View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What subject do Werther and the other young people discuss at the vicar's home?

2. What is Werther convinced about, regarding the young woman with whom he has fallen in love?

3. What is the name of the woman Werther meets at the vicar's home?

4. What is the name of Werther's new female acquaintance?

5. What presence does Werther sense all around him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Werther find appealing about being away from his friends and in a new town?

2. What activities does Werther engage in now that he is away from his friends and in a new town?

3. How does Werther initially feel about Albert?

4. What event has incited Werther to leave his friends, and how does he view this event?

5. How is Werther first received by the commoners of the village, and how does Werther view their reaction to him?

6. What does Werther observe the local girls doing?

7. What is the substance of Werther's conversation with the farmer-boy in the town square of Wahlheim?

8. What is the substance of Werther and Albert's conversation, as Werther relates it in the letter of August 12?

9. How has Werther's life or attitudes changed after falling in love with Lotte?

10. What does Werther mourn in the letter of May 17, 1771?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the two lovelorn young men Werther meets: the farmer-boy who fell in love with his mistress and murdered his other servant, and the madman named Heinrich roaming around the water's edge looking for flowers. What has caused the situations the two men find themselves in? What are their reasons, excuses, interpretations and plans? How do their situations and Goethe's characterization of them relate to Werther--that is, in which ways are they notably similar and different? How does Werther interpret his encounters with the two men? Is there any form of irony present in their characterizations, their narratives, or their fates?

Essay Topic 2

Examine Goethe's own biography and its influence on his composition of the novel and the formulation of characters and events. What events are similar between Goethe's experience and Werther's experience? What characters are similar? Which ones are notably different? Can you think of any particular expressions of sensibility, emotion, attraction, etc. that Goethe may have taken right out of his own life? What are the considerations a reader must have when reading a novel (ostensibly a work of fiction) that appears to be so closely related to its author's life? How closely can we truly tie the autobiography and novel genres without overstepping the bounds of either one?

Essay Topic 3

Describe Werther as a character. Focus not only on how he looks and acts, but also specifically on how he expresses his feelings and thoughts, how he fits or does not fit into society, his tone and personality, and the general development of his character. How does he begin the novel, and how does he end it? What are his relationships with others like, and what are they based upon? What is Werther's worldview? How does he view himself? What is his style of writing?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 917 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample