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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. Besides football, at what other sport is Nick adept?

2. What reason does George give for not kissing Martha?

3. About what time of the day does the play begin?

4. What saying does Honey drink by?

5. With what does George say he is preoccupied?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Martha's plan for the rest of the night, and why aren't she and George going to bed?

2. How does George set Martha up for embarrassment as he opens the door?

3. What happened to George's school friend who killed his mother?

4. How does the relationship between George and Martha seem different when he returns home?

5. How did Honey's family come to be so wealthy?

6. How does Honey make reference to her hysterical pregnancy when she returns after being sick?

7. Compare George and Martha's attitudes to her father and its effect on George's career?

8. What is Martha's reaction to Get the Guests?

9. What does Nick realize about George and Martha's son?

10. Describe George.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Three times in the play, Honey is reduced to tears or gets sick. Write a paragraph about each of these breakdowns - one in each act - and how, together, they signify the yielding of social grace and denial to the reality of a desperate, helpless life.

Essay Topic 2

Fear of reality is a major theme in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Write an essay on this topic and how it affects the action:

Part 1) George frequently tells and retells the story of a boy who accidentally kills his parents and suffers a descent into insanity. In what ways is this based in reality and in what ways is it fictional?

Part 2) Martha creates a detailed and poetic life for her "son." What purpose does this serve for her?

Part 3) How does the final moment of the the play signify a terror at having to face the real world?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the three games that the are played over the course of the play. Who drives the game, and what is its objective:

Part 1) Humiliate the Host

Part 2) Get the Guests

Part 3) Bringing Up Baby

(see the answer keys)

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