1.) Main Summary

2.) Where does the play take place?

3.) Why do the grocery, the baker and the butcher send their bills to the Durand household?

4.) Why does Monsieur Durand spend money on candles when he doesn’t have money to buy even bread?

5.) Why did Monsieur Durand sell his life insurance?

6.) Why has Monsieur Durand paid fire insurance?

7.) How did Monsieur Durand and Mrs. Duran run out of their inheritances from both the sides?

8.) Why does Monsieur Durand tell a lie about his birthplace?

9.) What business is Monsieur Durand running to make a living?

10.) What plan does Monsieur Durand have to help his daughters with money?

11.) How does Monsieur Durand die?

12.) Sketch the character of Monsieur Durand.

13.) How do we know that the Durand family has reached a dead end?

14.) ‘The mother, though already dead, seems to have had a great influence on the daughters, especially Theresa.’ Do you agree?

15.) Discuss the relationship between Monsieur Durand and his wife.

16.) ‘Money determines the relationship between characters in this play.’ Elaborate this statement with examples from the play.

17.) Monsieur Durand kills himself so that his daughters would get 5000 francs as the compensation from the insurance company. What does his plan tell us about him?

18.) Discuss Facing Death as a modern tragedy.

19.) Write a few paragraphs describing the role of the father in the family.

20.) In his famous essay “The Experimental Novel,” Emile Zola says: This is what constitutes the experimental novel: to possess a knowledge of the mechanism of the phenomena inherent in man, to show the machinery of his intellectual and sensory manifestations,