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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 Heloise say, in Letter 4, she cannot find?

2. What does Heloise say makes it impossible to endure Abelard's absence?

3. How does Heloise describe Abelard's situation?

4. What does Abelard say was the consequence of his lust for Heloise?

5. What does Heloise say she admires?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Heloise say she did on Abelard's sake?

2. What does Abelard assure to Heloise in Letter 3?

3. What sources does Abelard use in prescribing his rule to Heloise in Letter 8?

4. How does Heloise surprise Abelard in Letter 4, and what does he do in response in Letter 5?

5. In Letter 2, what does Heloise say her motive for writing was?

6. In Letter 7, what examples of women in the church does Abelard use from antiquity?

7. What contrast does Abelard draw with women's practices and men's?

8. Where does Abelard say his sufferings came from?

9. What does Abelard beg Heloise for in Letter 3?

10. What does Heloise say about answering Abelard's requests of her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate the opposition Abelard and Heloise faced throughout their marriage. How would you characterize their enemies? What were they bent on, and why did they oppose Abelard and Heloise? Why did they take the tactics they took, in opposing them? What made harsher or more lenient tactics less preferable?

Essay Topic 2

How would the letters of Abelard and Heloise be written today? How would modern communication technology change the emotional tenor of this correspondence? What parts would remain trenchant? What parts would be lost?

Essay Topic 3

Reading the text closely, describe Abelard and Heloise. What do we know about them based not only on what they tell us, but their style of writing as well?

(see the answer keys)

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