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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. At the beginning of the Fifth Dialogue, how long does Madame de Saint-Ange say she has been trying to break Augustin?

2. What arrives in the boudoir at the beginning of the Sixth Dialogue?

3. Why does Dolmance decry marriage in particular?

4. What is the essential value of murder, according to the author of Frenchmen, Some More Effort if You Wish to Become Republicans?

5. According to Madame de Saint-Ange, what are the only crimes a braggart does not confess to?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Dolmance expound on marriage in this section, and what does he say?

2. How does sexual fluid give way to blood at the beginning of the Fifth Dialogue?

3. What is the only true connection between two people, according to Dolmance in this section?

4. What arrives for the libertines in the Sixth Dialogue?

5. What argument for the pamphleteer offer regarding death and capital punishment?

6. How does Eugenie's reaction to her mother in the beginning of the Final Dialogue reflect a change in her character?

7. Why is marriage unpatriotic, according to the author?

8. What proclamation regarding crime does Dolmance make at the beginning of this section?

9. What is the cumulative value of madame de Saint-Ange's inundation in the Fifth Dialogue?

10. How is the very end of The Bedroom Philosophers incongruous with what preceded it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the pamphlet Chevalier reads in the Fifth Dialogue, an unnamed author refutes the notion that laws are necessary for public order. Over the course of the pamphlet, he disproves the harmful effects of many crimes. Write an essay about three of these crimes. Why does the author state that they are not harmful? What positive effects do they have? What societal changes does the author recommend in harnessing this good?

Part 1) Slander

Part 2) Rape and incest

Part 3) Murder

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay on the topic of phalli in The Bedroom Philosophers. Discuss the order in which phalli are introduced in the narrative and how one tops the other. How are Dolmance, Chevalier, Augustin and Lapierre's phalli all put to different uses? What are the women's reactions to each? Analyzing the use of phalli in the text, determine what they represent in the world of the novel? Excess? Pleasure? Death?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the character of the Chevalier. What is his connection to Dolmance, and what role does he play in the education of Eugenie? Discuss his part in plotting the various outrages against her virtue. How is he instrumental in bringing all of the major characters together into one boudoir? Discuss, also, the Chevalier's surprising outrage at the lack of compassion Dolmance displays? How does he become the most loving of the libertines?

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