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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 implied about Miss Coulson when she looks at the flowers "with the eye of a botanist" (334)?

2. The narrator says,"Pixies and flibbertigibbits haunt the budding woods" (332). What is in the woods?

3. Where Mr. Coulson is sitting, two main smells are "battling": the smell of flowers and what other smell?

4. When Mr. Coulson is irritated, he complains that no one in the house does what?

5. When Miss Coulson stands thinking at the window, to what insects does she mentally compare Mr. Coulson and Mrs. Widdup?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Mr. Coulson complains that no one in the house cares if he lives or dies, how does Mrs. Widdup's reply set the events of the story in motion?

2. What is the significance of the sound of the overturned chair after Mr. Coulson confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup?

3. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?

4. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?

5. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).

6. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

7. Explain the significance of the diction "foxy" to describe Mrs. Widdup (333).

8. How does O. Henry characterize the month of May?

9. What rhetorical purposes does O. Henry accomplish with his introduction of Mr. Coulson through a list of things that he "has," like gout, money, and a daughter?

10. How does O. Henry use verbal misunderstandings to characterize Mrs. Widdup when she first appears in Mr. Coulson's room?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you explore the beliefs about marriage revealed in "The Marry Month of May." Give textual support for your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the statement "The twist ending in "The Marry Month of May" is an 'unearned' twist, because it is not plausible given the story that leads up to it." Use textual evidence to support your claim.

Essay Topic 3

Make and defend a claim about O. Henry's "The Marry Month of May" as an example of American Naturalism. Support your ideas with evidence from the text; if you use outside sources, be sure to cite them in MLA format.

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