- What is the purpose of including the opening framing segment for the tale? What points are made in this section? Are you convinced that Chiaro dell' Erma was a historical personage?
- What are some of the central themes of this tale?
- What can you say about the author's style? The use of metaphor?
- What are the stages through which Chiaro passes in developing his art? Which stages are most successful, and why? What seems not to work at all?
- What seems to be the relation between art and morality, in the narrator's view?
- What can you tell about Chiaro's temperament? What kind of person is he?
- What purpose is served by the allegorical woman? What is Chiaro's relationship to her? Why is the soul perceived as a woman, and moreover as a young and beautiful one?
- What symbolism inheres in the fact that Chiaro's "soul" doesn't speak directly to him, but he hears her words as his own in a space between them?
- Why do you think the author of "Hand and Soul" includes learned notes? Are these helpful? What is the purpose of introducing conversation in Italian and French?
- What is the purpose of the final scene and concluding sentence? What response does the narrator claim to expect from the reader? Do you think this is sincere?
- What view of art does "Hand and Soul" seem to advocate? Is the title appropriate?
- What are unusual features of this tale? To what extent does it resolve the issue of what and how an artist should choose to paint?