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This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. For what purpose does Carr propose that he and Cecily go to lunch?

2. According to Bennett in this section, what are the new odds against Lenin's success?

3. Which of the following is not a specific art movement that Lenin decries as incomprehensible in this section?

4. Why does Cecily forgive Carr's outburst in the library in this section?

5. Which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is not mentioned in the section?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Tom Stoppard is a linguist, perhaps the most adventurous linguist of the modern theatre. Language plays a major part in Travesties, though the play is all in English. Write an essay analyzing the major forms the writing takes, focusing on four forms: Witty Farce, Docudrama, Modern Debate, and Limericks. When dos each form occur in the play? What characters or topics are invariably involved with each form? Does one form generally follow another?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the character of James Joyce. He is one of the most enigmatic characters in the play, but he has one of the deepest verifiable relationships with Henry Carr. The first half of the essay should concern his art. How does Ulysses fulfill a primal need that he has for literature? What special significance does he assign to the character of Odysseus? The second half should concern his attitude toward money. To what extent does indebtedness and miserliness plague his association with Carr? Is it possible that these attributes may be a creation of Carr the storyteller?

Essay Topic 3

Travesties is a homage and subversion of Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest. He steals certain characters and scenes outright and transposes them to a different era. Write an essay about the connection between these two plays in three parts:

Part 1) The two love interests in The Importance of Being Earnest are also called Cecily and Gwendolen. They, too, have odd caveats for their love. What conditions do the two women give in this play regarding their hearts and how do they reflect a world in flux?

Part 2) Mistaken identity plays a major role in Wilde's farce like in Stoppard's. Why do characters in Travesties assume false identities? What is the meaning of the switched folders? How do both represent something more political than personal?

Part 3) Earnest is a product of the Victorian Era, an era of certitude and stricture. Travesties transposes this story to the Edwardian era, when certainty died in the trenches. How does Stoppard undermine Wilde's pat farce injecting it with the madness of the First World War?

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This section contains 495 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample