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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. How does Mr. Kloterjahn characterize Mr. Spinell?

2. Why does the person who interrupts Mr. Kloterjahn and Mr. Spinell in Chapter 11 do so?

3. Who does not get to participate in the activity Dr. Leander plans?

4. What happened to Gabriele, according to Mrs. Spatz?

5. How is Dr. Muller described?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Mrs. Kloterjahn initially refuse to play piano for Mr. Spinell?

2. What does Dr. Muller recommend in Chapter 9?

3. How much of the music that Mr. Spinell found in Chapter 8 does Mrs. Kloterjahn play?

4. Why does Mr. Spinell mail the letter as opposed to hand-delivering it?

5. What does Dr. Leander recommend as treatment for Gabriele’s worsening condition?

6. How does Mr. Spinell leave the final scene?

7. How is the letter that Mr. Spinell writes in Chapter 10 described?

8. How is Gabriele’s illness progressing by Chapter 7?

9. Why does Mr. Spinell find the scene of Gabriele and her friends in the garden so beautiful?

10. How does Mr. Spinell ultimately convince Mrs. Kloterjahn to play piano?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Tristan, and many of his other works, Thomas Mann makes a commentary on the relationship between the artist and bourgeois society.What commentary does he seem to be making about this relationship? Does he feel that the artist fits well into bourgeois society? Why or why not? Which is healthier or more “normal” – to fit into society, or to have an artistic temperament? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Mann uses the third person omniscient perspective in Tristan. What does this point of view add stylistically and thematically to the novella? How would the novella be changed if the perspective were changed?

Essay Topic 3

Examine Mr. Spinell’s character and how he embodies the major themes in Tristan. How does Mann characterize Mr. Spinell? What commentary does Mann seem to be making about artists through the character of Mr. Spinell? What commentary does he seem to be making about society in general?

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This section contains 583 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample