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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 does Danceny resolve to do at the end of the novel?

2. What does Valmont teach Cécile when they are alone together?

3. What does Madame de Tourvel confess to Madame de Rosemonde?

4. What has been the effect of Madame de Tourvel's separation from Valmont?

5. What does Madame de Rosemonde advise Madame de Volanges do about Cécile?

Short Essay Questions

1. What event causes Madame de Tourvel to think Valmont does not love her? How does Valmont's respond?

2. Summarize the problem Madame de Tourvel sees preventing her and Valmont from having a relationship, and how Valmont circumvents her hesitation.

3. What does Valmont vow about his seduction of Madame de Tourvel, and how does he plan to carry out his plan?

4. What is Madame de Rosemonde's advice to Madame de Tourvel regarding her feelings for Valmont?

5. How does Merteuil respond to Cécile's news about Valmont's actions?

6. What arguments does Valmont use to convince Madame de Tourvel to see him?

7. What is the reward Valmont claims from Merteuil, and how does Merteuil respond to this?

8. Describe Valmont's response to Merteuil's affair with Danceny.

9. Describe what Valmont does when he gets the key to Cécile's room.

10. What is the content and tone of Danceny's letters to Merteuil?

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

Discuss the types of mediation present in the novel. This could include: characters who mediate other characters' thoughts, actions, and feelings; the "editor" of the novel mediating the reader's interaction with the story by his arrangement of letters and placement and wording of notes; and plot itself being mediated through the letters. In some instances, the plot twists back upon itself, repeats itself, or offered through different perspectives. What is the effect and significance of such mediation on the themes, symbolism, character development, and the response of the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the role of servants, doctors, confessors, and others of lower social standing as they seem in the novel. Do these barely visible characters have a voice, or any agency? What portions of the plot do they fill? Are there differences in Laclos' presentation of them through their letters, or through their reported interactions with more vocal characters? What potentially political role could they have in the novel--that is, can one interpret their presence, or lack thereof, as opposed to the presence and characterization of the high-society characters, as a political statement? How do members of the upper-class treat, speak to, or refer to members of the servant and lower classes?

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