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 newspaper has sent reporter Bartley Hubard to interview Silas Lapham in Chapter One?

2. In Chapter Nine, who thinks the Lapham family is below the Corey family?

3. To whom does Silas Lapham loan money in Chapter Ten?

4. What does Silas Lapham send Bartley Hubbard's wife as a present at the end of Chapter One?

5. To how much does Persis Lapham limit her husband's spending on their new home?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens in Chapter Ten when Milton Rogers asks Silas Lapham for a loan, and how does Persis Lapham feel about the situation?

2. Describe the Laphams' first meeting with the Corey family.

3. How does Tom Corey describe the Lapham family to his mother?

4. What different opinions do Silas and Persis Lapham have in Chapter Seven for why Tom Corey visits them?

5. What arguments does Anna Corey give her husband for opposing their son's marriage to Silas Lapham's daughter?

6. Why does Silas Lapham decide to build a new house?

7. What do Tom Corey and his father find unusual about the beverages the Laphams drink and Mrs. Lapham's social entertaining?

8. Why are the Laphams considered deficient in social graces?

9. What information is revealed about Zerrilla Dewey in Chapter Eight and what does Walker the bookkeeper seem to imply about her relationship with Silas Lapham?

10. Why do the Coreys consider themselves "better" than the Laphams, and what virtues does Silas Lapham possess that the Coreys do not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the concept of social class in The Rise of Silas Lapham. Give examples of how at least three of the following characters exhibit typical or atypical behavior for their social class in the era in which the novel is set: Silas Lapham, Persis Lapham, Anna Corey, Nanny Corey, Tom Corey, Penelope Lapham, Zerrilla Dewey, Moll Millon, and Milton Rogers. What do you think William Dean Howells is trying to say about social class in the Gilded Age through these characters? Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Irene Lapham and Penelope Lapham in The Rise of Silas Lapham. Does either sister ever act in atypical ways for a woman of her social class and era? Which characteristics do you think make Penelope more attractive to Tom Corey, and which characteristics do you think make Irene less attractive to Tom Corey? Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 3

The Rise of Silas Lapham takes place in Boston in the 1880s, during America's Gilded Age, and is the story of a self-made family's attempt to enter Boston's Brahmin society. The characters live through the Civil War and see the rise of enormous industry and enormous wealth in the post-war era. Discuss how the cultural, geographical, and chronological settings affect the story and how the characters and story might differ if William Dean Howells had set the novel in England during the 1680s or in Los Angeles during the 1980s instead. Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,106 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample