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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 Vivian respond when the student asks her for a favor?

2. What question is Vivian asked every year by a student?

3. How does Vivian say some would describe her in everything she has done?

4. What course does Jason think is a colossal waste of time for researchers?

5. What is the date of the poem Vivian recites after her ultrasound?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Vivian surviving eight cycles of chemotherapy at the full dosage?

2. Why is Vivian given a morphine drip instead of patient-controlled analgesic?

3. Why does Vivian tell the audience that “now is the time for kindness?”

4. Why does Vivian allow Susie to call her “sweetheart?”

5. Why is Vivian unable to explain to the audience what she is going through before she receives morphine?

6. Why does Vivian's pain management have an effect on the play?

7. What is the joke that makes Vivian laugh when Susie gives her morphine?

8. Why does Vivian feel her recitation of Donne is “wrong” in her last coherent lines?

9. Why does Vivian make her bed alarm go off in the middle of the night?

10. Why does Vivian think of herself as “just the specimen jar?”

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define theme. Identify one theme of the play. How does Edson express this theme throughout the play? What point is she trying to make through this theme?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast Vivian and Jason. How are they alike? How are they different? How does Edson use these similarities and differences to deepen the story?

Essay Topic 3

Define symbolism. Give at least one example of symbolism used in Wit. What is this a symbol of? Why is it important to the play?

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