View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Julle and Tesman discuss as a strong ability of Tesman's?

2. Why might Tesman not get the professorship he was promised?

3. What does Hedda tell Brack her reason's were for marrying Tesman?

4. In the second act, what do we learn about the hat incident?

5. What does the letter sent in Act 1 of HEDDA GABLE propose to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reason does Hedda give Brack for her marrying Tesman?

2. What does Tesman ask of Hedda shortly after Julle leaves in Act 1? What does Hedda reply?

3. Tesman foresees many months of work to reconstruct the manuscript. How does he recommend they all arrange themselves while the work is going on?

4. What leverage does Brack acquire over Hedda?

5. Describe Hedda Gabler's character.

6. Why didn't Tesman tell anyone he had Lovborg's manuscript? What were his plans with it?

7. What does Lovborg say the only option open to him now is? How does Hedda respond?

8. Describe the incident with the hat in Act 1 of Hedda Gabler.

9. How do Hedda and Aunt Julle get along?

10. What worry of Tesman's does Lovborg quickly alleviate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that discusses the challenges of changing the setting of a play.

Part 1: What options does someone have if they choose to retell a play in a different setting? What things can be changed and the play still stay recognizable? What is important to keep in tact?

Part 2: Bring up some examples of literature or theatrical works that have been retold in a modernized or alternative way. How successful have they been? What have they changed and what have they kept? Were they more or less effective than the traditional version? Why?

Part 3: In your mind, are there benefits or detriments to this practice? Is it bringing classical stories to the masses and giving them fresh life or is it vandalizing something beautiful?

Essay Topic 2

Write a full analysis comparing and contrasting the two characters of Mrs. Elvsted and Hedda.

Part 1: Compare and contrast the motives, personalities, the effects of their actions, the fears, and other attributes of the two characters. How are they alike and how are they different? Does one embody what the other needs? How?

Part 2: What point do you think Ibsen was trying to get through to the audience by putting these two women in contrast with each other? Is there a greater message about femininity or the female role he is trying to bring up by putting these two women in contrast with each other? What would that be?

Essay Topic 3

In the play HEDDA GABLER, the character of Julle is seen only briefly, but she is mentioned often and has several important roles to play. Write an essay about the need for her character in the play.

Part 1: What many purposes does her character have? Ibsen needs to use her to achieve several things. What are they? Who does her character help to contrast? Who does her character add depth to? Who does she help define?

Part 2: Discuss the importance in general of minor characters that don't play a major role in the plot, and what they often are there to do. Does realism need them more than other genres? What complications for the writer might they help solve?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,135 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample