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 does Werther consider to be the closest thing to his own heart?

2. How does Werther view those who keep their distance from commoners?

3. In the letter of July 6, to what does Werther compare a child washing her hands?

4. Whom does Werther find in the square of the town Werther has come to love?

5. Whose business must the main character deal with in the first letter?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is Albert, and what is Werther's reaction to learning about him?

2. What is the substance of Werther and Lotte's conversation the night before Werther leaves Wahlheim?

3. What does Werther find to be the general causes of frustration in business dealings?

4. How does Werther initially feel about Albert?

5. What event has incited Werther to leave his friends, and how does he view this event?

6. What specific space, which Werther found in his explorations of the town, does he find pleasurable?

7. What does Werther observe the local girls doing?

8. What does Werther ask his friend Wilhelm not to do, and why?

9. What are Lotte's views on books and reading?

10. To what type of people does Werther compare those who he thinks are happiest in life, and what is his reasoning for this comparison?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the role of Ossian in the novel. Who is Ossian (both ostensibly and actually), and why does Werther place him in such high regard? What effect does reading Ossian have on Werther? How does he relate to the work and its contents? Offer a close-reading of the fragment of Ossian the Editor quotes. Carefully analyze this portion of the text. Pay close attention to word choice, setting, imagery, figurative or metaphorical language, references, and the tone of the passages. How do you interpret this passage based on a close study of the connotations of all of these aspects of the text? What is its overall effect upon the reader? How do you feel this passage relates to Werther's own story, feelings and thoughts? Why might this passage and the subsequent ones which reflect on Colma's situation affect Werther and Lotte so profoundly? How might the voices of Ryno, Alpin, and the narrator of the fragment be interpreted by Werther and Lotte to be the voices of Werther's nearest and dearest friends and acquaintances?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the little peasant family that Werther meets in Wahlheim and subsequently gets to know: the mother and her several children, including Hans. What is the little family's story? What attracts them to Werther? How does he interact with them? How is his relationship with them symbolic of a relationship between social classes at large? What might the symbolism be when their inheritance falls through, and when Hans dies? What is the effect of their tragedy on Werther? What about their fate of poverty is significant to the major themes of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the theme of religion, God, Fate and the divine in the novel. Where, and in which situations, does Werther feel the presence or absence of God? Is there anything overtly, or covertly, religious or spiritual about the novel as a whole? Why does Werther feel, at times, both connected to and disconnected from God? What ambiguities does Werther confront, or ignore, about his passion for Lotte and the sinfulness or morality of it? How does Werther view Fate, and why might having a fated destiny be significant to considerations of the morality of Werther's end? How does Werther view Lotte in religious terms, and why does he seem to do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 956 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample