View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which famous Revolutionary figure does Marat accuse of turning white at the mention of force?

2. What affliction of Marat does the Schoolmaster mock in Scene 26?

3. Why do the people love Marat, according to Sade in the beginning of Scene 20?

4. Who interrupts the song several times during the Epilogue?

5. Which of the following is something that Coulmier claims is absent in 1808?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In The Marat/Sade, Peter Weiss creates a compelling dynamic for his cast: many of his cast members are mentally disturbed, and their psychological infirmities affect their roles in the play-within-the-play. Write an essay on this dynamic in three parts:

Part 1) What is the infirmity of the actor playing Marat? How does this infirmity make him particularly appropriate for the role? How does this infirmity limit his movement on the stage?

Part 2) What is Charlotte Corday's ailment? How does this affect her ability to play her role in the play-within-the-play? How do the other characters onstage interact with her?

Part 3) What is Duperret's mental infirmity? How does this affect his interaction with Corday? How does the Herald deal with him in his scene's with Corday?

Essay Topic 2

In The Marat/Sade, several characters dominate the proceeding without ever speaking a line. These figures represent a authority int he play. How does their appearance reflect something more gentle than their function? What is their function within the role of the bathhouse? How is their true nature revealed in the final moments of the play?

Part 1) The male nurses

Part 2) The sisters

Part 3) Coulmier's family

Essay Topic 3

The point-of-view of the play-within-the-play in The Marat/Sade is transitory in nature. Write an essay about the various points-of-view, focusing on the following three points:

Part 1) Most of the cast of Sade's play represent the poor of France, led in their songs by the four Singers. To what extent is the play told from the point-of-view of the common rabble? What is their position on the events of the play?

Part 2) How does the cadence and tone of the play-within-the-play change as Marat's mental state and health deteriorate? How is the play a chronicle of his final hours, his doubts, and his anger at the Establishment?

Part 3) To what extent is the play exclusively Sade's perspective on Marat's life and work? What is his position on the radical revolutionary, and how does he present this view in the play?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 443 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample