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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 does Mary learn from the General's wife?

2. What are the British doing in the woods?

3. How long after Sharpe and Langford join the French do the British arrive?

4. What is Hakeswell's scheme?

5. What is the approximately number of the British forces?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sharpe get information about the mine and what does he figure out about the mine?

2. What is Mary doing for work?

3. What does Lawford tell Sharpe about rockets and what do they see as they watch them being used?

4. Where does Sharpe go after the ceremony, what does he find out and how does he feel about it?

5. What happens to Hakeswill as the British siege begins, who does he kill and why?

6. What is the first task Gudin has Sharpe and Lawford do and how well do they do it? How does Lawford feel afterward?

7. What does Mary do when Rao decides to rescue McCandless and what does Kunwar Singh do?

8. How does Tippoo entertain his troops and what does he plan to do with the British prisoners during the entertainment?

9. Of what do the British and Tippoo's forces consist?

10. What does Sharpe say to Lawford about the rockets?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Cornwell is masterful in his description of battles and life in general for a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s. Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about life as a soldier. How does he use descriptions of the five senses to make the reader feel s/he is there? Do you find his descriptions compelling? Seemingly accurate? How would "Sharpe's Tiger" be different if Cornwell did not include such descriptive passages?

2. Analyze Cornwells's descriptive passages about the social structure of the times and discuss what you think it would be like to be a person of wealth and/or privilege such as Wellington? Contrast that to the lives of those who are in a lower social strata such as Sharpe, Mary or Hakeswill.

3. Describe and analyze Cornwell's descriptive passages about the topographical setting and the physical descriptions of the people. Does Cornwell do an adequate job of actually making the reader "see" the land where the action is taking place? How about getting a visual image of the characters? How does the descriptions of the setting add to the novel? Do you like having an idea of how a character looks? How would the novel be different without such descriptions?

Essay Topic 2

Though this novel is probably more action driven rather than character driven, obviously there are several characters who make the novel what it is. Discuss one of the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Sharpe and Hakeswill. Include their goals, sense of honor, abilities, and social skills.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of General Harris and Tippoo Sultan.

3. Thoroughly analyze the character of Richard Sharpe, discussing both his strong and weak points and how both affect the outcome of the plot.

Essay Topic 3

Many events that happen in "Sharpe's Tiger" are foreshadowed by previous events and/or signs. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary term "foreshadow."

2. Why would an author use foreshadowing? Do you think it adds or detracts from your experience as a reader? Explain.

3. Trace and analyze three instances of foreshadowing in "Sharpe's Tiger". Match up what is mentioned earlier and what it foreshadows. Did you guess that each instance of foreshadowing was a "heads up" of something to come? Why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

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