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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. Who broaches the subject to Eduard of reconciling with Charlotte?

2. What does the schoolmaster's second letter say about Ottilie, in general?

3. What is the object of the insult Eduard receives indirectly from the Captain?

4. What letter does the Captain keep secret from his friends?

5. Who does the mistress of the house think has a more-than-average interest in Ottilie?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ottilie occupy herself after Charlotte and Eduard's confrontation and Eduard's subsequent actions?

2. Describe Eduard's and the Captain's interactions with members of the lower social classes.

3. How do the four protagonists' relationships change after Eduard evinces a passion for Ottilie?

4. Briefly summarize the story behind Eduard and Charlotte's marriage.

5. What is the general substance of the mason's address during the ceremony of the foundation stone of the pavilion?

6. Why does Charlotte object to Eduard's proposal of bringing the Captain to live at their estate?

7. How does Ottilie and Charlotte's relationship change in Part I, Chapter 17?

8. Describe the Count and the Baroness and the circumstances surrounding them.

9. How does Eduard explain to Mittler how he feels and acts?

10. In Part I, Chapter 6, what activity becomes the clear marker of the shifting compatibilities of the four protagonists?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Ottilie's character as it evolves over the entire course of the novel. What is Ottilie like in the beginning of the book, in the middle, and by the end? How does she express her thoughts and feelings? What sort of language does she use, and how does the narrator describe her directly and indirectly? What notable actions does Ottilie take through the course of the novel, and what motivates these actions? How are your perceptions of her shaped by Ottilie herself, by other characters, and by the narrator?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the themes of embodiment, physicality, sexuality, and sensuality that are present in the novel. How do the characters' physical presence sometimes influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other characters? What is the significance of inanimate objects such as letters, contracts, and trinkets embodying certain characters? Why might the narrator find it important to note, in Part II, Chapter 13, that just before Otto dies Ottilie experiences two distinct moments of true sensuality? How do Eduard and Charlotte interact each other in Part I, Chapter 11 by imagining their lovers embodied in each other? What episodes of, or references to, frank sexuality and sensuality do you think are important to an understanding of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the role of human beings in shaping the natural landscape. What do the four protagonists use the land for? How do they view their use of it, and the general purpose the landscape has? Describe their relationship to the land in terms of the utilitarian, the picturesque, the beautiful, and/or the sublime? What does nature seem to symbolize for each character, and what is the significance of this symbolism? How might a reader interpret the protagonists' use of and relation to the land as a statement by Goethe about human interactions with nature in his own time and place?

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