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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. After Mary thinks more about the house and its ghost, what does she begin to wonder?

2. In Mary's mind, what is the only possible source of information about what has happened to Ned?

3. When the story refers to "Boyne," who or what is being referred to?

4. As Mary thinks back over the events of October, she sees a figure coming toward the house again. Who is it?

5. What does Mary suddenly remember finding one day in October?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alida Stair tell the Boynes about Lyng?

2. In the narrative present at the beginning of the story, where is Mary and what is she doing?

3. What horrifying chain of events does Mary understand once she sees Bob Elwell's picture?

4. What do Mary and Ned plan to do with their time at Lyng?

5. What news does Mary learn from a newspaper clipping that someone sends her in the mail, and why is she so upset by it?

6. What draws the Boynes to England?

7. After she finds out that he has gone out with the mysterious man and not yet returned, why is Mary immediately alarmed?

8. What does Mary remember happening earlier in the day in October when she and Ned first climbed Meldon Steep?

9. What strange conclusion does Mary come to about the relationship of the ghost to the house, Lyng?

10. On the day of his disappearance, what is so frustrating for Mary about her conversation with her staff about where Ned is?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that examines the final sighting of Bob Elwell's ghost. Why does Wharton take up space with the elaborate procedure of questioning various maids? Why not simply have Trimmle be the one to see the mysterious visitor? Why have any of the maids see him at all? What is the significance of the slip of paper, and why do the exact details of the encounter matter so much to Mary as she thinks back over Ned's disappearance many months later? Make a claim about how the choices Wharton makes regarding the ghost's final appearance impact the meaning of the overall story.

Essay Topic 2

Edith Wharton once wrote in a letter to a friend, "The American landscape has no foreground and the American mind no background." She was talking about gardening and landscaping, which was a special interest of hers, and justifying her taste for importing European landscape fashions to her own property. Consider this quote in relationship to the setting and characterizations in "Afterward." What do you think that Wharton meant by the quote, and does her having said it make her seem more or less like the Boynes? Write an essay in which you explore the quote and then make and defend a claim about how it sheds light on Wharton's relationship to the Boynes.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that takes and defends a position about the emphasis Wharton gives to the physical evidence of Ned's emotional state. What is happening when he seems anxious, and what is happening when he seems relieved? From whose perspective is all of this shown, and why? How do these choices contribute to the story's overall meaning and effect? Be sure to support your claims with specific textual evidence.

(see the answer keys)

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