Proust Questionnaire

Ice-breaker activity:
In the back pages of Vanity Fair each month, readers find The Proust Questionnaire, a series of questions
posed to famous subjects about their lives, thoughts, values and experiences.
The great French writer Marcel Proust (pronounced proost) was born in 1871 and died in 1922. He wrote the
loosely autobiographical, seven-part work titled Remembrance of Things Past.
Senior editor of Vanity Fair Aimee Bell, a fan of Proust, took on the task of researching and producing this
feature, with the assistance of the University of Kansas professor Theodore Johnson, a noted authority on
Proust. Since July of 1993, a major celebrity has responded to a version of the questionnaire.
Over the years, there have been many get to know you-style questionnaires, but this one has some history.
Proust didnt invent these questions, though he did answer them at the age of 13 at the birthday party of
Antoinette Felix-Faure (in 1884), and then again at age 20. (Apparently parties were a lot more intellectual than
they are now!) Consider 13 year old Marcels answer to a few of these questions
Where would you like to live?
In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and
music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater.
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
A woman of genius leading an ordinary life.
Instructions:
Write a quick response to each question. Feel free to skip any that make you uncomfortable. Next,
choose the three that you will share with the class. Stand up, introduce yourself to the class, and share your
three.
** I go first! I try then to write down each students name and add something distinctive that theyve shared on
a seating chart to help me remember their names. Next class, I try to say each name with the unique comment.

MARCEL PROUST was a French writer who believed that people must know and understand themselves before they could know or
understand others. He developed a list of subjective questions that he felt would help reveal to people their true selves and the inner
personalities of those around them.
Respond to the questions in any manner you choose, briefly or at length. The point is to be honest with yourself. Some questions may
require a few minutes of reflection, but many are best answered by recording the first thought that enters your head.

If youve ever watched Inside the Actors Studio, or flipped to the back page ofVanity Fair youre familiar in some form with The Proust
Questionnaire. Marcel Proust did not create the questionnaire, but he did fill two different ones out once when he was 13 and once when he
was 20. The answers clearly reflected him at each age.
The Questionnaire can be used in two ways as a playwright. First, you can answer the questions yourself. Knowing who you are, what you
believe, who you identify with, admire, what you treasure, these are all important self-reflection elements. If you know the specifics about
yourself, you can give them to a character. You can give a character an opposing trait. By answering these questions about yourself, youll know
where your interests lie. A great starting point for a play.

Secondly you can answer the questions for a character. How well would you know the main character in your play is you answered all these
questions? It would be impossible not to create a three dimensional human being. If you are stuck in a rut with your play, turn to this exercise.