Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Compare and contrast Frédéric's relationship
with Arnoux with his relationship with Deslauriers.
2. How is Frédéric's love for Madame
Arnoux connected or similar to his love for Paris?
3.
Sentimental Education is
full of historical references, in-jokes of French society, relationships
that are not always perfectly clear, and characters who often disappear
after one mention in the text. What role do these elements play
in the novel?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Describe the parallels between the political events surrounding
France's Second Empire and Part Three of Sentimental Education.
2. Choose one character and trace his or her search
for love throughout the novel. Who or what does he or she desire? How
does he or she go about pursuing this desire?
3. Compare and contrast Rosanette and Madame Arnoux.
Why do you think Frédéric is drawn to both women?
4. Explain the relationship between Frédéric and Deslauriers and
how it differs from Frédéric's relationships with women (apart from
the sexual element).
5. In what ways are Frédéric and Arnoux alike? Different?
How does Arnoux's fall connect to Frédéric's fate?
6. Many chapters in Sentimental Education end
with one character being separated from another. Explain the role
of these goodbyes in the novel.
