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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. In a letter to Anne Stevenson, Ted defended his stance of publicly disassociating himself from ________.

2. Immediately after Sylvia's suicide, whom did Elizabeth Sigmund blame?

3. What did Ted Hughes called Alvarez' assertion that there was a professional jealousy between him and Sylvia?

4. Anne Stevenson left her second husband and children to go off with what poet?

5. The editor of The Journals of Sylvia Plath defended her cuts as ___________ when publishing such raw material as journal entries?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Ted Hughes write to Anne Stevenson regarding Bitter Fame?

2. What did Anne Stevenson reveal about Ted Hughes in her interview with Malcolm in Part Two: Chapter IV?

3. When and why did Anne Stevenson and Olwyn Hughes put their differences behind them?

4. What letter did Plath write to Richard Sassoon in The Journals of Sylvia Plath? How did this relate to her later poetry?

5. How did Sylvia Plath demonstrate her "not nice" side in her journals?

6. What was A. Alvarez's main criticism about Anne Stevenson's biography of Sylvia?

7. Where did Malcolm detour on her way to visit Clarissa Roche? Why?

8. What kind of life did Anne Stevenson live? How was she similar to Sylvia Plath?

9. When and why did Clarissa Roche begin a biography on Sylvia? What was it like?

10. What did Malcolm write of the unread letter in Part Three: Chapter III?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the psychological assessments of Sylvia Plath. What psychiatrist did Plath see during her struggle with depression? For what did Plath show symptoms?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Linda Wagner-Martin and Ronald Hayman. When was Wagner-Martin's biography written? Was it published?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the coming-of-age period during the 1950s of Sylvia Plath. How did the public and critics respond to Plath's poetry? What impact did she have on women during the period in which the feminist movement began?

(see the answer keys)

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