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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 Peeperkorn recovering from when Hans visits him?

2. What does Hans do when Joachim's corpse begins to smile inside the coffin?

3. How does Clavdia feel about the fact that Peeperkorn loves her?

4. Who praises scientific knowledge and truth?

5. As Walpurgis Night approaches, who reproaches Hans for playing fast and loose with time in his conversation?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Joachim's letters to Hans change, and what eventually occurs?

2. What do Hans and Settembrini argue about that causes Hans to accuse Settembrini of offering hypocritical advice?

3. As winter arrives, what does Hans study, and why?

4. What happens when Joachim and Hans encounter Dr. Behrens on a mountain path in October, and why does Hans react this way?

5. What role does the "military life" play in the conversation between Hans, Joachim, Settembrini and Naphta in Chapter 6?

6. What do Hans and Clavdia discuss in the salon in Chapter 7?

7. What role does the concept of time play at the beginning of Chapter 7?

8. Describe Hans' interactions with Clavdia on Walpurgis Night.

9. When Hans and Joachim join Settembrini in his apartment, what does Settembrini say about Naphta?

10. What do Settembrini and Naphta argue about in Naphta's apartment, and what does each man say?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Investigate "The Magic Mountain" as a bildungsroman. How does it adhere to and differ from the bildungsroman novel? What changes could be made to mark it more clearly as a bildungsroman? What changes could be made to prevent critics from classifying the novel as a bildungsroman?

Essay Topic 2

How are the different symbols (the x-ray plates, the Maria Mancini cigars, etc.) used throughout the novel to represent abstract concepts? Detail and explain how the symbols are used to describe certain abstract concepts and which concepts they describe.

Essay Topic 3

Choose two characters that act as a foil to one another. In what ways do these characters serve as opposites? What do these differences indicate?

(see the answer keys)

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