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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does the narrator explain what the two men witnessed when looking out the window?
(a) God's vengeance
(b) The end of all hope
(c) Electrical phenomena
(d) Satan's hand of evil

2. What does the narrator say is dangerous to Usher?
(a) The outside air
(b) Trying to understand the eerie atmosphere outside
(c) Standing in the rain
(d) Dwelling too long on Madeline

3. What does Usher hope to gain from the narrator?
(a) An agreement to marry Usher's sister
(b) Solace
(c) Forgiveness
(d) Money

4. What does Usher offer as an example of his belief about plants?
(a) The fungus on the walls of the house
(b) The grasses in the meadows
(c) The caterpillar's preference for plants
(d) The wild flowers

5. Of what does the narrator suggest the MS. he receives gives evidence?
(a) Unnatural calm
(b) Overwhelming sorrow
(c) Nervous agitation
(d) Delicate intellect

6. What is one of the Usher's favorite volumes that the narrator and Usher read?
(a) Journey into the Blue Distance
(b) City of the Sun
(c) Subterranean Voyage
(d) Directorium Inquisitorium

7. What two aspects of the Usher family does the narrator say the peasantry links together?
(a) Their family name and the family mansion
(b) Their madness and generosity
(c) Their name and their behavior
(d) Their intellect and their eccentricities

8. What does the narrator say is the cause of his initial impression and feelings as he approaches the House of Usher?
(a) The desire to do well in his new employment
(b) A combination of his trepidation about his new job and being recently widowed
(c) The knowledge that his best friend has died in that house
(d) A combination of how the entire outside of the house and grounds appeared

9. Why does Usher want to wait a fortnight?
(a) His cousin will have returned for the funeral
(b) Usher is suspicious of the physicians' motives
(c) The moon will be full again
(d) His sister was greatly loved and many people will want to pay their respects

10. How often is it likely that the narrator will see Madeline in the future?
(a) Probably never again
(b) Probably at the formal dinners every evening
(c) At least at chapel on Wednesdays and Sundays
(d) Probably daily as she checks on her brother regularly

11. In what were the evil things that assailed the monarch's "high estate" dressed?
(a) Robes of white and gold
(b) They were naked
(c) Robes of crimson death
(d) Robes of sorrow

12. What does the narrator say may have originated in the tarn?
(a) The screeching sounds
(b) The feeling of peace pervading the scene
(c) The sounds of moaning
(d) The electrical phenomena

13. What does the narrator speculate has contributed to the appearance of the premises?
(a) The lack of strong conviction
(b) The lack of priority to appearances
(c) The difficulty of finding a gardener to work in such isolation
(d) The peculiarity of the family ancestry history

14. How does Usher greet the narrator?
(a) With a vivacious warmth
(b) With a certain amount of cynicism
(c) With charmed indifference
(d) With grave formality

15. What does the narrator call his "childish experiment"?
(a) Pushing upon several of the leaning trees
(b) Holding a lit candle to the putrescent leaves
(c) Looking down within the tarn
(d) Crossing his breast upon viewing the home

Short Answer Questions

1. Who first occupies the place the lyrics describe?

2. What does Usher try to overcome in the presence of the narrator according to the narrator?

3. What style were Usher's paintings?

4. What does the narrator notice about Madeline when he and Usher are staring at her in the coffin?

5. What does the narrator say he could not remake into something better?

(see the answer keys)

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