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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. What is the architect reluctant to show publicly?

2. What is the general substance of Ottilie's second journal entry?

3. What is Charlotte and Eduard's son to be named?

4. Which unexpected visitor arrives during the performance of the artistic activity planned by the architect?

5. What are the conditions on which Charlotte offers herself to the Major?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Part II, Chapter 9, where does Charlotte decide to live for a short time, and why?

2. How does Charlotte and Ottilie's relationship change after Otto's death?

3. What is the first faux pas the foreign visitor commits, and why is it a social flub?

4. How does Charlotte respond to the tragedy involving Ottilie and Otto?

5. What event at the end of Part II, Chapter 8, is saturated with both happiness and grave foreboding, and how?

6. What amusement does the Count suggest should occupy Luciane's energies?

7. What plans does the architect have for the church?

8. How does Eduard respond to the tragedy involving Ottilie and Otto?

9. What does Eduard plan with the Major regarding their relationships with Charlotte and Ottilie?

10. Briefly describe Luciane, Charlotte's daughter from her first marriage.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the form, style, and content of the novel as a whole. What is the style of narrative discourse in which Goethe generally writes? What type of narrator is Goethe's narrator, and how does he use this figure as a mediation between the story and the reader? What are the effects on the narrative when the narrator occasionally switches verb tense? How does the occasional interspersion of letters and journal entries affect the "flow" of the novel, the reader's perspective of the characters, and the plot itself? How does this story fit into the genre of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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