View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. A. Alvarez ended his interview with Malcolm in Part Two: Chapter VII by concluding that Ted could never accept the fact that Sylvia's life and death was ________ and he could do nothing to change that.
(a) Not perfect.
(b) A rollercoaster.
(c) Dramatic.
(d) In the public domain.

2. How many children did Assia Wevill have with Ted Hughes?
(a) One.
(b) Three.
(c) Two.
(d) Zero.

3. How did Trevor Thomas know Sylvia Plath?
(a) He worked at her favorite restraunt.
(b) They went to school together.
(c) He lived below her.
(d) They worked together at one time.

4. What was the title of Ted Hughes' last work?
(a) Flowers and Insects.
(b) Wolfwatching.
(c) The Hawk in the Rain.
(d) Birthday Letters.

5. Sylvia wrote in her journals that she was certain she had the ability to commit suicide, murder a woman, and ____________.
(a) Strangle a cat.
(b) Wrestle a lion.
(c) Outsmart a fox.
(d) Wound a man.

6. Anne Stevenson left her second husband and children to go off with what poet?
(a) Oscar Wilde.
(b) Allen Ginsberg.
(c) Phillip Hobsbaum.
(d) Walt Whitman.

7. There was always a close association between Sylvia's work and what?
(a) Her love of Shakespeare.
(b) Her personal life.
(c) Her spirituality.
(d) Her love of Greek literature.

8. What book did A. Alvarez write on the subject of divorce?
(a) Where Did It All Go Right?
(b) Day of Atonement.
(c) Life After Marriage.
(d) Beyond All This Fiddle.

9. What was the name of the man Sylvia was involved with when she met Ted Hughes?
(a) Ralph Brighton.
(b) David Neighbors.
(c) Richard Sassoon.
(d) Abraham Thompson.

10. To A. Alvarez, Anne Stevenson was a minor writer writing about a major writer and thus there was natural ____________.
(a) Jealousy.
(b) Cautiousness.
(c) Envy.
(d) Admiration.

11. According to a letter from Anne Stevenson in which she provided her take on Sylvia and her work, Sylvia had used poetry as a way to stage her own what?
(a) Demise.
(b) Psychodrama.
(c) Suicide.
(d) Life.

12. When The Journals of Sylvia Plath were published, they were met with derision--first because of Ted's admission that he had done what?
(a) Never read them.
(b) Taken out parts that offended him.
(c) Made up several passages.
(d) Lost a journal.

13. In her book, Jacqueline Rose took to task what work as a cause célèbre that was concocted by the Hughes?
(a) Crossing the Water.
(b) Bitter Fame.
(c) Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices.
(d) Winter Trees.

14. When was Jacqueline Rose's biography of Sylvia Plath published?
(a) 1988.
(b) 1991.
(c) 1987.
(d) 1994.

15. In Part Two: Chapter IV, Malcolm hadn't been able to interview Alvarez or Ted because who basically disallowed it?
(a) Frances McCullough.
(b) Clarissa Roche.
(c) Aurelia Plath.
(d) Olwyn Hughes.

Short Answer Questions

1. Sylvia Plath's extremism and ________ were things that Anne Stevenson deplored.

2. What did Elizabeth Sigmund portray Olwyn Hughes as being envious of in her interview with Malcolm?

3. When The Journals of Sylvia Plath were published, it left many thinking that the words and spirit of Sylvia had been ___________.

4. In Part Two: Chapters VIII, Elizabeth Sigmund mentioned that Ted and Carol no longer speak to whom?

5. The author writes that biographers love letters since they are the fossils of ___________.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 514 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample