Scene 1: The Golden Cage
What instrument does Octavian play at the start of the play?
The violin
What does Octavian find hidden in the drawer?
Secret experiment papers
What disease is the party trying to protect guests from?
Smallpox
Where is Octavian when the scene begins?
Imprisoned and in chains
What does Octavian’s violin represent throughout the play?
His humanity and creativity
What does Mr. Gitney call “data”?
Octavian’s music
What label does Octavian see on the papers that horrifies him?
Subject O
What happens to Cassiopeia at the pox party?
She becomes sick and dies
What does Mr. Gitney say Octavian’s grief is?
Data
What does the locked door symbolize?
The truth kept from him
Who warns Octavian that “answers are dangerous” and that they live in a cage?
Cassiopeia
When Octavian confronts Mr. Gitney about the secret papers, what shocking truth does he finally realize about his life in the house?
That he was never a student or guest, but an enslaved subject in an experiment testing racial inferiority
What does Mr. Gitney mean when he says, “The body must suffer before it grows immune”?
He justifies pain in the name of science
What event outside the cell does Mr. Gitney mention to show his hypocrisy?
The colonies fighting for liberty
What idea connects “knowledge” and “chains”?
Knowledge can be used as control, not liberation
What physical detail shows that Octavian and Cassiopeia are not free in their “house of learning”?
Locked door
What does Mr. Gitney say they are trying to test with Octavian?
Whether all races share the same faculties of mind?
What promise does Cassiopeia ask Octavian to make before she dies?
To seek knowledge but never let it chain him
Who helps Octavian escape in this scene?
Dr. Trefusis
What is the biggest irony in the play’s setting?
That a society fighting for freedom enslaves others?
What reason does Mr. Gitney give for their study and experiments?
To pursue knowledge for the improvement of mankind
What does Cassiopeia say her son still has, even without their patronage?
His soul
What does the pox party symbolize in the play?
The danger of science used without morality or empathy
What does Octavian mean when he says, “They taught me Latin and logic yet not the language of liberty”?
That he must find freedom for himself, not from his captors
By the end, what has Octavian truly learned about freedom?
That freedom must be claimed, not granted or studied?