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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 question does Jason ask Vivian to check her mental status?

2. What will Jason and Kelekian's journal article be about?

3. What does Vivian guess is the reason the student asks a favor of her?

4. Who closes Vivian's eyes after she is given her initial dose of morphine?

5. How does Jason describe John Donne?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the significance of Vivian surviving eight cycles of chemotherapy at the full dosage?

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

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

5. Why does Vivian's pain management have an effect on the play?

6. What is Vivian trying to think of when she reminisces about her interactions with students?

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

8. Why does Vivian feel her recitation of Donne is “wrong” in her last coherent lines?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define aside. Give at least one example of an aside used in the play. How does Edson use asides in Wit? What do asides add to the story?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Explain Vivian's relationship with words. How did words become important to her? Why are words important to her? How does Vivian use her relationship with words during her struggle with cancer? Do words help or hinder her during her treatment?

(see the answer keys)

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