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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 are some of Félicité's chores?

2. The narrator describes Félicité as being made out of what material?

3. How does Virginie make the journey to Tocqueville?

4. What color is the wainscoting in the living room?

5. What does Félicité do when the family rests in the field?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe and provide an analysis of Mme. Aubain's reaction when Félicité tells her that she hasn't heard from Victor in six months.

2. What do you think Félicité means when she says of Victor's death that "'It doesn't matter a bit, not to them it doesn't'"?

3. Does it seem important that Félicité asks Fabu's forgiveness before she dies?

4. How do Mme. Aubain and Félicité's reactions to Virginie's departure differ from each other?

5. Describe the scene with the bull and explain why you think it is important.

6. How is Félicité introduced to the reader in the first chapter?

7. Does Victor seem to genuinely care for Félicité or is he only interested in taking things from her?

8. Why do you think that it struck Félicité as wrong that Mme. Aubain should die before she did?

9. Why does Mme. Simon nurse Félicité as she is dying?

10. What is your impression of Mme. Simon?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the relationship between Félicité and Mme. Aubain. The culminating event in their relationship is, of course, the moment of embrace and equality, but several other things happen between them that helps to place each of them in a certain relationship to the world around them. Write an essay that considers the way that Félicité and Mme. Aubain's relationship helps to ground each of them in a clear relationship to their world. Some details you might want to look at are Mme. Aubain's treatment of Félicité's actual family and Félicité's sense that it was wrong for Mme. Aubain to die before she did.

Essay Topic 2

Félicité's relationship with Theodore seems relatively minor in the context of the overall narrative. Why do you think Flaubert chose to include it? How does knowing that about Félicité alter our perception of her throughout the rest of the story? You should discuss at least three ways in which our perception of Félicité is affected by her failed relationship with Theodore.

Essay Topic 3

Describe and analyze Félicité's relationship to religion and the divine. You might consider in particular the ways in which she seeks to draw literal relationships between descriptions and stories of God, or the divine and her literal earthly world. Be sure to cite specific examples from the text to support your argument.

(see the answer keys)

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