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

Short Answer Questions

1. What nationality of clients does Ouisa mistakenly she and Flan are schmoozing before Sotheby's?

2. Which of the following is not a type of jam Trent recommends one send to rich people?

3. What adjective do Flan and Paul repeatedly use to describe the dull part of art dealing?

4. What news does Tess blurt out to Ouisa in this section?

5. Near the end of the play, Ouisa that she has plenty of color in her life, but none of this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Kandinsky in the Kittredge condo is the central symbolic image of the play. Write an essay about the significance of this image. What theme do its opposite sides symbolize? How does the opposing control and wildness of the painting manifest itself in the action onstage? How do you interpret Paul's cryptic final words?

Essay Topic 2

Paul's deceptions throughout the play are met with a combination of incredulity, rage, and sadness. Write an essay about the reaction characters have to Paul's crimes, in three parts:

Part 1) What does Dr. Fine think he is achieving in offering Paul the use of his brownstone? What emotions and social attitudes does the realization of Paul's betrayal evoke in Fine?

Part 2) Why does Flan react so vehemently against Paul and never waver thereafter? What does he think Paul's motivation is in lying to them?

Part 3) Why do the parents become obsessed with discovering the truth behind Paul's deception? Why do they go as far as publishing their story in the New York Times.

Essay Topic 3

The idea of the imagination resonates strongly throughout he play, beginning of course with Paul's "thesis" in the first passages. Write an essay on Guare's understanding of imagination in three parts:

Part 1) Compare Paul's conception of the purpose of imagination in his thesis with what he perceives to be society's new definition of imagination. How are they different? Why does Paul consider the latter reductive?

Paul 2) How doe Ouisa, Flan and Geoffrey react to Paul's thesis on imagination? When Paul appears in Ouisa's imagination later in the play, how does he amend his notion of imagination?

Paul 3) How is what Paul actually does to the families of the play the opposite of his sense of imagination? Is he chipping away at his own personality living in a state of constant deception?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 416 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample