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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 does London mean to Virginia?

2. Why can't Laura take the sleeping pills?

3. As she drives, in what does Laura find consolation?

4. Why does Clarissa imagine Julia despises her?

5. Where would Clarissa like her ashes to be scattered?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Over what matters concerning Julia does Clarissa worry?

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

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

7. Why is suicide not an option for Laura?

8. What is unusual about Louis' visit?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

'Cunningham's The Hours is unremittingly depressing.' Do you agree? Is the view of life he presents a gloomy one? Refer closely to the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that discusses the contribution of the minor characters in The Hours. Could any of them have been omitted? What difference do they make to the story? Do they enrich it in any way?

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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