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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 does the second house guest do when he sees that no one can help him enter the greenhouse?

2. What does Claire require the second house guest to do before she will let him enter the greenhouse?

3. What does Claire want Elizabeth to do regarding the plants?

4. What is the first sound the audience hears in Act 1?

5. What does Harry help Hattie to do when he returns during the second part of Act 1?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the profession of Claire's lover, Dick? How is his profession indicative of his character?

2. What is the profession of Claire's husband, Harry? How is his profession indicative of his character?

3. Following the exchanges between Claire, Adelaide, and Harry, what does Claire do and how do other characters respond?

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

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

6. What is the significance of the plant being called "The Breath of Life," and what is the symbolic importance of the act of blooming?

7. What is Dr. Emmons' diagnosis and recommendation regarding Claire?

8. Why is Claire frustrated by her inability to explain the importance of her plants?

9. Claire agrees to unlock the door for Tom under what condition?

10. Adelaide says that she goes about in the world, free, busy, and happy, because among people she has no time to think of herself. Why is this statement distasteful to Claire?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how the professions of the main male characters reflect or amplify their general personalities. Is it significant that Claire's liaisons outside of marriage are with artistic types?

Essay Topic 2

Given Claire's disdain for traditional womanly roles such as being a good wife, a loving mother, or a proper hostess, what values might she admire in a woman and aspire to for herself? How do these values uphold the general tone of the play in which Claire's unrest represents the struggles of women in the early days of the Women's Movement?

Essay Topic 3

Why does Glaspell introduce several of the characters via an unusual and convoluted breakfast scene, featuring confusion about salt and pepper, a gun, Claire's inability to express herself, and a dropped egg?

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