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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 disease does Merivel come down with?

2. What calms Katherine down?

3. How does Merivel feel about his sexual affair with Katherine?

4. Who does Merivel think about as he leaves with Katherine?

5. What does Pearce lose, that Merivel helps him find?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Merivel discover when he examines Pearce?

2. How does Merivel feel about Pearce?

3. Who makes up the staff of Whittlesea Hospital?

4. What happens when Merivel illicitly visits Katherine?

5. What does Merivel offer Finn?

6. How does the King feel about Merivel, after time has passed?

7. How does Will feel about his master leaving?

8. How are the most insane patients treated?

9. What prompts Katherine to try to hang herself?

10. How does Merivel feel about Bath?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the characters' control over their own lives in the novel.

1) How does a character's birth and family affect his or her life in the novel? Can a character change the course of his or her life?

2) How does chance and fate affect the characters' lives in the novel?

3) How do characters control their own lives and futures in the novel, and to what extent?

Essay Topic 2

Merivel is the central character of the novel, and much of the novel revolves around Merivel and his personal perceptions and growth. Discuss Merivel as a character.

1) What are Merivel's primary personality traits at the beginning of the novel? How did those traits develop?

2) How does Merivel change over the course of the novel? How does living at the mental hospital and among the poor in Cheapside affect him?

3) What is Merivel's personality like at the end of the novel? In what ways is he still the same, and in what ways has he changed?

Essay Topic 3

Power is a defining element in relationships in the novel. Discuss power in the novel.

1) What gives characters power over others in the novel?

2) What gives the King power, and what are the limits of the King's power? How does the King use his power?

3) What kind of power does Merivel have as a doctor and as an associate of the King in the novel? How does he use this power?

(see the answer keys)

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