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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. Who is the author of "The Marry Month of May"?

2. What is implied by Mr. Coulson's mention of Palm Beach?

3. Why does Mrs. Widdup go into Mr. Coulson's room in the afternoon on the second day of the story?

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

5. What is clear in the first interaction between Mr. Coulson, Miss Coulson, and Mrs. Widdup?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the thematic significance of the olfactory image of the city in springtime?

3. How do words like "yaller" and "lawsy" in Mrs. Widdup's dialogue characterize her?

4. What is the rhetorical purpose of the allusions to Puck and Circe?

5. What happens overnight that changes Mrs. Widdup and Mr. Coulson's fate?

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

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

8. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).

9. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

10. 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?

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

Make and defend a claim about the purpose of O. Henry's allusions in "The Marry Month of May." Use both paraphrased and quoted textual evidence to support your claim.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you affirm, refute, or qualify the statement "The month of May functions essentially as another character in "The Marry Month of May." Offer textual evidence to support your ideas.

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