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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Jason come in to Vivian's room to check at the beginning of Scene 11?

2. Vivian says, “What we have come to think of as me is, in fact, just the ____.”

3. What does Vivian compare herself to when she says she wants to explain but is unable?

4. What does Susie rub on Vivian's hands?

5. What is the date of the poem Vivian recites after her ultrasound?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the three points Vivian emphasizes in Donne's poem during her imaginary lecture?

2. Why is Vivian scared?

3. What is the irony in Vivian's desire for personal contact with Jason?

4. Why does Vivian shut her own eyelids and cross her arms over her chest?

5. Why is it significant that someone always asked Vivian why Donne made his sonnets so complicated?

6. Why does Vivian allow Susie to call her “sweetheart?”

7. Why is Vivian given a morphine drip instead of patient-controlled analgesic?

8. Why does Vivian use the word “soporific” when she asks about the effect of the morphine?

9. Why does Vivian's pain management have an effect on the play?

10. Why does Vivian tell the audience that “now is the time for kindness?”

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the title of the play. What is wit? How is it used in literature? Whose wit is being referred to by the title of the play? What role does wit have throughout the play?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Susie and Jason. How are they alike? How are they different? Explain each of their relationships with Vivian.

Essay Topic 3

Define allegory. Give one example of an allegory used in the play. Explain how this is an allegory. Is the allegory effective? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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