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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. How does Alessandra get the painter to let her in the chapel in Chapter 29?

2. In Chapter 40, why does the monk ask Alessandra and Erila for help?

3. In Chapter 23, what does Savonarola say about his sermon?

4. What makes Tomaso confess his homosexuality to his mother?

5. Why do Alessandra's servants feel compassion for her when she is pregnant?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alessandra do when she begins to go into labor?

2. What happens when Alessandra visits the chapel before the dedication?

3. How does Savonarola respond to being excommunicated?

4. How does Erila react when she learns that Alessandra and the painter made love?

5. How does Alessandra prepare to end her life?

6. When Alessandra visits the painter while he is locked in the chapel, what does she discover about his art?

7. In Chapter 47, what convinces Alessandra that her daughter is the painter's child?

8. What does Savonarola do when the plague comes to Florence?

9. How does Alessandra grow closer to the painter when he stays with her and Cristoforo?

10. Why does Alessandra apologize to her mother in Chapter 35?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze this novel as an example of historical fiction.

Essay Topic 2

What role does infidelity play in The Birth of Venus? How does the author portray infidelity as a positive thing? As a negative thing?

Essay Topic 3

How does this novel develop the Italian Renaissance into a character instead of a setting?

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