Philadelphia, Here I Come!: Characters test questions - CCEA - GCSE English Literature Revision

1

The two characters in the play – Gar Public and Gar Private – represent both sides of one person. This is used to reveal Gar’s true attitude to leaving home. This is best described as:

Fearful

Ambivalent

Excited

2

Read the following extract and answer the following questions:

Kate

But £3 15s Gar! We could never live on that.

Public

[kissing her hair] Mmmm.

Kate

Gar! Listen! Be sensible.

Public

Mmm?

Kate

How will we live?

Private

[imitating] ‘How will we live?’

Public

Like lords – free house, free light, free fuel, free groceries! And every night at seven when we close – except Saturday; he stays open till damn near midnight on Saturdays, making out bloody bills; and sure God and the world knows that sending out bills here is as hopeless as peeing against the wind… -

Kate

Gar! No matter what you say we just couldn’t live on that much money. It – it’s not possible. We’ll need to have more security than that.

Public

Maybe he’ll die – tonight – of galloping consumption!

Episode One

What does this reveal about Kate?

That she is romantic and idealistic.

That she is pragmatic and realistic.

That she is demanding and stubborn.

3

What does it reveal about Gar Public?

That he is obsessed with his father and unrealistic in his outlook.

That he hates his father but is realistic in his outlook.

That he is afraid of his father and stubborn in his approach.

4

Read the following extract and answer the following questions:

Madge

You sit there, night after night, year after year, reading that aul paper, and not a tooth in your head! If you had any decency in you at all, you would keep them plates in while there’s a lady in your presence!

S.B.

[puzzled] Eh?

Madge

I mean it. It – it – it – it just drives me mad, the sight of you! [The tears begin to come.] And I have that much work to do: the stairs have to be washed down, and the store’s to be swept, and your room has to be done out – and – and – I’m telling you I’ll be that busy for the next couple of weeks that I won’t have time to lift my head!

(She dashes off. S.B. stares after her. Then out at the audience. Then, very slowly, he looks down at the paper again – it has been upside down – and turns it right side up.)

Episode Two

S.B.'s verbal reaction reveals what?

That he is very poor at communicating with others

That he doesn’t care about Madge

That he has heard it all before

5

The fact he is reading the paper upside down suggests what?

That he is illiterate and cannot read.

That he is rattled by what she just said to him.

That his mind is on other things – such as Gar leaving for Philadelphia.

6

Who is the only male character to actually say to the main character: “I’ll - I’ll miss you, Gar.”?

Ned

Joe

Master Boyle

7

Gar Private’s line “Sure as long as you get to Tenerife for five weeks every winter what interest have you in money?” is directed at the Canon and highlights his…

arrogance

aloofness

hypocrisy

8

Read the following extract and answer the following questions:

Ned

Are you calling me a liar?

Private

[wearily] What's the point.

Tom

[quickly] Oh by God, Ned was there, Gar, manys and manys the time. Weren’t you, Ned?

Public

Have it your own way.

Joe

[nervously] And maybe she got the squint straightened out since I saw her last. All the women get the squints straightened out nowadays. Damnit, you could walk from here to Cork nowadays and you wouldn’t see a woman with a –

Ned

I just don’t like fellas getting snottery with me, that’s all.

[There follows an uneasy silence during which Private surveys the group.]

Private

The boys… They weren’t always like this, were they? There was a hell of a lot crack, wasn’t there? There was a hell of a lot of laughing, wasn’t there?

Episode Two

Who comes across as the leader of ‘the boys’?

Tom

Joe

Ned

9

What does it reveal about the boys’ attitude to women?

They are quite naïve about women

They are afraid of women

They don't like women

10

Why does Gar still welcome the boys?

He is afraid of Ned

He actually enjoys their company

They annoy S.B.

11

Read the following extract and answer questions that follow.

Public

D’you remember the blue boat?

S.B.

A blue one, eh?

Public

I don’t know who owned it. But it was blue. And the paint was peeling.

S.B.

[remembering] I mind a brown one the doctor brought from somewhere up in the –

Public

[quickly] It doesn’t matter who owned it. It doesn’t even matter that it was blue. But d’you remember one afternoon in May – we were up there – the two of us – and it must have rained because you put your jacket round my shoulders and gave me your hat –

S.B.

Aye?

Public

- and it wasn’t that we were talking or anything – but suddenly – suddenly you sang ‘All Round My Hat I’ll Wear A Green Coloured Ribbono’ –

S.B.

Me?

Public

- for no reason at all except that we – that you were happy. D’you remember? D’you remember?

[There is a pause while S.B. tries to recall]

S.B.

No... no, then, I don't...

Episode Three, Part Two

What is happening in this exchange?

Public desperately wants S.B. to open up to him

Public wants to remind S.B. of happier times

Public wants to get S.B. to sing a song for him

12

What is unusual about how Gar Public speaks to S.B. here?

That they are close despite it all

That there is a communication problem between them

That they are very alike