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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 does Nella feel after any conversation with Agnes?

2. When Marin says that the Brandts had sent their second best barge after Nella, whom does she say is using the family's best barge?

3. Who drags Nella out of the room after Nella discovers Johannes engaged in oral sex with someone else?

4. What is NOT a reason listed among Nella's reasons for accepting Johannes's marriage proposal?

5. What does Johannes tell Nella that no one can really do with his wealth?

Short Essay Questions

1. For what reason is Nella reluctant to answer Agnes's question about who made Nella's miniatures?

2. For what reason does Marin always insist on taking the Brandt household's dogs to church?

3. What is the significance of Nella's lute performance during the Meermans' visit?

4. What does the herring served within the Brandt household symbolize?

5. How do Nella's expectations of Marin's reaction differ from Marin's real reaction when Nella tells her about Johannes's homosexuality?

6. Describe Marin's character.

7. Describe Nella's first kiss with Johannes.

8. How do Marin's and Nella's views of Nella's situation in the Brandt household differ?

9. What does Nella mean when she muses that Marin and Johannes are obsessed with "souls and purses" (27)?

10. How does Nella characterize the people in her life in relation to dwelling on the past?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sensory details are used frequently by the author in order to create vivid pictures of Nella's world in Seventeenth-Century Holland. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used by the author set a particular mood for each of the three scenes.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the novel The Miniaturist from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the many instances of irony within the novel's narrative and analyze the author's purpose for including each instance you discuss.

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