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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 the narrator wonder about Shakespeare as she looks for answers in his tragedies?

2. To what does the narrator compare compiling information about the day-to-day life of a woman?

3. What color is "the light of truth?"

4. What occupation does Shakespeare's fictional sister set out to do?

5. What trait does the narrator ascribe to male writers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kinds of things does Dorothy write about, in contrast to the Lady and Margaret?

2. Where, according to the narrator, does genius like that of Shakespeare's come from?

3. What major differences does the narrator find between women in fiction and women in history?

4. Even though they originally were drawn to poetry, why does the narrator say women wrote novels?

5. What does reading the newspaper in Chapter 2 make the narrator conclude?

6. According to the books the narrator finds about the position of women in history, what treatment of women was typical in England's history?

7. What does the narrator say about measuring a woman's accomplishments?

8. What motives does Woolf reveal for her lecture?

9. What are the two criticisms that Woolf addresses in Chapter 6?

10. What comical comparison does the narrator cite as one that men often use for the idea of women writing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the consistent references to rhythm and flow throughout the text. What imagery evokes a rhythmic flow in the narrator's story? What does Woolf explicitly say about rhythm and unity?

Essay Topic 2

What does the narrator seem to say about relationships, both between characters and real people? What do we seek in relationships, according to the narrator?

Essay Topic 3

What major obstacles do women writers face, according to the narrator? Provide and describe three examples from the text. At what time, and why, did these obstacles exist? Were they overcome? How? What obstacles still exist?

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