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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. In Act Two, Scene One, what does Adam say that first makes Toby express a desire to leave Adam's apartment?

2. In Act Three, Scene Two, what gift does Henry bring Eric?

3. What starts the Act Two, Scene Three fight between Eric and Toby?

4. How does Jasper respond to Eric's request about work?

5. Where does Toby run into Adam again, in Act One Scene Four?

Short Essay Questions

1. During their argument in Act Two, Scene Three, what does Eric have to say about Toby's writing?

2. During Eric's birthday brunch, how does Jason 1 turn a nostalgic conversation about the past into a conversation about future goals?

3. In the hallway after brunch, when Eric tries to be self-deprecating after Walter compliments him, how does Walter respond?

4. What is the main point of the poem fragment "Hidden" that serves as the book's epigraph?

5. What is at the heart of Eric's nostalgia for the gay community's past?

6. After Leo leaves Toby's apartment, what surprising information does Young Man 1 reveal, and how do Morgan and Toby react?

7. How do Charles and Paul's attitudes in the hallway after Eric's brunch foreshadow their actions at the end of Act Two?

8. What medication is Tristan taking, and why is it brought up in the context of positive changes for the gay community?

9. How does Toby embarrass himself when he is staying at Henry Wilcox's house?

10. How does the opening of Act Two foreshadow trouble in Eric and Toby's relationship?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do the ghostly figures at the farmhouse relate to the play's messages about community, storytelling, and inheritance? How do the ghosts' identities matter--their membership in community, their generation, and the manner of their deaths? How does their location matter? Why do they appear to Eric, and why all together? What do Eric's actions relative to these men and their stories signify? Write an essay that analyzes how the ghostly figures support the play's ideas about the importance of community and storytelling and that shows how these ideas relate to the play's conception of "inheritance." Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

How effectively does Lopez use dramatic tension to keep the reader engaged? As you read the play, do you feel invested in knowing how obstacles will be overcome and whether the characters will achieve their goals? Do you eagerly push forward to find answers to questions that Lopez creates and see how characters will resolve their conflicts? How does the metatheatrical nature of the play interact with its dramatic tension? How do the commentary and actions of the Young Men and Morgan heighten or diffuse dramatic tension? Does the play's humor heighten or diffuse its dramatic tension? Choose a single act of the play, from either of the play's two parts, and write an essay that explicates and evaluates Lopez's use of dramatic tension in that act.

Essay Topic 3

The Inheritance is very much a play about a narrow segment of New York's gay community at a particular historical moment. How does this specificity in its setting impact the universality of the play's message? What part of New York's gay community is centered in this play, and which members of the community are marginalized? How does the play attempt to remediate this marginalization, and is it successful in these attempts? Do the concerns of the characters in this play, and the play's ultimate message, translate to other gay communities across the nation and the world? Does the play have a message that is more universally applicable to persecuted communities, or does its theme apply only to members of the gay community? Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the universality of the theme of The Inheritance. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the play.

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