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. Who does Laura desire?

2. Who wears gold-rimmed glasses?

3. What jewelry is Laura wearing?

4. What causes Laura's unexpressed desperation?

5. What does Laura feel herself to be?

Short Essay Questions

1. What fears does Virginia have at this point in the novel?

2. Which character is referred to as the subjugated Amazon Queen?

3. What are some of the ways in which Laura justifies to herself her trip to the hotel just in order to read?

4. What does Louis think of Clarissa?

5. What does Virginia see as a kind of devil?

6. What are Laura's rather bitter hopes about heaven?

7. Why does Walter want to buy his young partner a present?

8. What is unusual about Louis' visit?

9. Why has Virginia's attitude changed?

10. Why does Laura delay joining her husband in bed as his birthday draws to an end?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the tension between commitment and freedom in the lives of the characters in Michael Cunningham's The Hours. Focus particularly on two major characters and one minor one.

Essay Topic 2

'Cunningham's The Hours is unremittingly depressing.' Do you agree? Is the view of life he presents a gloomy one? Refer closely to the text.

Essay Topic 3

How can knowledge of the context in which literature was composed deepen a reader's appreciation of the text? In your answer, refer closely to The Hours by Michael Cunningham, but you might expand your response by including reference to an additional text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 757 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample