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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 Abelard admit to in Letter 3?

2. What did Abelard do with his inheritance?

3. What does Heloise say was her and Abelard's sin?

4. What was the status of Abelard's father?

5. What does Heloise ask Abelard in her first letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What two things does Heloise ask Abelard in Letter 6?

2. In what way does Heloise say Abelard is in debt to her?

3. What contrast does Abelard draw with women's practices and men's?

4. What caused the author of Letter 9to write the letter?

5. What does Heloise say she did on Abelard's sake?

6. Where does Abelard say his sufferings came from?

7. How does Abelard say errors must be corrected?

8. What does Heloise say about the men who call her chaste?

9. What does Heloise ask Abelard at the end of Letter 2?

10. What does Abelard ask Heloise and her nuns to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does The Letters of Abelard and Heloise tell us about being male or female? How does the text represent masculinity and femininity? What are the roles appropriate to either gender? How do Abelard and Heloise define the differences? Where do they overlap?

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the letters between Abelard and Heloise and describe the degree to which Abelard and Heloise are French. What constitutes their Frenchness? Where is the site of their strongest identification? How do they express their relation to territory?

Essay Topic 3

Reading the text closely, describe Abelard and Heloise. What do we know about them based not only on what they tell us, but their style of writing as well?

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This section contains 610 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample