier, Augustin and Lapierre's phalli all put to different uses? What are the women's reactions to each? Analyzing the use of phalli in the text, determine what they represent in the world of the novel? Excess? Pleasure? Death?

(see the answer keys)

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