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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 Dr. Kramer's evaluation of Jim in Act 1, Scene 3?

2. What is Jim's state of mind when the doctors attempt to question him in Act 1, Scene 1?

3. What does Dr. Barrow ask Ann about Jim's letter?

4. What floor of the hospital does the first scene of Act 2 take place on?

5. What job does Jim currently hold?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Jim learn from Miss Wingate about Ann at the end of Act 2, Scene 3?

2. What is Jim's mood in the last scene of Act 2, and why does he feel that way?

3. What is Jim's theory about life and death, and why his suicide attempt should not been seen as selfish?

4. How does Jim handle Dr. Bellman in the fourth scene of Act 3 and why?

5. When does Act 3, Scene 2 take place and who is meeting at the beginning of the scene?

6. What does Tom say about Ann's family and how is this another example of her control over him?

7. Who is Tom and what is the purpose for his visit in Act 3, Scene 3?

8. How might Harry be able to help Jim, and why doesn't he?

9. According to the doctors in the second scene of Act 3, how has Jim been behaving?

10. What is ironic about the way the play ends and what message was the author trying to deliver?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think the author's intent was for ending the play so tragically?

1) What is the message he is conveying with Jim's hopelessness? How is Jim's release from the hospital ironic? What is your opinion of the way Jim sacrifices everything in his life that makes him happy in order to live a life of restriction and control.

2) How is Jim's life with Ann similar to his stay at the hospital? Which one do you think is worse? Why?

3) What was Jim's role in the ending? How much of the responsibility should he claim for how his life turned out? To what extent is he a victim compared to a contributor? Why?

4) Was there another way to end the play where Jim did not have to suffer so much? If not, why? If there was, what could it have been?

Essay Topic 2

Ann clearly has an agenda.

1) Describe Ann's character in detail, including the personality traits that you think are the most important, and how the author displays them.

2) Explain what Ann's objective is and why she is willing to act in extreme ways to attain it.

3) Why do you think Ann wants Jim to return to their marriage so badly? Describe the events in the book that might lead to the answer.

Essay Topic 3

Charlotte is a very interesting character because she was never seen. Explain why you think the author chose to portray her this way. What does she represent for Jim? Why is that important and what does her absence mean for his situation? Describe in what ways Charlotte may have been able to help Jim and how she was prevented from participating in his life. Also, discuss Jim and Charlotte's relationship and why you think he was willing to never see her again by ending his life, despite the fact that she seemed so important to him and turned out to be a great source of hope for him. What reasons could he have had for not sensing her importance before? Was that a mistake on his part? In what way?

(see the answer keys)

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