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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 is the only thing that Madame de Saint-Ange claims to want from her brother?

2. Which of the following is not a way Romans and Greeks honored their gods, according to the pamphleteer?

3. According to Dolmance in this section, what do sodomites pride themselves on?

4. At the end of Frenchmen, Some More Effort if You Wish to Become Republicans, the author calls on France to become a beacon of what?

5. Which of the following acts is not enacted in The Bedroom Philosophers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What transpires at the end of the Fifth Dialogue?

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. How could The Bedroom Philosophers be viewed as satire?

5. What argument does Dolmance regarding the human heart in the beginning of this section?

6. In the Fifth Dialogue, what does Dolmance explain about the law to Eugenie?

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

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

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

10. How does Dolmance explain his vile character in this section?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much of the trajectory of The Bedroom Philosophers involves the increasingly deviant sexual endeavors of the libertines. Write a three-part essay about this trajectory, discussing the purpose of this evolution:

Part 1) Why do Dolmance, Chevalier and Madame de Saint-Ange plot the seduction of Eugenie? What lessons do they teach her in the early dialogues, and how do these sexual acts connect to the libertine lifestyle? What does Eugenie learn about this worldview? How does she react, and how does she change?

Part 2) At the end of the Fifth Dialogue, the libertines engage in increasingly deviant sexual behavior. Discuss the acts they engage in immediately after the reading of the pamphlet. How does Dolmance justify his vulgarity and extremity? What is the libertine's purpose in being especially disgusting in sexual acts?

Part 3) Discuss the meaning behind the gang-rape and torture of Madame de Mistival. How is this a culmination of the libertines lessons? How has Eugenie changed over the course of the novel? What has she renounces in the proceedings and how does her violation of her own mother serve as a compact with Dolmance's worldview?

Essay Topic 2

The Bedroom Philosophers is presented in the form of a series of dialogues in two rooms, almost like a play. In a three-part essay, discuss the use of offstage characters to relate information. In what for do these unseen characters appear? What do we learn from these characters? Why are they not present in the boudoir?

Part 1) V.

Part 2) Eugenie's father.

Part 3) The unnamed pamphleteer.

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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