A. Read the passage from:
You wanna dance, Rodolpho?
to
He could be very good, Marco. I’ll teach again. Marco nods at him dubiously.
1. Imagine you are Catherine. Write a detailed account of what you think about Rodolpho during this scene.
2. Now imagine you are Eddie. Write a detailed account of what y’ou think about Rodolpho during this scene.
Support your answer with close reference to the text.
A. Write about Mrs. Kay and how you react to her. You should include:
1) What she is like as a person and a teacher
2) How she treats her “Progress Class”
3) How she gets on with other teachers on the outing
4) Her behavior in the key scenes.
B. Who do you think has the most power and authority in the play:
1) Mrs. Kay?
2) Mr. Briggs?
3) The children?
Develop your answer fully by explaining who you think has power and authority in different scenes at different stages of the play.
C. Show how different sorts of power and authority are presented in the play by writing about at least three characters.
D. Our Day Out deals with relationships between children and adults on a school trip. What ideas do you think are suggested in the play which have wider relevance than just a school trip, and how are they presented to you?
A. Write about the ways in which Rita changes during the play. You should write about:
1) Her education
2) Her attitude to Frank
3) Her relationships with other people
4) The way she speaks.
B. Read the following passage from Act 1 Scene 2, and answer both the questions below it.
FRANK: Cake, yes. Erm - Rita, why didn’t you ever become what you call a proper student?
RITA: What? After goin’ to the school I went to?
FRANK: Was it bad?
[RITA starts sharpening the pencils one by one into perfect spikes, leaving the shavings on the desk.]
RITA: Nah, just normal, y’know; borin’, ripped-up books, broken glass everywhere, knives an’ fights. An’ that was just in the staffroom. Nah, they tried their best I suppose, always tellin’ us we stood more of a chance if we studied. But studyin’ was just for the wimps, wasn’t it? See, if I’d started takin’ school seriously I would have had to become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed.
FRANK: By whom?
RlTA: By your mates, by your family, by everyone. So y’never admit that school could be anythin’ other than useless.
[FRANK passes her the ashtray but she ignores it and continues sharpening the pencils on the table.]
RITA: Like what you’ve got to be into is music an’ clothes an’ lookin’ for a feller, y’know the real qualities of life. Not that I went along with it so reluctantly. I mean, there was always somethin’ in me head, tappin’ away, tellin’ me I might have got it all wrong. But I’d just play another record or buy another dress an’ stop worryin’. There’s always somethin’ to make you forget about it. So y’do, y’keep goin’, tellin’ yourself life’s great. There’s always another club to go to, a new feller to be chasin’, a laugh an’ a joke with the girls. Till, one day, y’own up to yourself an’ y’say, is this it? Is this the absolute maximum I can expect from this livin’ lark? An’ that’s the big moment that one, that’s the point when y’have to decide whether it’s gonna be another change in yourself. An’ it’s really temptin’ to go out an’ get another dress y’know, it is. Cos it’s easy, it doesn’t cost anythin’, it doesn’t upset anyone around y’. Like cos they don’t want y’to change.
FRANK: But you -erm- you managed to resist another new dress?
RITA: Can’t y’tell? Look at the state of this; I haven’t had a new dress in twelve months. An’ I’m not gonna get one either, not till - till I pass me first exam. Then I’ll get a proper dress, the sort of dress you’d only see on an educated woman, on the sort of woman who knows the difference between Jane Austen an’ Tracy Austin. [She finishes sharpening the last pencil, and arranges it in line with the others. She gathers the pencil shavings into her hand and chucks them in the waste-bin.) Let’s start.
1) ‘I would have had to become different from me mates, an’ that’s not allowed.’ In what ways is Rita held back from what she wants to do? You might like to write about:
a) School
b) Her husband
c) Her lifestyle
d) Her attitudes.
2) ‘An’ I’m not gonna get one either, not till - I pass me first exam.’ Write about Rita’s determination to succeed. In both parts of the question, you should use material from the passage and from the rest of the play.
C. “It makes me stronger comin’ here.” How do we see Rita becoming stronger
1) During the play? You might like to write about:
2) Her attitude to Frank her attitude to literature
3) Her independence
4) Russell’s presentation of Rita
5) How she overcomes her background.
D. Read Act 1 Scene 3, and answer all parts of the questions that follow.
1) Compare the attitudes of Frank and Rita to books, as shown in this scene. Show how this develops in the rest of the play. You might think about:
a) The books that Rita reads
b) Her attitude to examinations
c) The end of the play.
2) Examine Willy Russell’s presentation of the differences between Rita and
Frank in this scene, and their growing relationship.
Comment on the dramatic effectiveness of the following passage from the play:
ROBERT. [turning to Joan] Now listen you to me; and [desperately] don’t cut in before I have time to think.
JOAN [plumping down on the stool again, like an obedient schoolgirl]. Yes, squire.
ROBERT. Your orders are, that you are to go to Chinon under the escort of this gentleman and three of his friends.
JOAN [radiant, clasping her hands]: Oh, squire! Your head is all circled with light, like a saint’s.
POULENGEY. How is she to get into the royal presence?
ROBERT [who has looked up for his halo rather apprehensively]: I don’t know: how did she get into my presence? If the Dauphin can keep her out he is a better man than I take him for. [Rising] I will send her to Chinon; and she can say I sent her. Then let come what may: I can do no more.
JOAN. And the dress? I may have a soldier’s dress, maynt I, squire?
ROBERT. Have what you please. I wash my hands of it.
JOAN [wildly excited by her success]: Come, Polly. [She dashes out].
ROBERT [shaking Poulengey’s hand]: Goodbye, old man, I am taking a big chance. Few other men would have done it. But as you say, there is something about her.
POULENGEY. Yes: there is something about her. Goodbye. [He goes out.]
[Robert, still very doubtful whether he has not been made a fool of by a crazy female, and a social inferior to boot, scratches his head and slowly comes back from the door.
The steward runs in with a basket.]
STEWARD. Sir, sir-
ROBERT. What now?
STEWARD. The hens are laying like mad, sir. Five dozen eggs!
ROBERT [stiffens convulsively; crosses himself; and forms with his pale lips the words): Christ in heaven! [Aloud but breathless]: She did come from God.
A. Though quick-witted, Shaw is deficient in feeling; he asserts and debates well, but in presenting emotion he is flat or conventional.” Discuss.
B. Why is it that Joan is invariably isolated, without real friends or allies, during the play?
C. Do you accept the view that Shaw is more concerned with ideas than characters in Saint Joan?
D. Shaw’s Epilogue in Saint Joan has been described as “dramatically, a sorry performance.” How would you attempt to justify its inclusion in a production of the play?
E. “A heroine for all seasons.” To what extent do you think Shaw succeeded in giving Joan qualities that go beyond the immediately heroic?
F. How successful, in your opinion, was Shaw in making the discussion of ideas dramatically effective in this play?
G. WARWICK: History will remember me for your sake, though the incidents of the connection were perhaps a little unfortunate.
In the light of this comment, discuss Warwick’s relationship with Joan and his role in the play as a whole.
A. Examine Shaw’s use of wit, paradox, and humor in the play.
B. “The construction of Saint Joan is masterly; Shaw deftly contrives an apt climax to each scene and also works the play up to and away from the peak scene between Warwick and Cauchon which is the intellectual and artistic center of the play.” Discuss.
C. “It is impossible to really appreciate the play without a sound knowledge of its Preface.” Discuss.
D. Show how Shaw sustains interest and tension in the trial scene even though the outcome is inevitable.
E. What is the function of the Epilogue?
F. Show how Shaw tries to make the play relevant to the twentieth century, and how far he is successful.
A. Describe Raina’s personality and explain her change from romance to common sense.
B. Discuss the importance of ‘coincidence’ to the plot of Arms and the Man.
C. How do the various settings of the play reveal the characters of the people who live in these rooms and garden?
D. Examine the way in which Shaw conveys information about his characters through the language they use.
E. Shaw once wrote: ‘I write plays with the deliberate object of converting the nation to my opinion.’ What opinions is he expressing in Arms and the Man?
A. Read the extract printed below and answer the following questions:
RAINA [suddenly coming round the comer of the house and standing at the top of the steps in the path]: Raina is here. . .
[She makes a charming picture as they turn to look at her. She wears an underdress of pale, green silk, draped with an overdress of this ecru canvas embroidered with gold. She is crowned with a dainty eastern cap of gold tinsel. Sergius goes impulsively to meet her. Posing regally, she presents her hand: he drops chivalrously on one knee and kisses it.]
PETKOFF [aside to Catherine, beaming with parental pride]: Pretty, isn’t it? She always appears at the right moment.
CATHERINE [impatiently]: Yes, she listens for it. It is an abominable habit.
[Sergius leads Raina forward with splendid gallantry. When they arrive at the table, she turns to him with a bend of the head: he bows; and thus they separate, he coming to his place, and she going behind her father’s chair.]
RAINA [stooping and kissing her father]: Dear father! Welcome home!
PETKOFF [patting her cheek]: My little pet girl. [He kisses her. She goes to the chair left by Nicola for Sergius, and sits down.]
CATHERINE: And so you’re no longer a soldier, Sergius.
SERGlUS: I am no longer a soldier. Soldiering, my dear madam, is the coward’s art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
PETKOFF: They wouldn’t let us make a fair stand-up fight of it. However, I suppose soldiering has to be a trade like any other trade.
SERGIUS: Precisely. But I have no ambition to shine as a tradesman; so I have taken the advice of that bagman of a captain that settled the exchange of prisoners with us at Pirot, and given it up.
PETKOFF: What! That Swiss fellow? I’ve often thought of that exchange since. He over-reached us about those horses.
SERGIUS: Of course he over-reached us. His father was a hotel and livery stable keeper; and he owed his first step to his knowledge of horse-dealing. [With mock enthusiasm]: Ah, he was a soldier: every inch a soldier! If only I had bought the horses for my regiment instead of foolishly leading it into danger, I should have been a field-marshal now!
CATHERINE: A Swiss? What was he doing in the Serbian army?
PETKOFF: A volunteer, of course: keen on picking up his profession [chuckling]. We shouldn’t have been able to begin fighting if these foreigners hadn’t shewn us how to do it: we knew nothing about it; and neither did the Serbs. Egad, there’d have been no war without them!
RAINA: Are there many Swiss officers in the Serbian army?
PETKOFF: No. All Austrians, just as our officers were all Russians. This was the only Swiss I came across. I’ll never trust a Swiss again. He humbugged us into giving him fifty able-bodied men for two hundred worn out chargers. They weren’t even eatable!
SERGIUS: We were two children in the hands of that consummate soldier, Major: simply two innocent little children.
SERGIUS: He was like a commercial traveller in uniform. Bourgeois to his boots!
PETKOFF [grinning]: Sergius: tell Catherine that queer story his friend told about how he escaped after Slivnitza. You remember. About his being hid by two women.
SERGIUS [with bitter ironyl: Oh yes: quite a romance! He was serving in the very battery I so unprofessionally charged. Being a thorough soldier, he ran away like the rest of them, with our cavalry at his heels. To escape their sabres he climbed a waterpipe and made his way into the bedroom of a young Bulgarian lady. The young lady was enchanted by his persuasive commercial traveller’s manners. She very modestly entertained him for an hour or so, and then call in her mother lest her conduct should appear unmaidenly. The old lady was equally fascinated; and the fugitive was sent on his way in the morning, disguised in an old coat belonging to the master of the house, who was away at the war.
RAINA [rising with marked stateliness]: Your life in the camp has made you coarse, Sergius. I did not think you would have repeated such a story before me. [She turns arway coldly.]
CATHERINE [also rising]: She is right, Sergius. If such women exist, we should be spared the knowledge of them.
1) What do we learn about Bluntschli from this extract?
2) Compare this information with what we learnt about him in Act 1.
3) Explain the coincidence that is revealed in this extract and its importance to the plot.
4) Describe one other coincidence in the play and explain its importance.
5) What do we learn about the atmosphere from this extract?
Answer A. or B:
1. ‘Hobson is a self-centered, pompous, tyrannical old windbag, yet by the end we can’t help feeling sorry for him.’ With close reference to what we see and hear of Hobson in the play, show how far you would agree.
2. Read the passage below and answer the questions which follow it:
MAGGIE:
Do you know what keeps this business on its legs? Two things: one’s the good boots you make that sell themselves, the other’s the bad boots other people make and I sell.
To
WILLIE: I’ve got the love all right.
MAGGIE: Well, I’ve not, and that’s honest. We’ll get along without.
1) Explain in your own words the reasons Maggie gives in her opening speech for the success of her father’s business.
2) From the very beginning of this passage Maggie is making a proposal of marriage to Willie. In what different ways does Willie react as Maggie does this?
3) Willie says he doesn’t love Maggie (lines 41 42). From your reading of this passage, and of the play as a whole, explain clearly what Maggie’s reasons are for wanting to marry Willie, and show why you think he eventually agrees to marry her. What do you think of their reasons for getting married?
4) In the last line of the passage Maggie declares that her love is enough for both of them. How does what Willie and Maggie say and do from this point onwards show their feelings for each other to be deepening?
Answer A. or B:
A. ‘Whether at his most slow-witted or at his most masterful, Willie Mossop is always likeable.’ With close reference to those times when he shows himself to be slow-witted and to those times when he is most in charge of things, explain clearly how likeable a young man you find him to be.
DOCTOR: I will now talk about the duty of a daughter because I doubt he’s acted badly by ye, but on the broad grounds of humanity, it’s saving life if ye’ll come-
To:
Matter of form! My husband a matter of form! He’s the- I dare say, but he is not the man that wears the breeches at your house.
1) Explain in your own words what Doctor MacFarlane prescribes for Hobson.
2) Explain how Hobson and Maggie react to Doctor MacFarlane in this passage.
3) Hobson says to Maggie: ‘You know as well as I do asking Will’s a matter of form’ (line 31). What does Hobson mean by this? Do you think Maggie’s asking Willie is only ‘a matter of form’? Give reasons.
4) Doctor MacFarlane says to Maggie that he could well believe that Hobson has ‘acted badly by ye’ (line 1). By referring to the way Hobson has acted towards Maggie throughout the play, show how badly you think he has treated her.