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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 Vivian compare herself to when she says she wants to explain but is unable?

2. What test does Vivian have to have done when she is interrupted while she imagines she is teaching?

3. What question does Vivian ask Jason when he visits her room in Scene 11?

4. What does Jason come in to Vivian's room to check at the beginning of Scene 11?

5. Who convinces Vivian to go to her test when she imagines she is teaching?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jason simplify the explanation of Vivian's kidney function?

2. Why does Vivian think of herself as “just the specimen jar?”

3. Why does Vivian recite the sonnet beginning “This is my playes last scene?”

4. Why does Vivian shut her own eyelids and cross her arms over her chest?

5. Why does Vivian make her bed alarm go off in the middle of the night?

6. Why does Susie tell Vivian that she and Jason are inserting a catheter even though she can't hear Susie?

7. Why is Vivian given a morphine drip instead of patient-controlled analgesic?

8. What two options did Vivian have when a student's comment contained an insightful seed? What were the possible consequences of each?

9. What is the significance of Vivian noting to Susie that she is a teacher after they share a laugh?

10. How do Jason and Susie's views of Vivian compare and contrast?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define characterization. Give at least one example of each type of characterization used in Wit to describe Vivian. Write a brief character biography of Vivian.

Essay Topic 2

Explain the title of the play. What is wit? How is it used in literature? Whose wit is being referred to by the title of the play? What role does wit have throughout the play?

Essay Topic 3

Explain the controversy surrounding Vivian's end-of-life wishes. What are Vivian's wishes? How does each of her caregivers feel about these wishes? Are Vivian's wishes honored at the end of the play? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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