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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 did Ester find in Mary's dressing table drawer to take with them in Chapter 26?

2. In Chapter 26 when did Bescos appear?

3. What was the date of Ester's letter to Spinoza at the beginning of Chapter 20?

4. When does Wilton say that Mendes died?

5. At the beginning of Chapter 24, how long has it been since Ester had spoken to anyone other than Mary or Rivka?

Short Essay Questions

1. When and how does Aaron learn the date and manner of Ester's death?

2. Where does Helen go in Chapter 25 to search records, and what does she find?

3. What did Alvaro discuss in a poem he wrote as Ester was dying?

4. What was Ester and Alvaro's wedding like?

5. At the end of Chapter 19, what do Helen and Aaron begin to think about Ester and Thomas Farrow?

6. How did Mary catch the plague and die?

7. Why did Ester and Rivka move into the da Costa Mendes house?

8. What did Ester learn about Rivka in Chapter 24?

9. In Chapter 18, what advice did Ester try to give Mary?

10. What was Ester's last request in Chapter 28?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ester meets John Tilman when she is acting as Mary’s chaperone. What type of relationship do Ester and John have? Why does their relationship end?

Essay Topic 2

Aaron is a selfish young man who is not careful in his relationships with women. How would you describe Aaron and who he is at the beginning of the novel? What changes Aaron? How does he change?

Essay Topic 3

Ester is an unusual woman for her time. What was the role of a woman in the seventeenth century? How does Ester reject that role? How is she regarded for rejecting that role? Why is she an unusual woman for her time?

(see the answer keys)

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