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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 Alfonso send Lucrezia a painting of before their wedding?

2. What term of affection does Isabella use for Lucrezia's father?

3. Who is one of Lucrezia's art teachers?

4. What kind of flowers does Lucrezia have on her wedding day?

5. Who comes to see Lucrezia's gifts from Alfonso?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lucrezia think Alfonso wants to do to her in Part I?

2. What does Lucrezia wonder about Alfonso's feelings at their wedding?

3. Why is Cosimo a bit reluctant to have Lucrezia marry the Duke?

4. What does Lucrezia struggle to ask her mother in the carriage on the way to the wedding?

5. What does Leonello tell Lucrezia will happen if she does not produce Alfonso's heir?

6. What does Alfonso urge Lucrezia again and again to do the night before she falls ill?

7. How does the tigress die?

8. What does Lucrezia turn out to have a particular talent for?

9. Where does Lucrezia spend much of her earliest days?

10. How does Sofia help delay Lucrezia's marriage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does O'Farrell skip backwards and forwards in time throughout the novel, and what effect does this choice have on the reader? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 2

How do O'Farrell's descriptions of some of the medical advice, treatments, and conventions of Lucrezia's day inform the reader about the daily lives and struggles of those who lived in that time period? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How do Lucrezia's earliest days at court underscore the entrenchment of the patriarchy? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 497 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample