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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 request does Eduard make of the person who visits him in his solitude?

2. What does Eduard propose to sell to pay for the main project undertaken by the household?

3. What does Eduard focus on in his solitude?

4. What letter does the Captain keep secret from his friends?

5. What activity does the male guest propose to his hosts upon his first look at the lands around the estate?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part I, Chapter 6, what activity becomes the clear marker of the shifting compatibilities of the four protagonists?

2. Why does Charlotte object to Eduard's proposal of bringing the Captain to live at their estate?

3. How does Ottilie and Charlotte's relationship change in Part I, Chapter 17?

4. How does Ottilie act around the others when she arrives at the estate?

5. Summarize the events which occur on Ottilie's birthday.

6. Describe Eduard's character, as the narrator paints it early in the novel.

7. Where on the estate do the four protagonists increase their work, and for what coming occasion?

8. Summarize the letters from the headmistress and the schoolmaster.

9. How does Ottilie occupy herself after Charlotte and Eduard's confrontation and Eduard's subsequent actions?

10. What is the substance of Charlotte and Eduard's argument at the beginning of Part I, Chapter 16, and how is it resolved?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the significance of Ottilie's death, the circumstances surrounding it, and her specific method of death. What are the indirect and direct causes of her death, and what event or events precipitate her death? Can "starving" be related to any other instance, theme, interaction between characters, or symbol in the novel? Was Ottilie's death and her method of killing herself foreshadowed anywhere else in the novel? Who, if anyone, can be considered culpable in Ottilie's death, if it was a suicide? How does the method of Ottilie's death reflect her characteristic reliance on fate and on her own inaction (or the actions of others) throughout the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss at least two specific situations in the novel (these could be events, individual characters' reflections and thoughts, discussions between characters, or instances in which something symbolic is introduced by the narrator or a character) in which the themes of marriage, love, fidelity, passion, and/or adultery play a significant role. What differing views are provided of the institution of marriage (whether traditional, cultural, religious, or personal), and which characters express which views? How does the nature and origin of Charlotte and Eduard's marriage influence the development of the novel's plot? How are each main character's views on marriage significant to the development of the plot, of each character, and of the themes of marriage, fidelity, love, passion, and adultery?

Essay Topic 3

Examine Ottilie's character as it evolves over the entire course of the novel. What is Ottilie like in the beginning of the book, in the middle, and by the end? How does she express her thoughts and feelings? What sort of language does she use, and how does the narrator describe her directly and indirectly? What notable actions does Ottilie take through the course of the novel, and what motivates these actions? How are your perceptions of her shaped by Ottilie herself, by other characters, and by the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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