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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a consequence of love?
(a) The stronger the love, the less absurd it is.
(b) It is impossible to assess because every relationship is different.
(c) Marriage and children.
(d) The stronger the love, the stronger the absurdity.

2. Commonly, what concerns Dostoevsky's heroes?
(a) Whether or not evil people should be permitted to live.
(b) The meaning of life.
(c) The morality of suicide.
(d) Whether or not love and loyalty can endure.

3. What kind of thought is involved in the absurd?
(a) Rational.
(b) Lateral.
(c) Creative.
(d) Contradictory.

4. What has Camus to say about 'great revolutions'?
(a) They never last.
(b) They take us into a sure future.
(c) They are always metaphysical.
(d) They are always metatextual.

5. In what way is a modern worker similar to Sisyphus?
(a) The tasks they have to do are too hard for them.
(b) The worker spends every day at the same tasks.
(c) The worker is forbidden to innovate.
(d) The worker is a slave like Sisyphus.

Short Answer Questions

1. What factors ought to underpin discussion of the meaning of life?

2. Why are European cemeteries hideous?

3. What is Camus' view concerning the idea that the artist can be detached from his work?

4. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?

5. What is the hero's great fear following his transformation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Nietzsche mean when he says 'Great problems are in the street'?

2. Why is Sisyphus completely appropriate as the absurd hero?

3. In what ways is Sisyphus a rebel?

4. According to Camus, what is the one serious problem for philosophy?

5. In mentioning the Diary (p. 100 of the Penguin edition), to what does Camus draw attention?

6. In an absurd universe, are all actions permitted?

7. What is particularly interesting and unusual about Sisyphus and his paradoxical happiness in his fate?

8. Why does Camus call Prometheus the 'first of modern conquerors'?

9. According to Camus, what must we take into consideration when reading the works of Franz Kafka?

10. What were Sisyphus's sins against the gods, for which he was punished?

(see the answer keys)

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