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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. Why does Molloy say he did not slit his wrists after leaving Lousse’s?

2. What does Molloy say his identity was wrapped in?

3. What does Molloy say his mother smelled like?

4. What does Molloy say he had to circumvent, to get to his mother?

5. Who does Molloy say he thought might be one and the same person?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Molloy say are the principles he lives by?

2. How does Molloy say he and his mother refer to each other?

3. What offer does Lousse make to Molloy?

4. What is the difference between the Molloy who is writing and the Molloy who was living through the experiences Molloy writes?

5. What is it that Molloy finds noxious about his mother?

6. What does Molloy say keeps him going?

7. What is Molloy’s distinction between death and being put to death?

8. Where did Molloy take shelter after leaving Lousse’s place?

9. What new debility did Molloy experience after his time at the seashore?

10. Why does Molloy say that his previous attempts at suicide were unsuccessful?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate your own reading of Molloy—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 2

Molloy is a book in which Beckett has created a world for his character to live in, but it is a world that only sometimes resembles our world of experiences and observations. What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a whole world for a character, with rules that apply only to that world, and are not even always explained? Is this an ultimately fruitful enterprise for Beckett, or does the artificiality of the enterprise work against him? Take a position on one side or the other.

Essay Topic 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of living the way Molloy lives, naïve, ignorant, alert, self-critical? What does Beckett tell us about our own lives, by writing such an odd character? Is he an everyman, or a freak? Is he telling us important things we ought to know about ourselves, or is he warning us against the intellectual and spiritual processes that led him to be the person he is? Is he just an oddity, or a philosophically serious character, showing us something we do not see often?

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