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

Short Answer Questions

1. How much money does Carr end up giving Joyce in this section?

2. According to a speech at the Zurich People's House in 1917, what does Lenin think his role will be in the major battles of the Russian Revolution?

3. During his introduction in the beginning of this section, what is the only thing that Carr says he knows of Joyce?

4. What Shakespearean lady has Carr played at Eton?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

The central story of Travesties is a love story involving two couples, but it is driven in large part by the British desire to keep tabs on Lenin. Write an essay about Carr's mission to prevent Lenin's passage into Russia. How does he initially react to the assignment as related and elucidated by Bennett? Why does it bring him into contact with Cecily? In the end, why does Carr have such difficulty following through with his assignment?

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