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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. Who are the most interesting people, according to Algernon?

2. What political affiliation does Jack claim?

3. To whom does Jack let his town house much of the year?

4. Where in Victoria Station was the handbag with Jack in it discovered?

5. Which of these is not a description of the handbag in which Jack was found?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Bunbury?

2. How does Jack Worthing's cigarette case betray his identity to Algernon?

3. Why are there no cucumber sandwiches at the Algernon's when Lady Bracknell arrives?

4. What is Jack Worthing's business in London?

5. How is it that Jack does not know who his parents are?

6. What is Lady Bracknell's opinion of Bunbury?

7. Why does Algernon discreetly write down Jack's country address on his cuff?

8. What is Algernon's stated opinion of love and marriage in Act I?

9. What, according to Jack and Algernon, is the difference between mothers and fathers in modern society?

10. Why doe Jack go by the name of Ernest in London?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose one of the following options to write about:

1.) What does Algernon's habit of always eating say about him as a character? Write about three examples in the play where Algernon is forced to explain his appetite and how he does so.

2.) Cecily and Miss Prism's argument about her diary and the three-volume novel say much about both? What secrets does this conversation allude to, and how does it frame each's attitude toward literature and love?

3.) Chasuble is constantly quoting - and misquoting - religious sources and tenets. How does his level of comfort with his chosen profession help or hinder his decision regarding Miss Prism at the end of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the following options to write about:

1.) What type of freedom does Ernest allow Jack? Can he do certain things because of Ernest that he could not without him? What unexpected challenges arise because of the freedom Ernest allows?

2.) Write about debt as a driving force in the play? Which characters - both real and fictional - have accumulated debt and how doe they justify it. Cite specific examples in the text.

3.) To what extent are Lane, Miss Prism, and Chasuble all constrained by unseen forces to act in a certain way? Do any of them overcome these forces?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the following three options to write about:

1.) To what extent has Cecily always been at the beck and call of authority figures fro Thomas Cardew to Miss Prism. Write three paragraphs about her subjugation to three separate masters and how her diary undermines this control.

2.) Do you think that Gwendolen is an inherently rebellious character or a generally subservient character that acts against her nature in the story? Cite examples from the text to defend your answer.

3.) What is Miss Prism's motivation in the play? What is she running from and why has she decided that she will not marry?

(see the answer keys)

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