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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 has Laura set the table?

2. What is the cause of Mary's emotional distress?

3. According to Virginia, what makes a person technically insane?

4. What does the unusual light in Richard's apartment reveal?

5. What does London mean to Virginia?

Short Essay Questions

1. What distracts Laura as she gets out of her car at Mrs. Latch's house?

2. What fears does Virginia have at this point in the novel?

3. What makes Virginia, at this point, begin to reconsider killing off her character, Mrs. Dalloway?

4. What gives Laura the feeling that she has actually succeeded in achieving a kind of perfection?

5. What are Laura's rather bitter hopes about heaven?

6. What are some of the ways in which Laura justifies to herself her trip to the hotel just in order to read?

7. In what way is Laura's ambivalence towards her husband evident in Chapter 19 of The Hours?

8. Over what matters concerning Julia does Clarissa worry?

9. What do the two women exchange as Laura prepares to return home?

10. In what ways are Clarissa and Mary different?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Richard Worthington Brown's death a tragedy? You need to consider the nature of tragedy as well as the illness Richard suffered.

Essay Topic 2

Much of the novel, The Hours, deals with characters' views of themselves and their fears concerning failure. Are these people actually successful, and in which ways or spheres of endeavor?

Essay Topic 3

How do the various characters in The Hours by Michael Cunningham deal with the disappointments in their lives? Focus on three characters. What kinds of disappointments are faced? Do the characters deal with their difficulties successfully, or not?

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