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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 Werther think of Albert?

2. How does the main character describe the person with whom he must conduct his business?

3. What effect does Lotte's continued presence have on Werther?

4. What author does Werther enjoy reading?

5. How does the main character classify the recent events that sent him away?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the substance of the conversation between Werther and his companions at the vicar's home?

2. What are Lotte's views on books and reading?

3. What does Werther promise the person to whom he writes this letter?

4. What natural feature of the environment of his town does Werther feel particularly drawn to, and to what does he compare the feeling?

5. What specific space, which Werther found in his explorations of the town, does he find pleasurable?

6. How does Werther meet Lotte?

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

8. What is Werther's opinion of his aunt?

9. What example does Werther give Albert regarding the justifiability of suicide, and why does Werther take the standpoint he does?

10. What does Werther find to be the general causes of frustration in business dealings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assess Werther's relationship with Wilhelm, the addressee of the letters. How does Werther "speak" to Wilhelm in his letters? What type of relationship might they have, considering their communications to one another? How can we judge Wilhelm's letters based on Werther's responses? Give at least one example of a response of Werther's which indicates the subject of their correspondence. How might the identity of Wilhelm also be entwined with the identity of the reading audience or the reading individual? What is the effect of this connection? Is the audience primed to be automatically sympathetic to Werther? Why would this consideration be significant in your assessment of character development and the development of the overall themes of the novel?

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?

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