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. What does Tom confide to Dick?

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

3. Who are Tom and Dick?

4. What does Claire push off the table?

5. When the curtain opens for a second time in Act 1, what is the scene?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Harry realize when Claire runs to Dick?

2. What character is onstage alone at the beginning of Act 2, and which two characters join the first character?

3. What does Claire do as a result of her anger and disillusionment with Tom?

4. 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?

5. When Tom realizes the greenhouse door is locked, what does he do?

6. What does Harry tell Claire he plans to do regarding her mental health?

7. Describe what happens after Dick asks Claire about her plants.

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

9. When Claire and Tom are alone in the tower room, what does Claire admit to Tom, and what is his response?

10. What does Harry confide to Tom and Dick, and what response does he receive?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How are light and sound used to forward the plot and atmosphere of "The Verge"?

Essay Topic 3

How do Claire's plants illustrate her emotional state and the dissatisfaction of some women during the era of the play?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 651 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample