View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What gift does Ottilie find from Eduard when she returns to her room after the celebration?

2. What service does Ottilie volunteer to do for Eduard?

3. What nickname do both the master of the estate and his male guest share?

4. What language are the household servants ignorant of?

5. How do Eduard and Charlotte act in front of the others the morning after they sleep together?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Eduard's character, as the narrator paints it early in the novel.

2. What sudden action does Eduard take after the Captain leaves the household?

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

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

5. Summarize the letters from the headmistress and the schoolmaster.

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

7. Summarize the event which results in Eduard finding himself attracted to Ottilie.

8. What does Eduard decide to do to further his relationship with Ottilie, and how does this attempt end up?

9. What confusion does Eduard experience, after conducting the Count to a midnight visit with the Baroness?

10. What event leads to a sexually charged encounter between Charlotte and the Captain, and how does Charlotte react to it?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Ottilie's journal entries, which appear in Part II, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9. How do they offer insight into Ottilie's character? What is the significance of the style she writes in? What type of language does she use? What subject matter does she consider? Why might the narrator decide to place them where he does (at the ends of several chapters in Part II)? What is the significance of the context of each letter? Do these letters function to give Ottilie a new role in the novel? Discuss these letters' significance to the themes of fate and of personal agency in the novel, as these themes relate to Ottilie herself. Concentrate on Ottilie's specific word choice, subject matter, context, metaphorical or figurative language, and tone.

Essay Topic 2

Examine the role of the sciences which are mentioned or utilized in the novel: mathematics, chemistry, geography, history, natural science, architecture, and derivations of alchemy. What are the main and minor characters' views on the sciences? How are these sciences used in the novel? In the context of the early 19th century, what were the roles of various branches of science, and how were the sciences viewed in European culture? Where do you see connections between the actual cultural and historical context of this novel, and the references to the sciences within it?

Essay Topic 3

Examine Luciane's character. What is her relation to Charlotte and Ottilie? How does Luciane's character compare specifically to Ottilie's character? What words or phrases best describe Luciane? What is notable about her interactions with others, and how do other characters feel about her and her presence at the estate? Does the narrator, through his use of tone or word choice, present Luciane in any particular manner? How does her characterization address the theme of self-contradiction in the novel? How does her character address the theme of public life versus private life in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,262 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample