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Which of these European playwrights was a staunch Marxist?
This dramatist is Brecht, and his lifelong Marxist leanings were often visible in his aesthetics. His works include plays such as Mother Courage and Her Children, The Threepenny Opera, and Man Equals Man. He and his wife also co-founded and operated the Berliner Ensemble, an important post-war German theater company.
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Which of the following playwrights did not write work belonging to the Theatre of the Absurd?
Only Tennessee Williams did not write absurdist plays emphasizing the meaninglessness of human existence. (The Theatre of the Absurd was a primarily European phenomenon, and Williams was American.)
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Who of the following is not a Caribbean playwright?
Wole Solinka is a dramatist, but he is from Nigeria, not the Caribbean. He is the first African recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and his plays, which feature colonialism and African politics, include Death and the King’s Horsemen, Kongi’s Harvest, and A Dance of the Forests.
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Who of the following is not an African dramatist?
While Jean Rhys is a renowned writer, she is Dominican and not African. Moreover, she was known for writing novels (including Wide Sargasso Sea and After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie) and not plays.
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What is the subject of the play A Doll’s House?
Written by Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House concerns what the playwright considered to be the constricting aspects of marriage, motherhood, female domesticity, and public reputation versus private morality. The work is a tragedy and takes place in Ibsen’s native Norway in the late nineteenth century.
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Which of these ancient Greek playwrights was not a tragedian?
The only one of these playwrights who did not write tragedies is Aristophanes, the comedian. His most famous works include Lysistrata, The Frogs, and The Clouds.
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Which of the following works is set in ancient Thebes?
Oedipus Rex concerns the character Oedipus, who kills King Laius of Thebes and marries Queen Jocasta, thus unknowingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would slay his father and marry his mother. This play is set in Thebes, an important ancient city in Greece.
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Which of the following plays is set in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens?
The play is Aristophanes’s comedy Lysistrata, which concerns a group of Athenian women who withhold sex from their lovers in order to bring an end to the Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta, another ancient Greek city-state. Athens was renowned in the Greek world for being a center of culture and learning, and today it contains many important cultural ruins and archaeological sites. It was the home of many luminaries: the philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the playwrights Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Aristophanes; the orator Pericles; and the historians Herodotus and Thucydides, to name just a handful.
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Which of the following plays is set in the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth?
The play in question is Euripides’ tragedy Medea, which concerns the eponymous wife of Jason and Jason's marriage to a princess of Corinth. Medea, who is considered a barbarian, is told by Jason that she is worthy to be his mistress but not his wife. In response, Medea slays the Corinthian princess, the king, and her own children in order to agonize Jason. Corinth, located about halfway between warring Athens and Sparta, was one of the largest cities of ancient Greece, and its inhabitants were the original audience of the Christian Bible’s books Corinthians 1 and 2.
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Which of the following ancient Greek works does not contain overt feminist elements or a strong female character?
Lysistrata is about a group of women who withhold sex in order to bring about political change. Medea is about a strong woman who kills her children as well as a king and princess to protest her unjust treatment at the hands of Jason, her husband. The Oresteia features several strong women who also kill in their quest for vengeance: Clytemnestra murders her husband (Agamemnon), and Electra murders her mother (Clytemnestra). While The Odyssey mostly concerns the travels and adventures of the male hero Odysseus, a subplot concerns Odysseus’s wife Penelope, who uses her wits to stave off prospective suitors until her husband returns home. In Oedipus Rex, we have Jocasta, a weak female character whose ignorance and passivity help lead to the downfall of the royal family.
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The ancient Greek character of Tiresias appears all but which of the following works?
Tiresias, the paradoxically blind but all-seeing prophet, does not appear in Lysistrata. He is featured in the other works, which are plays by Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides.
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German playwright Friedrich Schiller was a contemporary of and corresponded with which fellow countryman?
Schiller, who wrote Wilhelm Tell, The Maid of Orleans, and the Wallenstein trilogy as well as the words to Beethoven’s famous “Ode to Joy,” was friends and rivals with the German writer Goethe. Together, the two helped lead the artistic movement known as Weimar Classicism.
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
Who is the author of this play?
This is Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879), one of his most famous plays. The work is a critique of 19th-century social conventions (particularly marriage and family life).
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
In what historical setting was this play first performed?
The play was first performed in Denmark in 1879. Although fin de siècle generally encompasses the 1880s and 1890s, Ibsen’s play is a hallmark of that era’s pessimism and cynicism.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
The author of this play also wrote all but which of the following plays?
The Bear (1888) is a one-act comedy by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov. The Wild Duck (1884), Hedda Gabler (1891), Peer Gynt (1876), and An Enemy of the People (1882) are all written by Henrik Ibsen.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879)._
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
What country is the author of this play from?
Henrik Ibsen was born in Telemark, Norway in 1828. Although he lived most of his adult life in Italy and Germany, Ibsen died in Norway in 1906.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
Which of the following is a character in this play?
Hedvig Ekdal, Mrs. Sørby, Greger Welre, and Molvik are all Ibsen characters, but they all appear in The Wild Duck (1885)and not A Doll’s House. The main characters of A Doll’s House are Nora Helmer, Torvald Helmer, Nils Krogstad, and Christine Linde.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).
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NORA: Hide the Christmas Tree carefully, Helen. Be sure the children do not see it until this evening, when it is dressed. (To the PORTER, taking out her purse.) How much?
PORTER: Sixpence.
NORA: There is a shilling. No, keep the change. (The PORTER thanks her, and goes out. NORA shuts the door. She is laughing to herself, as she takes off her hat and coat. She takes a packet of macaroons from her pocket and eats one or two; then goes cautiously to her husband's door and listens.) Yes, he is in. (Still humming, she goes to the table on the right.)
HELMER: (calls out from his room). Is that my little lark twittering out there?
NORA: (busy opening some of the parcels). Yes, it is!
HELMER: Is it my little squirrel bustling about?
NORA: Yes!
HELMER: When did my squirrel come home?
NORA: Just now. (Puts the bag of macaroons into her pocket and wipes her mouth.) Come in here, Torvald, and see what I have bought.
HELMER: Don’t disturb me. (A little later, he opens the door and looks into the room, pen in hand.) Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little spendthrift been wasting money again?
Which of the following plays does not feature a similar central theme?
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)and the aptly named Marriage Play (1995), Anton Chekhov’s A Marriage Proposal (1890), and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) all concern stifling romantic relationships and dramatize the social constraints of marriage, as does Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Only Friedrich Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell (1804) does not focus on marriage, instead casting an artistic eye on the life of famous Swiss marksman Wilhelm Tell, and more generally on the Swiss struggle for independence in the 15th Century.
Passage adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879).
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ARKADINA (From inside the house): Boris! Boris!
TRIGORIN: She is calling me, probably to come and pack, but I don't want to leave this place. (His eyes rest on the lake) What a blessing such beauty is!
NINA: Do you see that house there, on the far shore?
TRIGORIN: Yes.
NINA: That was my dead mother's home. I was born there, and have lived all my life beside this lake. I know every little island in it.
TRIGORIN: This is a beautiful place to live. (He catches sight of the dead seagull) What is that?
NINA: A gull. Constantine shot it.
TRIGORIN: What a lovely bird! Really, I can't bear to go away. Can't you persuade Irina to stay? (He writes something in his notebook.)
Who wrote this play?
This passage was adapted from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896). The play remains one of the most commonly staged of Chekhov's works.
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ARKADINA (From inside the house): Boris! Boris!
TRIGORIN: She is calling me, probably to come and pack, but I don't want to leave this place. (His eyes rest on the lake) What a blessing such beauty is!
NINA: Do you see that house there, on the far shore?
TRIGORIN: Yes.
NINA: That was my dead mother's home. I was born there, and have lived all my life beside this lake. I know every little island in it.
TRIGORIN: This is a beautiful place to live. (He catches sight of the dead seagull) What is that?
NINA: A gull. Constantine shot it.
TRIGORIN: What a lovely bird! Really, I can't bear to go away. Can't you persuade Irina to stay? (He writes something in his notebook.)
During what decade was this play written?
This play, Chekhov’s The Seagull, was written in 1895 and premiered in 1896 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Because Chekhov died in 1904, you could narrow down the answer even if you didn’t know the exact dates of the play.
Passage adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896).
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