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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. Who is the first slave to Nature's laws?

2. Why did Beauvoir state that Sade "mistrusted everything and everybody"?

3. In what year was Sade imprisoned for debt?

4. What was Voltaire's purpose in writing?

5. What kind of opinions does an author hold when they contradict their own views?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Villeterque state that Sade held "erroneous opinions"?

2. Why did Sade state that he did not want to make vice attractive in his writings?

3. According to Sade, how did Villeterque use "out of context isolated phrases"?

4. According to Beauvoir, what was Sade like at the age of twenty-three?

5. What two things does the "arranger" believe Florville has that count against her?

6. What does Courval do to find a new wife?

7. What did Sade believe regarding motion?

8. What did Klossowski state that Sade believed regarding "Nature in a state of perpetual motion"?

9. Why is Courval considering remarrying?

10. Why did Villeterque state that he would only address one of the questions that Sade posed in "Reflections on the Novel"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Women have fought over Sade's writing. Angela Carter ("The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography" (1979)) believed Sade to be a "moral pornographer." Andrea Dworkin ("Pornography: Men Possessing Women" (1979)) saw Sade as the model of the "woman-hating pornographer." With whom do you agree? Did Sade hate women, or did he create a "special place" for women in the lives of men?

Essay Topic 2

Although Sade was an atheist, do you think that he believed himself to be "god-like" or divine? What qualities did he show that would cause one to believe that Sade carried himself like a god? Or, do you believe that Sade thought himself to be simply mortal? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Why do you believe that the "Passions" moved from "complex" to "criminal" to "murderous"? What was the progression? What changed as the "Passions" progressed? Why do you believe the "Passions" changed?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 734 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample