PLEASE WRITE YOUR NAME ON THE BACK OF THIS TEST PACKET ONLY.
I. IDENTIFICATIONS
Identify TWELVE of the
following items. Circle or cross out
the item you SKIP. Give the speaker,
author and title for each item and explain its importance. Spend
about twenty minutes on this part of the test.
(2 points for the importance, one point each for speaker, author and
title)
Hello? Oh, Biff! I’m so glad you called, I just . . . Yes, sure, I just told him. Yes, he’ll be there for dinner at six o’clock, I didn’t forget. Listen, I was just dying to tell you. You know that little rubber pipe I told you about? That he connected to the gas heater? I finally decided to go down the cellar this morning and take it away and destroy it. But it’s gone!
speaker
author
title
importance
Yes!—it is me, Albert!—who lost his memory and joined the force, rising by merit to the rank of Inspector, his past blotted out—until fate cast him back into the home he left behind, back to the beautiful woman he had brought here as his girlish bride—in short, my darling, my memory has returned and your long wait is over!
speaker
author
title
importance
I was going to say that I was headed to the movies in a little while, and . . .
speaker
author
title
importance
Do you refuse me, Antigone? I want to die with you:
I too have a duty that I must discharge to the dead.
speaker
author
title
importance
Yes. I’ve heard them. From other visitors—young—hotblooded—or old—who came here because they were told great glory was to be had by killing the witch in the woods.
speaker
author
title
importance
Anarchy, anarchy! Show me a greater evil!
This is why cities tumble and the great houses rain down,
This is what scatters armies!
No, no: good lives are made so by discipline.
We keep the laws then, and the lawmakers,
And no woman shall seduce us. If we must lose,
Let’s lose to a man, at least! Is a woman stronger than we?
speaker
author
title
importance
I ran down eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And in the middle of that office building, do you hear this? I stopped in the middle of the building and I saw—the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for?
speaker
author
title
importance
Hello . . . Oh, for God’s sake, Myrtle!—I’ve told you never to phone me at work! (He is naturally embarrassed, looking about with surreptitious fury.) What? Last night? Good God, woman, this is hardly the time to—I assure you, Myrtle, there is absolutely nothing going on between me and—
speaker
author
title
importance
Lead me away. I have been rash and foolish.
I have killed my son and my wife.
I look for comfort; my comfort lies here dead.
Whatever my hands have touched has come to nothing.
Fate has brought all my pride to a thought of dust.
speaker
author
title
importance
Like a young god. Hercules—something like that. And the sun, the sun all around him. Remember how he waved to me? Right up from the field, with the representatives of three colleges standing by?
speaker
author
title
importance
Yes—good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him—[Shivers.] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone. [Pauses, her eye falling on the cage.] I should think she would’a wanted a bird.
speaker
author
title
importance
Your edict, King, was strong,
But all your strength is weakness itself against
The immortal unrecorded laws of God.
speaker
author
title
importance
Yes, I should think my name is seldom off Puckeridge’s lips . . . sad, really. I mean, it’s no life at all, a stand-in’s stand-in.
speaker
author
title
importance
II. ESSAYS
Answer ONE of the questions
below. Include several main points in
your answer. I am looking not for one
right answer but a good argument in support of your position with as many
references as you can supply to specific incidents in the reading you’ve
done. Be specific, providing details
from the plays.
Writing errors count against you, so write and proofread carefully. Spend about thirty minutes on your essay, writing at least two full pages. (40 points)
1. Which characters in Antigone and Death of a Salesman do you think express the strongest emotions? Why? How do these emotions affect the plots of the plays?
2. Discuss specific instances of deception and misjudgment in TWO of the plays. How do the deception and misjudgments relate to the outcomes of the plays?
3. What deaths occurred in THREE of the plays? How? Whom do you consider to be responsible for the deaths? Why?
4. Discuss THREE similarities between the characters and themes of Trifles and Antigone, and explain TWO differences between the plays.
5. Antigone should be named Creon, Death of a Salesman should be named Inside His Head, and The Real Inspector Hound should be named The Real Albert. Agree or disagree with these claims by discussing specific details in the three plays.
6. Discuss the symbolic objects in any THREE of the plays. What are the objects, and what do they symbolize in the plays? Are they essential to the plays or do they seem to you to be unnecessary?