View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are Sharpe and his riflemen doing when they are moving south?

2. What does Wellington need in order to win the war?

3. What does Wellington see when overlooking Fuentes de Onoro?

4. What does Sarsfield do after Hogan talks to him?

5. What do Wellington and Hogan decide about Sharpe?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the French call a temporary truce and what do two French and British officers do during the truce?

2. Why is Sharpe being subjected to a board of inquiry?

3. Why is Wellington enraged with Erkins?

4. What does Hogan say to Sharpe about letting Juanita go free?

5. Who and what does Sharpe find at a house in San Cristobal?

6. How does Sharpe kill Loup and how is Sharpe wounded?

7. How does Massena react to the southern troops joining the northern ones and what does Wellington do after the army is reunited?

8. What is Kiely's reaction to Juanita being caught by Sharpe?

9. What does Sharpe persuade Harper to do and why?

10. What does Hogan tell Wellington about the French and Almeida?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Richard Sharpe is no exception. Sharpe's legendary powers of military strategy is juxtaposed with his reputation as a womanzier. Discuss the following:

1. Trace and analyze situations when Sharpe demonstrates his prodigious powers of military strategy. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Sharpe's character flaws offering specific examples of these flaws in your discussion.

3. Discuss how you think Sharpe's admirable traits helped him obtain a high rank in the military despite his background as a child. Have his flaws impacted his career at all? Do any of those under his command seem to notice these flaws? Who? How does the reader know this?

Essay Topic 2

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a system of nobility in a country, especially how it applies to the military. For example, both Oliveira and Kiely were high born people in charge of a large number of soldiers and yet were incompetent. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. The class separations in the era of Sharpe's Battle are very distinct and the upper class is basically impenetrable to the lower class. Discuss the implications of Sharpe, the son of a prostitute being able to obtain the rank of lieutenant and the possible ramifications he might have to deal with when interacting with officers who come from a much higher class.

3. Often in this series of novels the upper class officers are presented as incompetent, at best, and dangerous uncaring at worse. What might that portrayal suggest about how the author might feel about wealthy people and the positions they hold in society, whether qualified or not? Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of literary elements that occur in many works of fiction. Irony is a means of increasing both the humor and the complexity of a story. Cornwell often includes irony in his Richard Sharpe series. Point of view is the way the story is narrated; all works of fiction have a point of view. Conflict is almost always present in a work of fiction. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary terms irony, point of view and conflict.

2. Identify two instances of irony in Sharpe's Battle, offering examples from the text.

3. Identify the point of view of the novel and discuss why you think Cornwell chooses to use that particular point of view. Does the point of view seem to be the best one for Sharpe's Battle? Why or why not.

4. Identfiy two major conflicts in Sharpe's Battle. Are the conflicts completely resolved by the end of Sharpe's Battle? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,179 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample