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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. In the simile discussing the impact of an earthquake on a king's subjects, what does the speaker say causes earthquakes?

2. In lines 896 and 897, "Till cheering up her senses sore dismay’d,/ She tells them ’tis a causeless fantasy," what is the antecedent of "them"?

3. What is Venus's motive for flattering death?

4. In line 868, "She hearkens for his hounds and for his horn," which technique best conveys Venus's straining to hear a quiet, far-off sound?

5. How does Venus know that the dogs are barking at a boar, bear, or lion?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Venus tell Adonis about the relationship between jealousy and her foreboding?

2. After Adonis's death, what does Venus predict about love?

3. What happens to Adonis's body at the end of the poem, and how does Venus respond?

4. Explain the pun in lines 827 and 828, when after Adonis leaves, the speaker says of Venus, "Even so confounded in the dark she lay,/ Having lost the fair discovery of her way."

5. What is conveyed by the personification and the simile in the passage where Venus runs through the brush toward the sounds of Adonis's hunting party?

6. What is the meaning of Venus's comments about veils and bonnets after Adonis's death?

7. Describe the details of Venus's vision of Adonis and the boar.

8. What happens to Venus's eyes when she first sees Adonis's dead body?

9. What trick do Venus's eyes play on her after she has been looking at Adonis's body for a few minutes?

10. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Adonis shift the power dynamic between himself and Venus in his favor? Does he do this deliberately, or is it an unconscious byproduct of his assertion of his own values? Is the poem portraying his chastity--and thus his power--as natural or unnatural? How do your answers to these questions shed light on the manner of his death? Why would Adonis refuse to heed the prophecy of a goddess--is it arrogance, mistrust of her motives, or an uncontrollable desire to hunt? What is conveyed about Adonis and his power when he is killed by the boar? Write an essay in which you consider the source of Adonis's power over Venus and the messages the poem conveys about this power. Support your analysis with evidence from the poem, citing any quoted material in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

What does Venus and Adonis convey about lust and love? In the world of the poem, how do the two emotions relate to one another? Is there any difference between these two feelings? Does either lead to human happiness? What do love and lust look like in practice, and how do they impact the characters in the poem? How do the two feelings relate to morality? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position about the messages that Venus and Adonis conveys about love and lust. Support your analysis with evidence from the poem, citing any quoted material in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

You are aware that Shakespeare borrowed from Ovid and that Ovid borrowed from Ancient Greek stories in order to tell the tale of Venus and Adonis. But did the Ancient Greeks also borrow from other sources? Do some research into the Sumarian figures of Dumuzi and Inanna, the Babylonian figures of Tammuz and Ishtar, and the Phoenician figures of Adon and Astarte. What elements of the story stay the same, and what elements change over time? What do you suspect causes the changes in the story as it spreads from society to society? What light does this shed on Shakespeare's choices and the society that he was living in? Write an essay in which you take a position about how the gradual changes in this very old story shed light on the cultures that tell the story--including the culture of Elizabethan England. Support your assertions with evidence from Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and your online historical research. Cite all sources in MLA format.

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