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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 is the attitude of the bachelors in the Temple toward pain and trouble?

2. What does the narrator in "The Paradise of Bachelors" say has become of the Knights Templar?

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

4. Why does the lightning rod salesman claim that his rods are superior?

5. How does Captain Delano view the attitude of the black people on board?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the chimney in "I and My Chimney" provide for the narrator on the second landing?

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

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

4. What does the narrator of "The Fiddler" first admire about Hautboy?

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

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

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

8. What is the figurehead on the San Dominick?

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

10. What does Melville say is the difference between boarding a strange ship and entering a strange house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

One recurring theme in Melville's stories is the fate of an innocent man in the grip of malice he does not comprehend. Compare two such protagonists, such as Steelkilt and Billy Budd.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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