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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. How long has Valmont spent seducing Madame de Tourvel?
2. How does Merteuil increase sympathy for herself?
3. What does Merteuil worry about Madame de Volanges?
4. What does Danceny entrust to Madame de Rosemonde?
5. What does Danceny do to Merteuil, as reported by Madame de Volanges in letter 168?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Madame de Volanges respond to Cécile's depression?
2. Describe Madame de Tourvel's dictated, unaddressed letter which Madame de Volanges sends to Madame de Rosemonde.
3. What happens between Valmont and Madame de Tourvel that shocks and angers Valmont, and why does he react so strongly?
4. How does Danceny explain his behavior to Madame de Rosemonde?
5. Describe what Valmont does when he gets the key to Cécile's room.
6. Describe Merteuil's warning to Valmont about his reputation in Paris.
7. Summarize Merteuil's tale of her ruination of Prévan's.
8. What news of Valmont does Madame de Rosemonde give Madame de Tourvel, and how does Madame de Tourvel react?
9. How does Merteuil respond to Cécile's news about Valmont's actions?
10. What does Valmont vow about his seduction of Madame de Tourvel, and how does he plan to carry out his plan?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the theme of nature and artifice, especially with reference to Cécile, Danceny, Merteuil, and Valmont. What are the natural personalities, interests, motivations, and moralities of these characters? How do they consciously or unconsciously change themselves to show their own or others' various desires? Are nature and artifice associated with any kind of moral message in the novel? How does Merteuil's letter 81, in which she offers the story of her youth and her sexual education, complicate the distinctions between nature and artifice? When do Cécile and Danceny exhibit artificial behavior? How are nature and artifice made ambiguous in Valmont's seduction of Madame de Tourvel?
Essay Topic 2
Analyze the changes in Cecile's character throughout the novel. What characteristics define her in the beginning, middle, and end of the story? Closely analyze Cécile's letters to Sophie, looking for language and phrasing which indicates how she feels about her relationships with others. This includes her thoughts on marriage, her relationship with her mother, her feelings for Danceny, and her friendship with Merteuil. How does her language and her style of writing help define Cécile's character? Why does she stop writing to Sophie? Why is Cécile's voice almost completely absent through the last portions of the novel? What does this conspicuous absence say about her identity, or lack thereof? What control, if any, does Cécile retain over her own life? How does she use this control, or how do others (specifically Valmont) control her?
Essay Topic 3
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.
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This section contains 1,297 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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