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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. Nemo's death is caused by ___________.

2. Misinterpreted by Guppy, Tulkinghorn states that he feels Gidley is ___________.

3. Sir Leicester takes enormous pride in ___________.

4. The marriage between young Rouncewell and Rosa is nixed because ___________.

5. Lady Dedlock faints when she ___________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Richard Carstone has a strange way of seeing money. How does Esther illustrate his propensity to rationalize his spending?

2. Discuss Mr. Gridley's role in the story, Bleak House. What is his relationship to Miss Flite?

3. Why does Mr. Guppy so easily agree that his marriage proposal to Esther is now moot?

4. Discuss the fact that Dickens' culprit turns out to be Mademoiselle Hortense. Why did he not choose a different character?

5. What is interesting about Smallweed demanding money for the letters he once had in his possession?

6. Why do you think Judy Smallweed is so cruel to her maid?

7. Describe the general scene in the Chancery hearings on the Jarndyce suit, and London, as it is set by Dickens in the first chapter. Is there anything attractive or alluring about the ambience of either?

8. Discuss Krook's strange death. What is spontaneous combustion?

9. What is the relationship between Esther Summerson and Miss Barbary?

10. Mr. Turveydrop, the elder, is a most unusual person. What exactly is his mental condition? Is he a healthy person? Is Dickens being facetious?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The gap between the rich and poor seems extremely wide in Bleak House. Write an essay, using the story and its characters, that compares and contrasts the poorest with the wealthiest. Also, try to determine where Dickens' sympathy lay when he wrote Bleak House.

Essay Topic 2

Write a well-researched essay on England's "work-houses" for the indigent. You should include how they came to be, what they offered, the conditions present, and whether anything like them exists today. If they were closed, when and why did this take place?

Essay Topic 3

Dickens describes Tulkinghorn's funeral as having many empty carriages for absent mourners. Research this practice and write an essay on its origins, its meaning, and its demise.

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