View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which character closes Section 2?

2. How old is Rhoda in Section 3?

3. In Section 3, what common action does Jinny find "strange"?

4. Who decides to "put off my hopeless desire to be Susan, to be Jinny"?

5. What does Neville declare himself to be in Section 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Bernard's announcement of his engagement in Section 4 significant?

2. Describe the attitude of the characters towards each other prior to Percival's arrival in Section 4.

3. Characterize how Louis expresses his differences from Neville and Bernard in Section 3.

4. How does the group act differently when Percival arrives in Section 4?

5. Bernard is clearly becoming the most central of the six characters. Describe his characteristics as he appears in Section 3.

6. Why is it relevant that Bernard is the first speaker in Section 4?

7. Describe how Neville and Bernard are different as they appear in Section 3.

8. Overall, what should the reader take away as most significant from Section 1?

9. What is significant about displaying the children in school in the novel's first section?

10. Describe the fears, or the lack of fears, that the characters articulate in Section 3.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In a detailed essay, outline the role Rhoda plays in the group. Is she a kind of tragic hero? What is the source or her paralysis and misanthropy? Fully describe this character using ample textual evidence.

Essay Topic 2

How is Woolf able to create a coherent text that features a plot that can be summed up in the course of a few sentences (which you should offer in the course of your essay)? What are her greatest successes and greatest failures? Keep in mind that this was Virgina Woolf's last fully completed novel published before her suicide, and is often regarded as her masterpiece (although many of her works are generally considered masterpieces in their own right). Do you agree with the historical appraisal of this novel? It is okay to not like, or even hate this novel, a text that engages in such high levels of experimentation is likely to be divisive. In regard to how you feel towards the novel in particular, try and fathom whatever the opposite opinion could be. That is, if you find the novel successful, talk about how you can see that others may find it tedious and difficult.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the characters of Louis and Bernard, who seem to constantly sway between admiration and jealousy toward each other. Why do they pursue such separate life paths? What leads them to their major decisions? How do they find themselves at the novel's conclusion? What makes them arguably the two most similar characters in the text?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,662 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample