View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Eric and Toby meet at a bar, what does Toby confess to Eric?

2. What does Toby offer Leo in the note that he leaves for Leo?

3. What is the name of the farmhouse's caretaker?

4. What is Toby's follow-up play called?

5. What does Leo realize about Toby when he gets to Toby's theater?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Henry's vague communication about Eric's belongings cause to happen at the farmhouse?

2. What is ironic about Henry's comments about giving the farmhouse to Walter during the reenacted scene between Young Henry and Young Walter in Act Two, Scene Two?

3. How does Henry's real reason for refusing sexual intimacy with Eric contrast with the reason he gave Eric at the beginning of their relationship?

4. How did the move to a new state and new school impact Toby's self-image, and why?

5. What is the subtext of Adam and Toby's argument about the new line Toby has added to the play?

6. What does the farmhouse caretaker say is the reason that so many gay men died during the AIDS epidemic?

7. How did Henry's fear during the AIDS epidemic end up robbing him of his ability to truly love another man?

8. What memory is Toby recreating when he pressures Leo into attending the parties during their summer trip, and how does the reader know this?

9. What regrets did Michael's mother have about his death, and what did she do to ease her conscience?

10. Who was Edward Carpenter, and how did he inspire Maurice?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What thematic motifs of The Inheritance are enhanced by the play's metatheatrical elements? How does reminding the audience that they are watching a play support what the play is trying to say about writers and the importance of storytelling? What do these elements have to do with the idea of community that the play is trying to convey? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the thematic significance of the play's metatheatrical elements. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have finished the play, you have seen the Young Men both take part in and comment on the play's action in a variety of ways. What does it mean that they are both characters and narrators in this play? What does it mean that many of them play several different characters? Which play only one character, and what is the significance of this? Why are they initially identified as "Young Men" rather than "Chorus" or some other term? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about the significance of the Young Men to the play's overall meaning. Defend your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the play. If you use outside sources, be sure to cite these in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,357 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample