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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. Which is the best description of Claire and Elizabeth's reunion?

2. What is the first thing the audience sees in Act 1?

3. What does Claire try to explain to the first house guest?

4. What does Claire ask Tom to do?

5. Which is the best description of Anthony?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the setting of Act 2.

2. Describe the attitudes of Claire and Elizabeth when they first meet face to face in Act 1.

3. Regarding Claire's two lovers, what action does she take when she enters the greenhouse?

4. Anthony explains to Harry that Claire gave him what two orders?

5. What do Claire and Tom discuss regarding "The Breath of Life"?

6. When the curtain opens for the second time in Act 1, what is the setting?

7. After some order has been restored in the greenhouse, Anthony remind everyone it is time to do what?

8. At the end of Act 2, what does Claire ask of Dick while they embrace?

9. After Harry leaves to smoke, what does Tom confide to Dick?

10. At the end of the play, Claire has lapsed into madness. Why does the playwright choose to end with Claire singing the verses to a religious hymn?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who or what is the main antagonist in the play? Does the protagonist overcome the antagonist?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Claire prefer her greenhouse plants to grow wild and untamed? Does this mesh with the extreme care she takes to protect the plants from nature? How do these answers support the theme of the play?

Essay Topic 3

What Victorian values are represented by Harry and Adelaide in the play? Why are these values so distasteful to Claire?

(see the answer keys)

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