Posted: May 4th, 2014

Emma Bovary has difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Trace the ways this difficulty leads, in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, to her tragic downfall.

Essay: Each question is of equal value. Answer ALL FOUR. For test directions, see page
nine of the manual. (NOTE: this is an open book test; a proctor is not required.)
1. Emma Bovary has difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality. Trace the ways this
difficulty leads, in Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, to her tragic downfall. (25 points)
2. Explain how the first-person narrative technique, in Notes from Underground, allows
Dostoevsky to portray with conviction a highly eccentric personality. Would, in short, the
Narrator be as believable, had he not told his story as a diarist? (25 points)

3. A critic has commented that “Hedda Gabler is not so much a tragic character as the
objectivication of evil.” Comment of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler in the light of this judgment. (25
points)
4. Define the basic values of Mme. Ranevskaya and Lopahin in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.
Compare and contrast the value systems that these two characters exemplify. (25 points