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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 narrator decide to give the apple-tree table when he first discovers it?

2. In "The Piazza," how does the narrator's house look to the inhabitants of the mountain cottage?

3. What impresses the narrator about the mill?

4. What has Hautboy accomplished in "The Fiddler?"

5. What does the narrator's wife think of his apprehension about the apple-tree table?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to the deposition in "Benito Cereno," what would have happened to Captain Delano if he had suspected a mutiny aboard the San Dominick?

2. Why does the narrator of "I and My Chimney" believe his chimney is good for invalids?

3. What haunts the narrator at the conclusion of "The Piazza"?

4. Why doesn't the narrator in "The Piazza" grant Marianna's wish and tell her that he is the resident of the house that she believes contains happiness?

5. Why did the Spanish naval board of inquiry at first reject parts of Benito Cereno's deposition?

6. What does the narrator of "The Piazza" think when he first sees a single bright spot in the northwestern hills?

7. What foibles does the narrator claim Jack Gentian possesses?

8. Why does the owner of the paper factory in "The Tartarus of Maids" tell the narrator that all of his workers are called "girls"?

9. In "The Lightning Rod Man," why does the narrator pretend to mistake the salesman for the god Jupiter Tonans?

10. What does the landscape painter, B. Hobbema Brown, believe about the Marquis de Grandvin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Melville uses brief sketches to address large issues of social justice. Select two of the stories that work together, such as "The Paradise of Bachelors" and "The Tartarus of Maids," or "The Two Temples," to analyze the social issues addressed in those comparisons.

Essay Topic 2

When Billy Budd is impressed into the royal navy, the captain of the ship he is leaving says that a former enemy, called Red Whiskers, " . . . now really loves Billy--loves him or is the biggest hypocrite that ever I heard of." Is this an instance of skillful foreshadowing? In your essay, analyze why the captain's lament is or is not an example of Melville's foreshadowing the main conflict in Billy Budd.

Essay Topic 3

Melville, as a product of his time and place, has opinions that are strongly racist, in the sense of making generalizations about groups of people. For example, "Spaniards are all an odd set; the very word Spaniard has a curious, conspirator, Guy-Fawkish twang to it." or "The 'Gee has a great appetite, but little imagination; a large eyeball, but small insight." or "When a mulatto has a regular European face, look out for him; he is a devil." In your essay, analyze these opinions and others like them.

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