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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 is the female guest of the estate related to the mistress of the estate?

2. What very capable person, who takes over the work of the landscape improvements, is the Captain very pleased with?

3. What does Ottilie see as her "everything?"

4. What does Ottilie set in the foundation stone with the other peoples' offerings?

5. What request does Eduard make of the person who visits him in his solitude?

Short Essay Questions

1. Summarize the events which occur on Ottilie's birthday.

2. Describe Eduard's estate and his, the Captain's, and Charlotte's general plans for it.

3. How does Eduard change in the wake of his realization of his passion for Ottilie?

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

5. How does Ottilie act around the others when she arrives at the estate?

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

7. For what reason does the foursome decide to build a pavilion?

8. Where on the estate do the four protagonists increase their work, and for what coming occasion?

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

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 the significance of Ottilie's death, the circumstances surrounding it, and her specific method of death. What are the indirect and direct causes of her death, and what event or events precipitate her death? Can "starving" be related to any other instance, theme, interaction between characters, or symbol in the novel? Was Ottilie's death and her method of killing herself foreshadowed anywhere else in the novel? Who, if anyone, can be considered culpable in Ottilie's death, if it was a suicide? How does the method of Ottilie's death reflect her characteristic reliance on fate and on her own inaction (or the actions of others) throughout the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role of Herr Mittler and the theme of mediation in the novel. What is Herr Mittler's role, and how does he "play his part" by interacting in specific ways with the other characters? How does the narrator act as a mediator between the reader and the characters, plot, and moral of the story? Mediation means to "come between" things--are there any other mediating forces in the novel, besides Mittler, such as other characters, events, settings, objects, ideas, and so on?

Essay Topic 3

Apply the principle of "elective affinities," as discussed by Eduard, Charlotte, and the Captain in Part I, Chapter 4, to the novel in its entirety. Provide a short summary of the essence of the idea of elective affinities: what is it, and in which disciplines is it particularly useful? How do Eduard, Charlotte, and the Captain understand and explain this principle? Where do you find this principle most present in the various relationships between the four protagonists? Do you find aspects of elective affinities present in any of the minor characters, or in any of the portions of the novel that are not strictly related to the plot (such as letters, journals, and other stories)?

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