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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 happens to Antoinette when she grows into a young lady of about seventeen?

2. What does Antoinette recognize about her mother when she first goes to visit her after moving from Coulibri Estate?

3. What is the fate of Coulibri Estate?

4. What else does Antoinette say she dreams in Part One?

5. How does Antoinette feel about the garden?

Short Essay Questions

1. Are any of the nuns sympathetic to Antoinette on her first day of school?

2. Does Antoinette's husband like Grandbois?

3. What is the dream Antoinette mentions having just after her fight with Tia?

4. What happens when Antoinette arrives at the convent school for her first day?

5. Does Grace Poole seem to take good care of Antoinette?

6. How does Antoinette get a knife in Part Three?

7. Does Antoinette's husband seem to change the morning after he and Antoinette share their first intimate evening together at Grandbois?

8. What details does Antoinette give about her mother after the fire at Coulibri?

9. How does Antoinette feel when she first visits the convent school?

10. Why is Grace Poole angry with Antoinette the morning Antoinette wakes up with swollen, red wrists?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the Sargasso Sea? Where is it located and what does it divide? Why do you think Jean Rhys uses this as her title? Does it tie in to the story's theme of isolation in any way? How? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Jean Rhys created a back story for Bertha Mason of "Jane Eyre"? Do you believe this story is a good example of feminist response to a patriarchal cannon of literature? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Isolation is one of the main themes in this story. Describe how Antoinette is isolated during different phases of the story. Do you think her isolation contributed to her mental state? Isolation can be bridged through communication. How might Antoinette have changed her fate had she been able to communicate with her husband?

(see the answer keys)

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