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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. Except for the course in Romantic poets, what is the general academic area of the courses that David teaches?

2. Who is Melanie Issacs?

3. After the hearing, who is it that asks David how the hearing went?

4. When David sees Lucy on the morning after their attack, what does he realize has happened to her?

5. In the hearing, which of the following does Rassool NOT ask David if he has sought for help?

Short Essay Questions

1. After Melanie's boyfriend confronts David in his office, he comes to class with Melanie. What is his purpose for this visit?

2. How do you interpret Melanie's lukewarm acceptance of David Lurie into her flat and into her life?

3. What is it about Soraya's character does David find appealing?

4. When Melanie's boyfriend is in the class, the other students are even quieter than they usually are. How might one interpret this silence?

5. When David goes to visit Lucy, what is his observation of Lucy's country life?

6. Why is it important to David that Lucy is as he puts it a "woman of passion?"

7. After the attack on Lucy's farm, how does David try to comfort Lucy and what is her reaction?

8. After David has resigned, how does Lucy treat the prospect of her father staying with her indefinitely?

9. What might David Lurie offer in his defense of his sexual relations with Melanie Isaacs, his student?

10. What does David's lecture on Wordsworth reveal about him? What is the ironic about the content of his lecture?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter 12. Explain how Lucy's rape altered her personality. Discuss Lucy's remarks about the issue of racism and inherent guilt in South Africa and how this guilt influences her beliefs and actions thus far in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

At the end of Chapter 5, David reads a report of his indiscretion in the local paper. When the piece mentions that David has written a book on the "nature poet, William Wordsworth," David goes off on a tangent and imagines a sort of epitaph that includes, "David Lurie (1945-?), commentator upon, and disgraced disciple of, William Wordsworth. Blest be the infant babe. No outcast he." What can you infer about David's opinion of himself from this self description? What might this descriptor reveal about David's course of action in this ordeal?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 4, David lectures on Byron's poem, Lara. Using the excerpts in the chapter, or the entire text, discuss the themes of this poem and connect them to what are probable themes in David's life before or now.

(see the answer keys)

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