View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ada say about the roses Percy gives her?

2. What does Van dream of the night after he first has sex with Ada?

3. What gift does Dan give Ada for her birthday?

4. Where does Percy de Prey ask Van to meet him?

5. Where do Ada and Van go, where Van compares Ada's body to the girlish body of the past?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Marina describe Jews to her daughter?

4. How does Van first see Ada?

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

6. What becomes of Ada's old governess?

7. How does young Van feel about Ada?

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

9. What does Ada have to do before she can go off and meet Van in private in Chapter 20?

10. How does Van feel about Cordula?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the novel's portrayal of men and women.

1) How are men and women's experience of sexuality different in the novel? How are they treated differently by society?

2) What does success mean for men and women in the novel? How is it different because of gender?

3) What are men and women's intellectual pursuits in the novel? How are they different because of gender?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Van and Ada part bitterly after 1888 because of jealousy, and jealousy plays an important role in their relationship. Discuss jealousy in the novel.

1) Why is Van so jealous of Ada's other sexual relationships, when he is also sexually active without her? How is Ada jealous of Van?

2) How is Lucette jealous of Ada? How does her jealousy affect and define her relationships with Van and with Ada?

3) What other jealousies exist in the novel? How do the different characters respond to and think of jealousy?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 813 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample