AP English Literature and Composition › Contexts of British Plays After 1925
Which of the following is not a character in Waiting for Godot?
Molloy
Pozzo
Estragon
Vladimir
Lucky
Molloy is the title of a 1951 novel by Samuel Beckett, but it is not the name of a character in Waiting for Godot (1953).
Which of the following was not originally written by the author of The Birthday Party?
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The Caretaker
The Homecoming
Betrayal
The Room
Although Harold Pinter produced a film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), the novel was originally written by John Fowles in 1969.
The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1965), Betrayal (1978), and The Room (1957) were all written by Harold Pinter.
Who is the author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1966)?
Tom Stoppard
Harold Pinter
Samuel Beckett
Eugène Ionesco
Eugene O’Neill
This play is written by Tom Stoppard.
The author of The Birthday Party also wrote work belonging to all but which of the following genres?
morality plays
comedy of menace
memory plays
theater of the absurd
Morality plays were popular during medieval times. Pinter’s work was avant-garde, not antiquated, so we can infer that his work was categorized as comedy of menace, memory plays, and theater of the absurd.
Who is the protagonist of The Birthday Party?
Stanley Webber
Meg Boles
Petey Boles
Goldberg
McCann
Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1958) follows a former piano player named Stanley Webber through the events that transpire after two menacing strangers arrive at his birthday party. The rest of the characters appear in the play as well, but they are not the protagonist.
Who is the author of Waiting for Godot?
Samuel Beckett
Harold Pinter
Eugène Ionesco
Tom Stoppard
Eugene O’Neill
Waiting for Godot (1953) is one of Samuel Beckett’s most famous plays.
In what decade was Waiting for Godot published?
1950s
1940s
1930s
1960s
1970s
The play was published in 1953.
What movement does Waiting for Godot belong to?
theatre of the absurd
Dadaism
Modernism
Neo-realism
Bretonian Surrealism
Waiting for Godot (1953) is a prime exemplar of the theatre of the absurd movement, which features surreal situations, meaningless wordplay, examination of existential questions and nihilism, and a lack of clear resolutions.
In what decade was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead first performed?
1960s
1970s
1980s
1950s
1940s
The play was first staged in 1966 in Edinburgh, Scotland, at the Festival Fringe, the world's largest annual arts festival.
What famous play do the protagonists of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead originally appear in?
Hamlet
A Streetcar Named Desire
Death of a Salesman
Pygmalion
Henry IV Part I
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1603). Most of Stoppard’s play takes place “offstage” or behind the scenes of the actions in Hamlet, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (two of Hamlet’s friends and courtiers) acting confused about what is happening onstage without them. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first performed in 1966.
Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1913), and William Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I (1600) were all used as alternate answer choices.