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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 Jennie tell her grandmother her diaphragm was for?

2. What was Vivian's brother's nickname growing up?

3. Who was George Bernard Shaw's favorite actress, according to Vivian in Chapter Nine?

4. Which famous singer did Vivian hear perform in the summer of 1940, though she barely remembers it?

5. What do Vivian and her friends do with the money Dr. Kellogg gives her after they have sex?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Vivian's Aunt Peg receive her when Vivian first appears at The Lily?

2. How does Vivian's Aunt Peg come by enough money to have bought The Lily Playhouse?

3. What circumstances bring Edna Parker Watson and Arthur Watson to The Lily Playhouse?

4. In Chapter Seven, why does Celia tell Vivian to go get her cigarettes and not come back to the hotel room?

5. In Chapter One, why do Vivian's parents send her to live with her Aunt Peg in the summer of 1940?

6. How did Peg, Edna, and Olive first meet?

7. What is Olive's reaction when Peg says she wants to call Billy to help write a new play for Edna to star in?

8. When Vivian receives a letter from Angela asking what she was to Angela's father, how does Vivian decide to respond?

9. Who is Mr. Donald Herbert and how does he react when Peg asks him to write a good, new play for Edna to star in?

10. In Chapter Two, who meets Vivian at the train station and what is this person like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does sex mean to, or symbolize, for Vivian throughout various stages of her life as the novel progresses? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

"Anyway, at some point in a woman's life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is" (377). At what stage in Vivian's life does she come to the above realization, and really become comfortable with the core of who she is?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring how Gilbert treats the subject of alcoholism, and of overindulgence in alcohol, through Peg's and Vivian's characters respectively. Cite specific references to the text to support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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