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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. When the story opens, in which room of her house is Mary waiting?

2. When Mary is waiting in the library at the beginning of the story, where is Ned?

3. When Mary tells Ned what she has learned from her mail, how does Ned react?

4. On page 84, the narrator links isolated environments to "acuities of emotion." What are "acuities of emotion"?

5. For the past week, what has Mary been assuming is the cause for Ned's need to be alone and his odd mood?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the Boynes tell Alida Stair about why Lyng's drawbacks are not problems from their point of view?

2. What happens with the mysterious visitor on the day that Ned disappears?

3. What does Alida Stair tell the Boynes about Lyng?

4. After she finds out that he has gone out with the mysterious man and not yet returned, why is Mary immediately alarmed?

5. Describe the emotional condition that Mary is in in section "IV" of the story.

6. What does Ned tell Mary about the Blue Star lawsuit?

7. In the narrative present at the beginning of the story, where is Mary and what is she doing?

8. How has Ned's mood changed on the morning after he and Mary first discussed the Blue Star lawsuit, and what does Mary believe changed his mood?

9. What do Mary and Ned plan to do with their time at Lyng?

10. In the beginning of section "IV," how much time has elapsed since Ned's disappearance, and what has been happening in that time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that examines the issue of unearned privilege in "Afterward." How far does the story go in its critique of Mary and Ned's lifestyle? Might it have gone further? You may choose to also use evidence about Wharton's own life, depending on the scope of your thesis; if you do so, be sure to cite your sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Edith Wharton once wrote in a letter to a friend, "The American landscape has no foreground and the American mind no background." She was talking about gardening and landscaping, which was a special interest of hers, and justifying her taste for importing European landscape fashions to her own property. Consider this quote in relationship to the setting and characterizations in "Afterward." What do you think that Wharton meant by the quote, and does her having said it make her seem more or less like the Boynes? Write an essay in which you explore the quote and then make and defend a claim about how it sheds light on Wharton's relationship to the Boynes.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the appropriateness of Dorset as a setting for "Afterward." Use textual support in your defense, and be sure to cite any outside sources in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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