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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 house that Mary is taken to described in Chapter 31?

2. Of who is it said that writing is "a way of ticketing specimens; not of expressing thoughts"?

3. What is the only food Mary has to eat at home?

4. Instead of money, what does Mary offer two sailors as pay?

5. In Chapter 31, rather than sleep at night, what does Mary do?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Mary look for Will when she reaches Liverpool?

2. How does Jane Wilson feel about Jem and Mary as a couple?

3. What lie does Job tell Jane Wilson in Chapter 30?

4. What evidence is there against Jem in the Carson murder case?

5. How does Mary end up going home with one of the sailors?

6. How does Will Wilson say he will return to the shore?

7. What alibi is found for Jem?

8. Why does Jem leave Mary to return to Manchester?

9. What does Charley Jones clarify about the John Cropper sailing out?

10. How does Mary realize that her father is the true murderer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A number of the working class characters of the novel "Mary Barton" strive to raise their social status. Discuss who does this and how they go about doing so.

Essay Topic 2

The central theme of the novel, "Mary Barton" is the social differences between the rich and the poor. How are they treated in society? What struggles must each class face? Are they at all similar? How do they view one another?

Essay Topic 3

Death is a recurring motif in the novel "Mary Barton". Discuss the deaths in the novel. What purpose do they serve? Why would Gaskell feature so many deaths in the narrative?

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