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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 is the Bear and Key where William stays like?

2. Where does Rosie take William?

3. What habit does William get into doing?

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

5. With what motif is William's old room decorated?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does William describe his visit to his former quarters and his landlady, Mrs. Hudson?

2. Describe the Driffields's neighborhood and home.

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

4. Describe how William encounters Rosie in New York?

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

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

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

8. Describe the motel in which William takes a room when he comes to share memories about Ted with Roy and Amy .

9. Describe Isabel's work on Ted's behalf.

10. What novel does Ted publish which is a ruthlessly unsentimental tale dealing with a child's death, and what is the public's response to the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rosie Driffield is a person and idea that weaves itself throughout the entire narrative. One might even say that the book is about Rosie rather than Ted or any other character. Discuss the following:

1. Discuss Rosie's character. What are her strengths and weaknesses? Is she presented as a well-rounded or flat character? What is she passionate about? Is she passionate about anything? Is she honest and sincere? Is this a woman that men and maybe some women would die for? Why or why not?

2. Does Rosie change from when she is revealed as a young woman to when she is older and William writes about meeting her again in New York? How is she the same? How is she different?

3. Rosie ignores the rather strict conventions of her day for women. She neither feels bound by convention nor feels the need to flaunt her behavior. Research and state the beliefs about women and expectations of behavior for women of this late Victorian era. How does Rosie fit or break those beliefs/expectations? Give specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1. What is a plot? What are the most important elements of a plot and their definition? Do all novels have a plot? Why or why not?

2. Write a brief synopsis of the plot of Cakes and Ale, identifying where the various elements of the plot occur. Did you find it difficult to identify the plot? Why or why not? What about the various elements of the plot?

3. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in Cakes and Ale. How do you think Cakes and Ale be different if this were about the life of working class people rather than artists?

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)

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