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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. Where on his body was Carr wounded in the war?

2. According to the Bolsheviks, how long should the bourgeois-capitalist democracy last in Russia?

3. What does the British government request of Carr int his section?

4. In what year does Carr recall he was acquainted with Joyce, Lenin, and Tzara?

5. Bennett, at the end of this section, says that the British believe the most important Russian leader is still whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Lenin's aversion to career artists.

2. How does Bennett describe Tzara?

3. What ridiculous statement does Old Carr make about his connection to Lenin?

4. How does Henry Carr dismiss the writings of Marx in this section?

5. Why does Tzara have two names?

6. How did Tristan Tzara discover the word Dada?

7. What admonition does Carr make to the audience regarding his memory at the end of the act?

8. What warning does Carr give Tzara regarding the Bolsheviks int his section?

9. How does Carr explain Tzara's appearance?

10. What caveat does Cecily have for loving Carr/Tristan?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the character of Bennett. He is far an away the most cultivated and best-informed person in the play, but he is a manservant. Stoppard, in his cast notes, says that he should be "quite a weighty presence" (vii). What is Bennett's function int he script at the beginning of the play? How does Carr's leaving him in charge of the consulate affect Lenin's situation? What new revelations about his character are revealed in the final moments of the play?

Essay Topic 2

Lenin is more object than subject in Travesties. He is a commodity desired and detested severally through the play. Write an essay about his character. The first half of this essay should deal primarily with other characters' attitudes toward him. Why is he lionized by some and feared by others? How does his attempt to depart Switzerland force certain characters into awkward positions? The second half should deal with his personality and soul as described by Nadya. How does Lenin view the world, and how does this view lend itself to the embracing of Marxism?

Essay Topic 3

Tristan Tzara is the contrarian of Travesties. He seems to lash out at all set values, just as Dada as a movement lashed out at accepted artistic norms. Focusing on his defamation of beauty, reason, and causality, write an essay about the character of Tzara. Why does he lash out at both Joyce and Carr? How does he connect the violence of the First World War to the art that came before Dada? Why, in the end, is he able to woo Gwendolen?

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