CLEP Humanities : Drama

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for CLEP Humanities

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Drama

The phrase "Chekhov's Gun" refers to the dramatic storytelling proposition that __________.

Possible Answers:

a twist ending that was not seen before in the story

a plot twist that comes from a mysterious or intercessory figure or event

every element included in a play or story must have a reason for appearing in the story

an item that serves as a distraction from the main story

a character who is used to explain the story to the audience

Correct answer:

every element included in a play or story must have a reason for appearing in the story

Explanation:

"Chekhov's Gun" is named after the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, who once commented, "If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." The term is now used to describe any small element that is introduced into the story to be used later in the plotline.

Example Question #1 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Drama

Gilbert and Sullivan were known for writing what kind of works?

Possible Answers:

Comic operas

Histories

Novels

Epic poems

Tragedies

Correct answer:

Comic operas

Explanation:

W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan were a librettist and composer, respectively, who began teaming up in the 1870s to write comic operas. Throughout the next few decades, Gilbert and Sullivan wrote some of the most well known works of theater, including The Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Mikado. Gilbert and Sullivan's work highly influenced the development of musical theater in the twentieth century.

Example Question #3 : Drama

Who wrote A Doll's House and Ghosts?

Possible Answers:

Nora Helmer

Helene Alving

Henry James

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Henrik Ibsen

Correct answer:

Henrik Ibsen

Explanation:

Henrik Ibsen wrote both of the plays Ghosts and A Doll's House. He was a 19th century Norwegian playwright. He is sometimes called the "father of realism."

Example Question #1 : Analyzing The Content Of Drama

The Johann Wolfgang von Goethe work about a man who makes a deal with the devil is __________.

Possible Answers:

Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

The Venetian Epigrams

The Sorrows of Young Werther

The Roman Elegies

Faust

Correct answer:

Faust

Explanation:

The Faust story is an old one, told in traditional German folk tales, puppet plays, and songs, but Goethe retold the story of an intellectual who sells his soul to the devil to plough psychological depths. Goethe's story finds a man questing for a more fulfilling life, and being tempted by a demon to achieve this goal. Goethe's two-part play is the most widely performed and seen play in the German language.

Example Question #2 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Drama

Who was the playwright who wrote The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and The Miser?

Possible Answers:

John Vanbrugh

Albert Camus

Moliere

Voltaire

John Dryden

Correct answer:

Moliere

Explanation:

Moliere helped popularize and develop theater during the seventeenth century by combining elaborate and genteel French comedy styles with the broader and more jovial Italian commedia dell'arte. Moliere's works such as The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and The Miser all were essentially farces that mocked upper-class values, religious people, and social habits. These elements made Moliere equally controversial and influential in subsequent centuries.

Example Question #3 : Identifying Titles, Authors, Or Schools Of Drama

"Restoration comedy" is a variety of play written in which country during the seventeenth century?

Possible Answers:

Germany

Italy

France

Scotland

England

Correct answer:

England

Explanation:

The "Restoration" in "Restoration comedies" refers to the return of the monarchy to England under the Stuart King Charles II. Following the deeply Puritan Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell, which banned all forms of theater and celebrations, theater companies and audiences found a taste for bawdy and over-the-top comedies that featured outlandish characters and bizarre situations.

Example Question #2 : Analyzing The Content Of Drama

Willy Loman is the main character of the play __________.

Possible Answers:

Mourning Becomes Electra

A Streetcar Named Desire

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Death of a Salesman

The Skin of Our Teeth

Correct answer:

Death of a Salesman

Explanation:

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1949. Its protagonist, Willy Loman, became a classic character of the American theater, thanks to Miller's story about the aged salesman and his fraught relationships with his family. Loman's struggles with work and disappointment in his sons provide the emotional depth for the character.

Example Question #3 : Analyzing The Content Of Drama

Which play allegorizes the "Red Scare" of the 1950s by telling the story of the Salem witch trials of the 1690s?

Possible Answers:

Waiting for Lefty

The Devils

A Streetcar Named Desire

A View From the Bridge

The Crucible

Correct answer:

The Crucible

Explanation:

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, at the height of the second "Red Scare," when figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy were investigating Communism in America and targeting artists. Miller chose the Salem witch trials as a similar moment in American history when wild accusations generated by fear were prevalent. Miller himself was cited for "contempt of Congress" for refusing to name people he had seen at meetings of the Communist Party.

Example Question #4 : Analyzing The Content Of Drama

What is the common English title of the French play about three people stuck in a room from which they cannot escape?

Possible Answers:

The Possessed

Waiting for Godot

The Misanthrope

No Exit

Act Without Words

Correct answer:

No Exit

Explanation:

Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit takes place entirely in one room, featuring three people who cannot leave. Reflecting some of Sartre's philosophy, the characters slowly realize that they are dead and in hell. The play closes with the famous final line "Hell is other people."

Example Question #2 : Drama

What is the title of the play that features the characters learning the plot from the Director as the play unfolds?

Possible Answers:

The Birthday Party

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Waiting for Godot

The Bald Soprano

The Zoo Story

Correct answer:

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Explanation:

Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, which first premiered in 1922, was one of the first works in the genre known as "The Theater of the Absurd." Pirandello's metatheatrical work featured all of the characters in the play openly asking the director how the plot would unfold. Such groundbreaking work would prove influential to the next generation of playwrights, including Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, and Eugene Ionesco.

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