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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 is unusual about Clarissa and Sally?

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

3. What world does Laura feel she now inhabits?

4. What is little Richie's response to his mother's return?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Over what matters concerning Julia does Clarissa worry?

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

3. What is Sally's reaction to Walter's present-buying?

4. What is unusual about Louis' visit?

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

6. What is ironic about Richard's apartment being open to the light?

7. In what ways are Clarissa and Mary different?

8. What does Louis think of Clarissa?

9. Why is suicide not an option for Laura?

10. Which character is referred to as the subjugated Amazon Queen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

'The ways in which people approach their everyday activities tells us a great deal about them.' Closely explore the way this happens in Michael Cunningham's The Hours.

Essay Topic 3

Choose one major character from the novel The Hours and explore the way in which conflict is important to that character's development.

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