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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 gift do Charlotte and Ottilie give the architect?

2. Why does Ottilie avoid a path by the side of the lake?

3. What does Charlotte warn Ottilie about, during their discussion of Ottilie's preferred vocation?

4. What event marks the newborn's baptism with foreboding?

5. What do the Major and Eduard first do when they are reunited?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the substance of Eduard's proposition to the Major, and the Major's response to it?

2. What is the general substance of Ottilie's first journal entry, at the end of Part II, Chapter 2?

3. What is the schoolmaster's general philosophy on teaching?

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

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

6. How does Charlotte discover Eduard has rejoined the military, and how does she respond to this news?

7. Describe the circumstances of Ottilie's death.

8. What decision does Ottilie make that she normally never would, and what are the results of it?

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

10. Summarize the reason for the solicitor's visit to Charlotte, which is related at the beginning of Part II.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

Discuss the themes of sin and repentance in the novel. What kinds of "sins" are displayed throughout the novel, and what acts (if any) of "repentance" are connected to those sins? In which ways do the various characters attempt to repent, and what are they repenting for? Do any characters exemplify the theme of repentance more or less than others? If so, what is the significance of this difference in the various characters' perspectives of repentance? What are the religious and/or moral significance or connotations of repentance?

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