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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 meaning does Marina put on Ada's black jumper and black skirt?

2. Who shows Van around his aunt's house?

3. What doctor does Ada go to visit?

4. What word does the person who left the note in Van's jacket use for "dupe"?

5. What garment of clothing does Van chide Ada for not wearing?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the rules of marriage among relatives that Van and Ada discuss?

2. What are the circumstances of Marina's first romantic liaison with Demon?

3. How does Lucette want to draw flowers, when her sister is trying to teach her to draw?

4. What do Demon think of Marina's career as an actress?

5. What does Blanche look like as she is ready to leave?

6. How does Marina describe Jews to her daughter?

7. What happens in Van's stage act?

8. How does Ada act when she tells stories at the table?

9. What does Marina chastise Van for, after calling him into her room?

10. What is the first trick Ada and Van use to escape from Lucette?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel is filled with reflections of reality through art, such as films and photographs. Discuss these elements of the novel.

1) How do reflections of reality in the novel, like photographs or films, differ from reality itself? How do they create reality through memory?

2) What significance is there to Marina and later Ada's careers as actresses? How does the mimicking of reality in acting affect the characters?

3) How does the governess's screenplay reflect reality at Ardis Hall? How is it modified and changed in the process of production? What does this process of change show about imitations of reality?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss vanity in the novel.

1) Van is described in the novel as vain. Does Van love himself more than any other? Is he proud? What characterizes his vanity?

2) Is Van's vanity an essential element of his attraction to Ada? Is he attracted to her because of her similarities to himself?

3) What role does Van's vanity play in his career? How does it relate to his acrobatic show? How does it relate to his psychological/philosophical books?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss madness in the novel.

1) What is Aqua's madness in the novel? Why does she go from sanitarium to sanitarium, and why does she kill herself?

2) What types of madness do Van's patients display? Why do mad patients see visions of Terra in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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