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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 are the two dominant images of Section 8's introduction?

2. In Section 8, who says, "I have been torn apart"?

3. Which of the characters appears most able to move on from the significant news in Section 5?

4. Where are the characters gathering in Section 8?

5. What is the best way to characterize the tone of Bernard's first Section 8 monologue?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Section 6, we encounter the three character who were omitted from the previous section. Describe their places in life at this point.

2. Characterize Neville's state of mind as he appears at the end of Section 6.

3. Why does Bernard travel to Rome in Section 7?

4. What is the significance of the way the birds are depicted in Section 7's introduction?

5. What is different about Susan in Section 7?

6. Describe how Louis appears in Section 6.

7. What do the characters do after they leave the restaurant in Section 8, and what happens then?

8. Describe how Jinny appears in Section 6.

9. What is significant about how Rhoda appears in Section 7?

10. What is most notable about Section 5's opening description and why?

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

What is the significance of Woolf choosing the passage of a single day as a metaphor for the passage of a group of lives from childhood to old age and even death? What about the metaphor is apt, and what does not seem proper? Why does Woolf include such a vast variety of images that do not always play into the central meaning of the text? What is the importance of the italicization of these passages? Elaborate as much as you can.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay which compares and contrasts any two of the sections' introductory vignettes. Pick one vignette which is typical of the whole novel, and one which is atypical (there are two in particular). What separates these vignettes? Include as many reasons as you can think of as to why Woolf would change her method at such a point in the text.

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