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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 name has Carr been given for Gwen's chaperon?

2. To what symbol of nonviolence does Carr compare Switzerland in his monologue?

3. How does the style of dialogue change as the new characters enter in this section?

4. In what two locations does the play take place?

5. In what year was Lenin forced into exile from Russia?

Short Essay Questions

1. What new revelation regarding Bennett is revealed in the final moments of the play?

2. How does Joyce convince Carr to take the role of Algernon?

3. What admonition does Carr make to the audience regarding his memory at the end of the act?

4. What does Lenin ask Nadya to do when he is imprisoned in St. Petersburg?

5. How does Carr respond to Tzara's Dadaist sentiments?

6. Describe Carr's obsession with clothing.

7. How does Carr's opinion of Joyce seems to change as he sums up the writer's character in his monologue?

8. How is Lenin devastated and frustrated listening to a Beethoven symphony?

9. What parts of Henry Carr's story can be definitively believed by the audience?

10. What apologia does Henry Carr make regarding his memory?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the character of James Joyce. He is one of the most enigmatic characters in the play, but he has one of the deepest verifiable relationships with Henry Carr. The first half of the essay should concern his art. How does Ulysses fulfill a primal need that he has for literature? What special significance does he assign to the character of Odysseus? The second half should concern his attitude toward money. To what extent does indebtedness and miserliness plague his association with Carr? Is it possible that these attributes may be a creation of Carr the storyteller?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the character of Bennett. He is far an away the most cultivated and best-informed person in the play, but he is a manservant. Stoppard, in his cast notes, says that he should be "quite a weighty presence" (vii). What is Bennett's function int he script at the beginning of the play? How does Carr's leaving him in charge of the consulate affect Lenin's situation? What new revelations about his character are revealed in the final moments of the play?

Essay Topic 3

Tom Stoppard is a linguist, perhaps the most adventurous linguist of the modern theatre. Language plays a major part in Travesties, though the play is all in English. Write an essay analyzing the major forms the writing takes, focusing on four forms: Witty Farce, Docudrama, Modern Debate, and Limericks. When dos each form occur in the play? What characters or topics are invariably involved with each form? Does one form generally follow another?

(see the answer keys)

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