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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 advice does Madame de Volanges ask of Merteuil?

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

3. What does Merteuil advise Cécile to do after being raped by Valmont?

4. What does Danceny entrust to Madame de Rosemonde?

5. What is the reason for Valmont's seduction of Madame de Tourvel, according to what Valmont tells Merteuil in letter 133?

Short Essay Questions

1. What subterfuge does Valmont suggest to Cécile in order to get Danceny's letters to her?

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

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

4. Whom does Valmont enlist to help him communicate and meet with Madame de Tourvel? How does this person respond?

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

6. How does Madame de Volanges respond to Cécile's depression?

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

8. What is Merteuil's next plan for seduction? How does Valmont react?

9. What is the general content of the letter Azolan, Valmont's valet, writes to Valmont?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role that religion, church, and the clergy have in the novel. How does each character treat, refer to, or interact with religion, faith and morality? Explain the reasoning behind the following categorizations of the main characters, based upon the characters' views on, or influence from, religion: Merteuil and Valmont; Madames de Rosemonde, de Volanges, and de Tourvel; Cécile and Danceny.

Essay Topic 3

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?

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