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. Why does Valmont think it possible to seduce this woman?

2. Who is the author of the Editor's Preface?

3. What advice does Valmont give to Madame de Tourvel?

4. What ruse does Valmont use to attempt to secretly rifle through Madame de Tourvel's letters?

5. What does "libertine" generally refer to in 18th-century France?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Madame de Tourvel respond to Valmont's first love letter?

2. What does Merteuil assert is the reason women become "victims" of seduction?

3. How does Merteuil respond to Valmont's warning?

4. What event causes Cécile and Danceny to despair? What are the immediate results?

5. Summarize Prévan's "legendary" feat of seduction according to Valmont.

6. Describe Cécile's relationship with Merteuil.

7. What does Madame de Volanges say about Valmont to warn Madame de Tourvel against becoming too friendly with him?

8. Describe Cécile de Volanges.

9. What was Choderlos de Laclos' position in society? Describe his family life.

10. What are Merteuil and Valmont's plans for Danceny and Cécile at the beginning of Part II?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Think of the form of this work is an epistolary novel. Do the letters themselves symbolize anything? Danceny writes in letter 150 that "a letter is the portrait of the soul." What does it mean to correspond with another person, and how is it carried out? How does reading an epistolary influence your experience with communication, character relationships, people, dialogue, and so on in a novel? Do the letters serve any purpose besides as a vehicle to express the plot of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze Merteuil's relationship with Cécile. What does the older woman do to influence the younger woman? How does Merteuil define Cécile? What are Merteuil's motivations in making Cécile her "protégé?" How does Merteuil manipulate and control Cécile's life and her personal character in ways both visible and invisible to Cécile, to her mother, and to Danceny? Use evidence from Cécile's letters to and about Merteuil, and Merteuil's letters to and about Cécile, to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 3

Examine the aspect of Valmont's character that has to do with his feelings for Madame de Tourvel and his feelings for Merteuil. What does he profess to feel for them both, and what does it seem that he actually feels? How does he use language and tone to express these feelings to them and about them? What do his actions around each woman, or having to do with each woman, say about his real feelings for them? Discuss this aspect of Valmont's character as a function of the tension between public and private morality and persona.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,008 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample