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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. Who is Beulah's husband?
2. What is peculiar about the birds that Val tells Lady about?
3. Where does Beulah say that the ice box is located?
4. Where is the play set?
5. What is the pharmacist's name?
Short Essay Questions
1. What did Carol do that got her banned from the county overnight?
2. Explain Vee's feelings about painting.
3. What did Lady's father do after Prohibition took hold?
4. Who does Carol make a phone call to in Act 1 Scene 1? Why?
5. How does Val regard his guitar?
6. What conversation occurs between Beulah and Lady in Act 3 Scene 3?
7. What does Lady ask Val in Act 2 Scene 4 about the money? What does he respond?
8. Why does Lady call the pharmacist in Act 1 Scene 2?
9. What is Val's memory of the woman he saw on the bayou?
10. What have the Town Women gone upstairs in Lady and Jabe's house for? What do they remark about it?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Orpheus Descending is in part about the place of the artist in society. What role should the artist play? Is the artist always likely to be marginalized, like Val, or misunderstood, like Vee, in a conventional, materialistic society? For what should the artist stand, if anything?
Essay Topic 2
Describe the use of snake and reptile imagery in the play. What does Carol's last line mean? Paraphrase this line in your answer and describe how it relates to Val.
Essay Topic 3
Compare and contrast the characters of Lady and Jabe. What do each of these characters represent symbolically? How are they alike? How are they different.
This section contains 758 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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