AP English Literature and Composition › Contexts of World Plays Before 1925
Which of the following works is set in ancient Thebes?
Oedipus Rex
The Odyssey
The Iliad
The Oresteia
Medea
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.
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
The Wild Duck
Hedda Gabler
Peer Gynt
An Enemy of the People
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)._
German playwright Friedrich Schiller was a contemporary of and corresponded with which fellow countryman?
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Henrik Ibsen
Bertolt Brecht
Rainer Maria Rilke
Gunter Grass
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.
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.)
Which of the following was not also written by this playwright?
“The Overcoat”
Uncle Vanya
Three Sisters
The Cherry Orchard
“The Lady With the Dog”
Uncle Vanya (1898), Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904) are all plays by Chekhov, and “The Lady With the Dog” (1899) is one of his most famous short stories. “The Overcoat” (1842) is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol.
Passage adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896).
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.)
All but which of the following authors worked in the same non-literary profession as this playwright?
Ernest Hemingway
William Carlos Williams
William Somerset Maugham
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
This question requires you to recognize that Anton Chekhov was a practicing medical doctor for much of his literary career. Other authors who were doctors (and whose works sometimes drew on their medical experience) include William Carlos Williams, William Somerset Maugham, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. While Ernest Hemingway worked as an ambulance driver during World War I, he was not medically trained.
Passage adapted from Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull (1896).
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?
Henrik Ibsen
Bertolt Brecht
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Anton Chekhov
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).
Which of the following plays is set in the ancient Greek city-state of Corinth?
Medea
Agamemnon
Iphigenia
The Frogs
The Bacchae
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.
Which of the following plays is set in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens?
Lysistrata
The Oresteia
The Frogs
Agamemnon
Medea
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.
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?
Wilhelm Tell
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Marriage Play
A Marriage Proposal
A Streetcar Named Desire
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).
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?
Anton Chekhov
Bertolt Brecht
J.M. Barrie
Maurice Maeterlinck
Vladimir Mayakovsky
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.