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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. How does Melville describe Captain Delano's personality?

2. Where do "'Gees" come from?

3. What disease does Captain Delano learn has swept off much of the crew and cargo of slaves?

4. On what holiday does John Gentian converse with passers-by?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator claim shows Jack Gentian's natural gentility?

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

3. What does the bug in the apple-tree table teach the narrator's daughter, Julia?

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

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

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

7. 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?

8. Why does the narrator of "The Lightning Rod Man" compare the salesman to a worm?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Melville's elegaic pieces about the Marquis de Grandvin and others make clear the qualities he most admires. In your essay, use examples from these writings to show what qualities Melville thinks make for human greatness.

Essay Topic 3

A recurring theme in Melville's stories is the difference between appearance and reality. Choose a character such as Claggart, who appears to have only sterling qualities but is evil in his heart or a setting such as the mountain home in "The Piazza," which seems at first to be like a fairyland, to analyze the point Melville is making.

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