View a FREE sample

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 narrator say he often finds Usher doing?

2. What does the hero of Trist believe himself to be?

3. How does the narrator respond to Usher coming into the narrator's apartment?

4. What does the hero of Trist find instead of the hermit?

5. What spreads over the entire exterior of the mansion?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator observe about Roderick after Madeline's death?

2. What does the narrator say about Roderick's face?

3. What does the narrator say about Madeline's appearance when he looked upon her before they sealed the coffin lid?

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

5. Why is the narrator on his way to the House of Usher?

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

7. When does the narrator find he is unable to sleep and upon what does he blame that fact?

8. What is the only instrument Roderick can tolerate hearing?

9. What does Roderick say in reply to the narrator's comment about how Roderick and Madeline resemble each other?

10. How does the narrator help Roderick regarding Roderick's deceased sister?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narrator gives a detailed description of the House of Usher as he first encounters it. The house appears to also symbolize Roderick and Lady Madeline.

What physical descriptions of the house seem to relate to Roderick? What ones seem to relate to Lady Madeline? Use examples from The Fall of the House of Usher to support your reasoning.

Essay Topic 2

Often, authors will write about what they know, and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the story more interesting.

Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Edgar Allan Poe. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her stories? Why or why not? Give examples. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Poe's agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the story and discuss Poe's probable agenda concerning that idea.

Essay Topic 3

Foreshadowing is used in almost all works of fiction.

What is foreshadowing? Identify three instances of foreshadowing in The Fall of the House of Usher and what they foreshadow? How does foreshadowing contribute to a story’s suspense? Are there any incidences that you thought foreshadows a future event, but it does not do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 691 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample