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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 part of Marat's body does Corday she wants to see sweat as she draws her knife?

2. What mental affliction does the actor playing Marat have?

3. In Scene 10, what do the Singers mention is clogging the sewers?

4. In her Scene 7 song, Corday says that which two words meant different things to her and Marat?

5. What item does Corday want to buy after arriving into town in Scene 10?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the Herald characterize Sade?

2. What point about social status does the Herald make when he introduces the Singers?

3. What are Marat's grievances in his imaginary session with the imaginary National Assembly of Scene 27?

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

5. In 1793, what is the common people's attitude toward the new ruling class in France?

6. How has the role of Jacques Roux been changed by Coulmier?

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

8. What is the execution of Damiens and what does it signify to Sade?

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

10. How does the unrest begin in the Epilogue?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the great debate between Sade and Mart, Sade's viewpoint is more complex and ambiguous. As an aristocrat turned Revolutionary turned voice for political apathy, his worldview is strange and inwardly focused. Write an essay on etymology of this viewpoint. Why did Sade join the Revolution, and why was he repelled by it? What does he view as most important in life? What is his attitude toward violence and its place in society?

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

In the play-within-the-play, Sade has created a sort of spectrum from far-left (Roux) to the far-right (Corday). Where do all the major players in this play fall on this spectrum? What does each extreme of this spectrum want regarding France? What is its ideal society? Does Sade present both as equally dangerous in the play?

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