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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. Where on her body does Corday carry her knife?

2. What mimic do the patients perform in the background of Scene 11?

3. From what affliction does the actress playing Corday suffer?

4. To what does the Herald compare Marat's skin in Scene 4?

5. What are the children fighting over in the streets, according to Corday?

Short Essay Questions

1. What horrors does Corday witness in Scene 10?

2. What is the state of Marat's health in Scene 7?

3. How does the Herald calm Coulmier in Scene 11?

4. What final points does Coulmier make in the Epilogue?

5. What is Corday's primary fear regarding the revolution?

6. What are Sade's expectations of the Revolution, and are they realized?

7. Describe the argument Sade and Marat have regarding compassion.

8. What does Sade say in Scene 24 to appease Coulmier?

9. What interrupts the murder of Marat in Scene 31?

10. What do the apparitions of Scene 26 reveal about Marat?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Because The Marat/Sade consists of a play within a large play, the role of the audience is more ambiguous in the play than in a more traditional piece. Write an essay about this role, in three parts:

Part 1) Describe the audience that would have attended a Charenton performance in 1808. What is their social status? Why would they be in attendance? What is the purpose of the performance?

Part 2) Consider the subject matter of Sade's play from the point-of-view of the average 1808 audience member. What would their memories of the Revolution be? How would they feel, by and large, about Napoleon's France?

Part 3) Is the modern-day audience, to some extent, a participant in The Marat/Sade? How do the inmates fell of about their 1808 spectators, and how does the modern audience fill in for these spectators?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the worldview of Duperret and Corday. What do they describe as their ideal nation? How does the Paris of 1793 represent everything that both detest about social engineering? Why do you think this leads Charlotte Corday to take violent action but not Duperret?

Essay Topic 3

The Church is regarded with disdain by nearly everyone in The Marat/Sade. It is viewed as a useless institution at best and a perpetrator of oppression at worst. Write an essay about he place of the church in the play. How do Roux, Marat, and the ranting former abbot refer it it? Does Coulmier make any sort of compelling defense of it?

(see the answer keys)

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