Final Jeopardy: Literary Title Characters (1-22-14)

The Final Jeopardy question (1/22/2014), in the category “Literary Title Characters” was:

Lord Henry tells him: “What an exquisite life you have had!… it has not marred you. You are still the same.”

New champ Priscilla Emery toppled a 5-day champ yesterday, picking up $18,000 in the process. She takes her second shot today against these two players: Zachary Tomanelli, from Brooklyn, NY; and Karen Ruckert, originally from Topeka, KS.

Priscilla found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Literature Cats Would Love” under the $800 clue. She was in third place with $800, $5,600 behind Zachary’s lead. She bet $200 and she was RIGHT.

Kitty doesn’t like the knitting so much in the Debbie Macomber book called “A Good” this, but loves the threads. show

Zachary finished in the lead with $6,400. Karen was second with $5,800 and Priscilla was last with $1,000.

Karen found the first Daily Double in “Art at the Getty Center” under the $2,000 clue. She was in the lead now with $10,600, $4,600 ahead of Zachary in second place. She bet $1,000, and thought it was Bastille Day. That was WRONG.

Edouard Manet depicted national pride in the flag-lined Rue Mosnier but an amputee, perhaps a war veteran, shows the costs and sacrifices on this Fête de la Paix, a national holiday to celebrate France’s recovery from this disastrous 1870-71 war. show

Priscilla found the last Daily Double in “South American History” under the $2,000 clue. In third place with $1,000, she had $15,800 less than Karen’s lead. She bet $2,000, and she was RIGHT.

In 1888 this country abolished slavery & freed about 750,000 slaves, many of whom worked on rubber plantations. show

Karen finished in the lead with a runaway $16,400. Zachary was next with $6,000 and Karen was in third place with $3,000.

NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHO IS DORIAN GRAY?

Lord Henry (aka Harry Wotton aka Prince Paradox) is a major character in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” whom Basil Hallward once told: “You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing.” In Chapter 19, Lord Henry’s paradoxical nature is highlighted in conversation as he heaps praise upon Dorian, admiring his exquisite life, unaware of the damage done through his influence. (Google Books: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Ch. 19, p. 277)



Priscilla thought it was “David Copperfield.” She lost $2,999 and finished with $1.00.

Zachary also went with Dickens, choosing Nicholas Nickleby. He lost $1,000 and finished with $5,000.

Karen thought it was Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver. That cost her $4,000 but she still won the game with $12,400.

Lord Henry led them all to UK literature but they should have been paying more attention to the last part of the clue. Dorian Gray’s deal was that his portrait would age instead of him and that’s why he was not marred and still the same (at least in looks).

So Karen Ruckert, who is a civil rights attorney, is the new champ. Congrats!

There was a funny moment in the first round when the first clue in the category “Clean up Your Act” was read: “July 2, 2014 is the 50th anniversary of LBJ signing a milestone in equality: The _____ ______ Act.” Karen began to answer the question when she suddenly realized she had not buzzed in!

Finally, that DD clue in the “Getty Center” category was both ridiculously long and hard to understand on TV so we were not at all surprised Karen was confused on that.

We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.

Share

You may also like...

2 Responses

  1. john blahuta says:

    this was REALLY easy. “lord henry” pointed of course to british literature but obviously none of the 3 ever read “the picture of dorian gray”, one of the classics that are just a must read/know book imo. i read that book about 5 times at different stages in my life and always got something else out of it when i read it again

    and bastille DAY a war???? the holiday was already given, they asked for the WAR. maybe karen misread the clue…it was indeed awkwardly phrased. “fete de la paix -a french holiday- celebrates the recovery from this war” would have been much clearer and more precise. the first part of the clue was not really necessary.it went on and on and distracted from the actual topic. but karen won anyway, so congratulations!

    • vj says:

      Karen didn’t even get the chance to misread that Franco-Prussian war clue, John. It was totally spoken by Monsieur Trebek. Sorry, should have made that clear. Oops :-0

      Lots of films made of Wilde’s book. Heh, Dorian Gray is so famous, they have even named a condition for narcissistic people who overindulge in cosmetic procedures and such after him — DGS — the Dorian Gray Syndrome.