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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 does the hero of Trist find instead of the hermit?

2. What infects the narrator?

3. For what had the vault beneath the narrator's apartments once been used in feudal times?

4. How does the narrator describe the window panes?

5. What group of people does the narrator say is suggested in Usher's nose?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator unable to shake off his feelings of uneasiness the night of the storm?

2. How does the narrator find Roderick in the house?

3. Where does Roderick's genius as a painter lie?

4. How does the narrator find Roderick's mental state?

5. How does the narrator throw off his sense of gloom upon approaching the house?

6. How does the narrator react to Roderick's mood after Madeline's death?

7. What had Roderick's sister, up to the narrator's arrive, resisted, but how does that change after the narrator arrives at the house of Usher?

8. What does Roderick believe he has done to Madeline?

9. What does the narrator regularly observe Roderick doing after Madeline's death?

10. For what purpose and when was the vault used in previous times?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Poe includes a poem, The Haunted Palace, in the story which he later publishes separately.

Discuss the meaning the poem has to the story. Use examples from The Fall of the House of Usher to support your reasoning.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze and discuss what you think are the characteristics of a successful story and why The Fall of the House of Usher is or is not a successful story based on your criteria. Do you think the criteria for a successful story should be different if it is written for adults versus young adults?

Essay Topic 3

Poe was a literary critic as well as a writer. He claims a story must concentrate on a single effect.

What is the single effect in The Fall of the House of Usher and how is this effect evident in the characters, the setting and the symbolism?

(see the answer keys)

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