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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 Karl imply that Mary is?

2. What does Mary say that further angers Karl?

3. How does Mary feel when the conversation turns away from the subject of Karl?

4. Why does Rowley ask for the gun?

5. What will Rowley tie onto a rock and drop in the Arno river?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Nina relate to Mary about what Nina learns from Agata?

2. What does the Princess say about the party from the previous evening?

3. What is said between Rowley and Mary about Edgar and Mary's possible marriage to him?

4. How does the altercation between Karl and Mary resolve itself?

5. What is the first way Rowley suggests they handle the situation and what is Mary's response?

6. How does Karl end up in a concentration camp and how does he get to Italy?

7. Who wakes Mary and what does Mary tell the person?

8. Describe the scene of Mary and Rowley getting rid of Karl's body.

9. How does the situation between Mary and Karl start to deteriorate?

10. What does Mary rush to her dresser to find and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Setting as far as place and time play an important role in Up at the Villa, if compared to twenty-first century's social mores. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast several aspects of the setting of that day from how it would be today. Consider things such as cultural norms/expectations, technology, religion and medicine.

2. Do you think Up at the Villa would be different if it were set in the United States of America in that same era? Consider particularly class issues.

3. What issues that are present in the time of Up at the Villa would still be issues today? What would no longer be issues? Consider such things as class, women's roles, sexual freedom, propriety and manners, and integrity.

Essay Topic 2

Maugham chooses to write the novel as a third person, impersonal narrator. Discuss the following:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this novel being written in the third person, impersonal narration?

2. Do you think the novel would be more effective in a different point of view? Which one if so? If not why do you think the impersonal narrator works the best?

3. Do you think the narrator in Up at the Villa is reliable, i.e., do you believe the narrator is completely unbiased? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 3

Though Mary is fully an adult in her early thirties and has had an abusive marriage, she is still rather naive, though she seems to mature and become more of an adult by the end of the novel. Discuss the following:

1. Define Bildungsroman, or "Coming of Age," and give several examples from literature you have read.

2. Trace and analyze the character of Mary as she changes from a rather naive woman to a sadder, but wiser, woman. What are the significant events in this brief week that change Mary?

3. After thoroughly analyzing Mary's growth, do you think Up at the Villa could be considered Mary's Coming of Age story? Why or why not?

4. Are there any other characters in Up at the Villa who go through a Coming of Age experience? Who? Why do you think so?

(see the answer keys)

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