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 illness does Felix have?

2. Why do the poker players have trouble playing at the beginning of the play?

3. How is Vinnie's personality best described?

4. Why does Felix say that he is not going to try to hurt himself the night after the first poker game?

5. What is Roy's occupation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What embarrassing thing does Oscar do when the Pigeon sisters arrive, and what does this suggest about Oscar?

2. How many rooms does Oscar's apartment have, and what does this show?

3. How is Gwendolyn different from Cecily?

4. When the other poker players start to complain to Oscar about Felix, how does Oscar respond?

5. Why does Oscar's wife leave him?

6. How does Felix act when he arrives at the first poker game?

7. What is the climax of the play, as demonstrated in the final scene?

8. What does Oscar say at the end of his and Felix's last argument, and how does he emphasize his point?

9. When the Murray, Speed, Vinnie, and Roy leave the first poker game, what do they say, and how does Oscar reassure them?

10. Describe the friends with whom Oscar plays poker.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze how Oscar, Felix, and the Pigeon Sisters demonstrate gender norms of the time period in which the play is set.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the marriages and divorces of Oscar and Felix, and analyze what these events reveal about them as characters.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate what you think is the message Neil Simon is trying to send about human relationships in The Odd Couple.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 701 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample