Between the Acts | Topics for Discussion & Projects

Between the Acts Topics for Discussion

Discuss the role of music in the novel. What does it elicit? At what level of the psyche does it work? What is its function?

Are the play fragments in the pageant - "Where There's a Will, There's a Way" and "A Picnic Party" - at all commentary on the other events in the narrative? What do these plays say or communicate? How are they related to the themes of the novel?

Why is Miss La Trobe unhappy with the outcome of the play? What did La Trobe hope to accomplish?

Discuss why this novel is an example of modernist literature.

What is the nature of William Dodge's relationship with Mrs. Swithin? Why does he become emotional when with Swithin? What does the old woman represent for William Dodge?

Isa frequently speaks in bits of verse, lines from plays, and random rhymes. Choose two of these instances and deconstruct them....
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