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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. Which what is Marat's tub filling in Scene 8?
2. What is Coulmier's official position?
3. In the beginning of Scene 6, a patient claims that all are free and equal to do what?
4. What apologia does Coulmier make in his Scene 2 speech?
5. What historical figure did Damiens try to assassinate?
Short Essay Questions
1. What satirical argument does Sade make about the aristocracy at the end of this section?
2. In Scene 8, how does Marat explain that the expectations of the Revolution proved faulty?
3. What do the apparitions of Scene 26 reveal about Marat?
4. What is the nature of Marat's life in 1793?
5. Explain the message of the song Poor Old Marat in Scene 21.
6. What point about social status does the Herald make when he introduces the Singers?
7. How does Roux respond to Marat in Scene 26?
8. How does the unrest begin in the Epilogue?
9. Why does Coulmier stop the play in Scene 6?
10. How does the actress playing Corday nearly ruin the play in Scene 9?
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
In Weiss's play, sex and violence are intertwined in a way such that one cannot exist without the other. Write an essay on this inextricable link, focusing on these three points:
Part 1) How does Charlotte Corday represent the perfect balance of sexuality and destruction? How does her plan to murder Marat hinge on her sexual allure? How does her religious fervor play to both of these attributes?
Part 2) The Marquis de Sade was infamous for his linking of sex and violence in his writing. How does the Sade of Weiss's play explain this fascination? What is his attitude to either sex or violence individually?
Part 3) Focusing on Sade's speech to Marat before Corday's third visit, discuss both sex and violence as driving forces both in the play and the play-within-the play.
Essay Topic 3
The Marat/Sade is an inherently grotesque piece. It lingers in the dark, violent, and perverse places of human experience. Write an essay about Weiss's use of the grotesque in the play. How do the inmates, Sade, and the time period of the play-within-the-play reflect the grotesque? What is Weiss calling horrific in nature? Subjugation? Revolution? Life in general?
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This section contains 951 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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