View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What age is the narrator of Bartleby?
(a) In his sixties.
(b) In his fifties.
(c) In his forties.
(d) In his thirties.

2. Where do both the captain and Steelkilt go after they separate?
(a) Hawaii.
(b) England.
(c) France.
(d) Tahiti.

3. What previous employment had shaped Bartleby?
(a) Working on a locomotive.
(b) Working in a morgue.
(c) Working in a dead letter office.
(d) Working as a court reporter.

4. How does the narrator get into the London theater presentation?
(a) He pawns his overcoat to buy a ticket.
(b) He sneaks in a side door.
(c) A stranger gives him a ticket.
(d) He finds a ticket on the sidewalk.

5. What is Poor Man's Pudding?
(a) Flour, sugar, cinnamon, and milk.
(b) Water, salt, and flour.
(c) Rice, milk, and salt.
(d) Milk, eggs, and sugar.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Steelkilt and his men demand in return for obeying orders?

2. What does Steelkilt threaten to do if he is flogged by the captain?

3. What do Steelkilt's three remaining conspirators decide to do to save themselves?

4. What does Blandmour believe God does for the poor?

5. What animal from the islands supplies sailors with food and utensils?

Short Essay Questions

1. What purpose does the circle of listeners serve in "The Town-Ho's Story"?

2. What verb tenses does Melville use in "The Two Temples" to bring immediacy to the story?

3. Why does Melville come to believe that some buccaneers on the isle of Albermarle must have been gentlemen?

4. Why does the narrator say that pity turns into repulsion?

5. Why does Melville believe that American poor suffer more than European poor?

6. Why did the two remaining followers of Steelkilt each hope to be the first out of the hold?

7. What skills are necessary for a scrivener?

8. What does the author of "Poor Man's Pudding" and "Rich Man's Crumbs" pray that Heaven will save him from?

9. Why does the narrator continue to accept Bartleby's refusals?

10. What does the narrator say happens to one in command who discovers a subordinate who is "significantly his superior"?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 839 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample