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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 poem does Leo read aloud to Toby?

2. What moment described in Morgan's dialogue likely foreshadows difficulties in Eric and Toby's relationship?

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

4. What does Eric point to as the primary way culture is transmitted?

5. Where does Walter want Eric to go with him on the evening of Eric's birthday?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Toby accuse Morgan of in Act Three, Scene Four, and how does Morgan respond?

2. What secret does Morgan say Eric is keeping from everyone, and what is Morgan's belief about this secret?

3. In what sense does Adam feel he might have played a part in Eric and Toby's breakup?

4. Who is Tom Durrell, and how does he become significant in the Act Three, Scene One conversation between Toby and Adam?

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

6. When the play returns to Eric in Act Three, Scene Two, what are the various reasons that Eric is feeling bereft and alone?

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

8. Why does Young Man 1 turn to Morgan for help in the play's prologue?

9. When Adam reveals that he has been offered the Elan role in the Broadway production of Toby's play, how does Toby react, and why?

10. In Act Three, Scene Three, how does Toby's description of his life contrast with Morgan's commentary?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How much of a hero is Eric, really? In Part One of the play, other characters repeatedly comment about what an extraordinary person Eric is, even if he does not think so, himself. Then, in Part Two, Act Two, Lopez deliberately structures the action to create great sympathy for Leo, to show how most people marginalize him, and to cast Eric in the role of Leo's savior. When Eric finally makes his decision about the farmhouse at the end of Part Two, Act Two, he is in effect becoming the text's next "Walter." But can a countervailing argument be made that Eric has lived a life of privilege, talked a great deal about responsibility and sacrifice, and done little to back up his grand ideas with action until relatively late in life? How do Tristan and Jasper evaluate Eric's actions? How does Toby? Are their criticisms evidence that they are just bad judges of character, or is there merit to their claims? Write an essay in which you analyze how Lopez intends to depict Eric and then comment on the merits of that depiction in light of the text's messages about responsibility to the community. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

What claims is The Inheritance making about respect for history and its impact on the present? How do Eric's beliefs about stories and writing relate to these claims? How is Lopez's play itself a manifestation of these claims? Write an essay in which you trace the development of the text's thematic motif regarding respect for history and show how this motif is supported by Lopez's action in writing The Inheritance. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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