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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the young wife think her husband has left her for?
(a) A importunate mistress
(b) Wall street
(c) A month of debauchery
(d) To go skiing

2. What does the husband want her to do with the keys?
(a) Look after them
(b) Give them to the house keeper
(c) Use them to beat him
(d) Throw them into the sea

3. Where is the room the husband does not want his wife to go?
(a) In the cellar
(b) The north tower
(c) The west tower
(d) Next to the kitchen

4. What does the young wife call her bed?
(a) The midday bed of the rich
(b) A prison
(c) An autumn lake
(d) Comfortable

5. How did the mother pay for the young wife's music education?
(a) Worked as a barmaid
(b) Worked the streets
(c) Sold her house
(d) Sold her jewellery

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of creature is painted on the front of the postcard

2. Why could the young wife not sleep?

3. What does the young girl imagine the castle walls are made from?

4. In what country does the story take place?

5. What does the young wife say has now healed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do you think is the significance of the sea?

2. Why do you think the husband tries to tempt his young wife with the small key?

3. What do you think is the significance of the red ribbon?

4. Why do you think the young wife does not tell anyone what happened, but instead accepts the gossip?

5. What is a Marquis?

6. How is it significant that the piano tuner is blind?

7. How can this novella be classed as a work of magic realism?

8. Is it significant that the young girl compares her mother to Medusa?

9. What is the mother's role in the story?

10. How do you think Brittany is different to the young wife's life in Paris?

(see the answer keys)

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