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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 the main character classify the recent events that sent him away?

2. What presence does Werther sense all around him?

3. What subject do Werther and Lotte discuss at length in the letter of September 10?

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

5. To what does Werther compare his general opinion on painting in the letter of May 30?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Werther observe the local girls doing?

3. What is the substance of Werther and Albert's conversation, as Werther relates it in the letter of August 12?

4. What does Werther mourn in the letter of May 17, 1771?

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

6. How does Werther initially feel about Albert?

7. What does Werther find appealing about being away from his friends and in a new town?

8. Who does Werther meet while sitting on a plow in Wahlheim's town square, and what is the substance of their various interactions with Werther?

9. What natural feature of the environment of his town does Werther feel particularly drawn to, and to what does he compare the feeling?

10. What is Werther's opinion of his aunt?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe Werther as a character. Focus not only on how he looks and acts, but also specifically on how he expresses his feelings and thoughts, how he fits or does not fit into society, his tone and personality, and the general development of his character. How does he begin the novel, and how does he end it? What are his relationships with others like, and what are they based upon? What is Werther's worldview? How does he view himself? What is his style of writing?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the theme of suicide and the way Goethe addresses the morality and justifiability of it throughout the novel. Does Werther's pitiable state of mind, his decimated feelings, and his unrequited love excuse, or explain, his choice? How does Werther convince himself that suicide is the right and only path for him? What events, people, or feelings influence his decision? What is each main character's position on the morality or justifiability of suicide? What was the effect of Werther's suicide on Goethe's readers and critics: how did they interpret this act? How does the Editor influence what you perceive as the novel's overall message regarding suicide?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role the Editor plays in the novel. Is this another character, or can you consider it the direct voice of Goethe himself? How does the narrative and discursive style change from the majority of the novel to when the Editor takes over from Werther's letters? How does first-person present narration differ from third-person omniscient? How do you balance these types of narration, since the editor not only commentates Werther's letters and Lotte and Albert's interactions, but he includes Werther's letters as well? How do you think the Editor makes these interpretations? What goes "unsaid" in the portions of his narration where the Editor expresses these interpretations of the characters' innermost thoughts and feelings? How reliable do you think these interpretations are--and how reliable of a narrator do you feel the Editor is? What effect does the Editor have on the overall development of the characters?

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