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 the Bear and Key rent William?

2. What does Rosie do instead of talking a lot?

3. What do William and Rosie do for the next year or more?

4. Where does Rosie take William?

5. How does William remember Rosie?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the scene where William is talking to Hillier about painting Rosie.

2. What does William think about the House of Lords and how he would assign rank within literature?

3. How do Rosie and William begin a romantic involvement?

4. Describe the Driffields's neighborhood and home.

5. What is Rosie's response to William's sulkiness about Kuyper and other men?

6. What does William discover about Ted and his parties and how is this demonstrated by Isabel Trafford?

7. Describe how William encounters Rosie in New York?

8. What do Roy, Amy and William do when William arrives at Amy's home?

9. Briefly describe how William and Rosie's relationship continues.

10. Describe the situation that keeps Rosie occupied for a couple weeks and which infuriates William.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Titles often reveal much about one or more aspects of a novel. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think is the purpose of a title? How closely related to a major theme(s) of a book do you think a title should be? Or should it be?

2. The phrase "Cakes and Ale" appears in both Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and Aesop's Fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. Research these two references and discuss the connection they may have to Maugham's book.

3. If you were the writer of Cake and Ale and your editor says the title must be changed, what would you choose? Why?

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 4, when William is thinking back to the one time he meets Amy he remembers Amy is anxious that William not stir up painful old memories in the frail old man. On the ride back, Hodmarsh defends Amy as a sacrificial caregiver. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think are the motives behind Amy not wanting to stir up memories in Ted? Do you believe her motives are completely concerned only with getting Ted upset?

2. Why do you think Lady Hodmarsh feels the need to defend Amy as a "sacrificial caregiver?" Could Amy have more than one motive to prompt her to be a "sacrificial caregiver"? What reasons might Amy have for devoting her every minute as Ted's caregiver?

3. Amy wants Roy to sanitize Ted's life in the biography he is writing. What do you think are her motives? Are they understandable and justifiable?

Essay Topic 3

Mrs. Encombe is Blackstable's first liberated New Woman--she wears her hair short and her skirt barely covers the top of her boots. People are intimidated by her intellect and joke nervously about her. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze how women are viewed in Cakes and Ale. Does it seem a woman is either a saint or whore? Is this the view of the author or the culture? Or both?

2. Why do you think Rosie is treated sympathetically in Cakes and Ale by the narrator?

3. How does Ted treat Rosie? Does he respect her? Does he care that she violates social convention?

4. Why is Mrs. Encombe viewed askance? Would she be looked at the same way today?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,357 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample