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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 is Toby's play called?

2. What news does Henry arrive with during Eric and Toby's fight?

3. What movie does Adam suggest that he, Toby, and Eric watch together?

4. According to Walter, what is Henry's attitude toward their relationship?

5. What is implied by Toby's dialogue while Adam is in the shower in Act One, Scene Two?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is ironic about Jason 2's question to Walter about whether Walter worries about what will happen if Henry dies first?

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

3. How does the proposed beginning of Young Man 1's story echo the opening of one of Morgan's books?

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

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

6. When Walter comes to the apartment for dinner, what similarity do he and Eric recognize in their relationships?

7. 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?

8. What is in the bag that Adam brings to Eric's apartment during the birthday party, and how does Toby explain the bag's contents?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do the life experiences of the younger generation portrayed in The Inheritance differ from the life experiences of older men like Walter and Henry? How has this impacted their understanding of themselves and the wider gay community in New York? How does this understanding of community impact their behavior and choices? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about how the lived experiences of the older and younger generations in this play impact their relationship to the gay community and their own identity as gay men. Show how this difference illuminates the larger meaning of the play. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the play.

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

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.

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