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| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Venus tell Adonis will be the cause of him tripping and falling?
2. What does Venus mean when she says, in lines 649 and 650, "For where love reigns, disturbing jealousy/ Doth call himself affection’s sentinel"?
3. What technique is used in line 720, "'In night,' quoth she, 'desire sees best of all.'"?
4. In the context of the comparison of Adonis's departure to the departure of a friend onboard ship, which of the following words functions as a pun?
5. What does Venus say will die with Adonis?
Short Essay Questions
1. What happens to Adonis's body at the end of the poem, and how does Venus respond?
2. After Adonis's death, what does Venus predict about love?
3. What does Venus suggest Adonis do if he insists on hunting on the following day?
4. Why does Venus say that nature should be convicted of treason, and what is Cynthia's plan to thwart what nature has done?
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 does Venus tell Adonis about the relationship between jealousy and her foreboding?
7. How does Venus contrast the behavior of fish and birds with the behavior of the boar?
8. What does Venus say about death when she thinks that Adonis has died?
9. What is ironic about the description of the colors around the boar's mouth?
10. What does Venus tell Adonis about his beauty and the boar?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Venus certainly believes that Adonis should act on his feelings exactly as his horse does. But does the poem itself convey this message? Consider some of the hidden premises in Venus's argument: she is assuming that Adonis feels the same kind of lust for her that the stallion feels for the jennet, and that the situation between herself and Adonis is no more complex than the situation between the stallion and the jennet. What evidence in the poem tells you that Venus may be deliberately misunderstanding the parallel between her and Adonis and the jennet and the stallion? On the other hand, if this is the case, why do you think the speaker spends so many stanzas extolling the stallion and its behavior? Is the poem sending mixed messages about acting on lustful thoughts, or is there a way to logically reconcile the flaws in Venus's argument with the idealization of the horse's behavior? Write an essay in which you analyze this question, supporting your analysis with evidence from the poem. Cite any quoted material in MLA format.
Essay Topic 2
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.
Essay Topic 3
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.
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This section contains 1,263 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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