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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 promise did Colin make to Caroline?

2. What does Caroline do to Colin's lips?

3. What does Caroline find unusual about Mary's place of employment?

4. What Italian custom does Robert engage in while walking through the street with Colin?

5. Why does Mary fall asleep in Caroline and Robert's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the two times that Mary and Colin discuss Robert's photograph of Colin in this chapter. How are they different?

2. How does Colin's experience with Robert at the bar compare to Mary's experience with Caroline in the apartment?

3. Why do Mary and Colin leave late for the beach? What is the motivation behind their change of plans?

4. Describe the process of Mary realizing that Colin was in the photograph at Robert's apartment

5. What is Mary's fantasy of "subjection and humiliation" for Colin? What is Colin's fantasy for Mary?

6. What does Mary find in Robert and Caroline's bedroom? What is the source of this?

7. What changes about Colin's appearance in this chapter? How does Robert react to this change? How does Mary react?

8. How do Mary and Caroline's views on theatre differ? How are they the same?

9. What does Colin say in response to Robert's monologue on gender relations? How does Robert respond to Colin's comment?

10. What is wrong with Mary at the beginning of this chapter? What does Caroline tell Colin is wrong with her? What does Colin think they need to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Comfort of Strangers presents two very different visions of romantic relationships. In your essay, compare and contrast the two couples in the novel focusing on:

1) the dynamics of their relationship

2) their ideals about love

3) their ideals about relationships between men and women.

Be sure to cite specific evidence from the novel to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the two main settings of the novel: Robert and Caroline's apartment and Mary and Colin's hotel room. Focus on:

1) the characteristics of the settings

2) the influence that the setting asserts on the plot of the novel

3) the ways that the setting reflects the characters "living" in it.

Cite several specific examples from the novel to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout The Comfort of Strangers the author explores what it means to be a stranger. Discuss how characters in this novel are strangers focusing on what makes them strangers. Then discuss the author's view of the stranger. Is it better to be a stranger or to not be a stranger, according to McEwan? Why?

Cite several specific examples from the novel to support your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

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