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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 loss of John Gentian's is noticed most on May thirtieth?

2. Who is Atufal?

3. In "I and My Chimney," what is the narrator's wife's maxim?

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

5. What causes Captain Delano to suspect Benito Cereno is an impostor?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is unusual about the bug that emerges from the apple-tree table in the story of that name?

3. 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?

4. How have the Knights Templar changed, according to Melville's observations, in "The Paradise of Bachelors"?

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

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

7. What seems odd about Benito Cereno's ship when Captain Delano first sees it?

8. What is Captain Delano's intention in boarding Benito Cereno's ship?

9. Why is the narrator despondent at the beginning of "The Fiddler"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Melville often leaves critical parts of a story unsaid. In "The Town-Ho's Story," for instance, the reader never knows what threat Steelkilt mutters to the captain that causes him to decide not to flog Steelkilt. Likewise, in Hunilla's story in "The Encantadas," he says that " . . . the unnamed events which befell Hunilla on this isle, let them abide between her and her God. In nature, as in law, it may be libelous to speak some truths." Analyze the effectiveness of withholding key information from the reader in this way.

Essay Topic 2

Melville's work is full of allusions to mythic characters and settings with which he expects his reader to be familiar. Select a story such as "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo" or "The Two Temples" to find the references to mythology. Look up the characters or locations and explain in your essay how these references strengthen the story.

Essay Topic 3

Melville employs a wide variety of stylistic techniques in his writing, including a poetic use of repetition. In "I and My Chimney," for example, he writes of " . . . a mysterious door, entering to a mysterious closet; and here I keep mysterious cordials of a choice, mysterious flavor." In your essay, analyze this and other examples of artful repetition you find in these stories.

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