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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. When she has to choose, what does Laura do?

2. To Clarissa, what does Mary resemble?

3. How has Laura set the table?

4. What is Clarissa nervous about?

5. What do Virginia and Vanessa do behind Nelly's back?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What distracts Laura as she gets out of her car at Mrs. Latch's house?

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

4. What makes Virginia, at this point, begin to reconsider killing off her character, Mrs. Dalloway?

5. What writing decision of Virginia's is prompted by her success in her campaign to move back to London?

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

7. Why is suicide not an option for Laura?

8. What do the two women exchange as Laura prepares to return home?

9. What does Louis think of Clarissa?

10. What is Sally's reaction to Walter's present-buying?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Cunningham's style in The Hours. Was it essential for him to adopt a style similar to Virginia Woolf's in order to compose this novel?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

There are numerous interpersonal tensions running through all sections of Michael Cunningham's The Hours. Discuss two of these interpersonal tensions. Are they resolved during the novel? How do they affect the characters who are involved? How are these tensions associated with the themes and/or symbols that are important in the novel?

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