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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 about Lady Madeline had baffled her physicians?

2. What colors were the banners that floated on the place the lyrics describe?

3. What is the source of the lighting in the painting the narrator describes?

4. What fell down at the feet of the hero?

5. Into whose dwelling is the hero of Trist trying to enter?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator feel as he approaches the House of Usher?

2. What does the narrator say about the decor of the house?

3. What does Roderick seem to vacillate between?

4. One is one topic of discussion between the narrator and Roderick that arises from the singing of Roderick's song, "The Haunted Palace"?

5. What does the narrator discover when he gets up and bends his ear close to Roderick's mouth?

6. What does Roderick believe he has done to Madeline?

7. How does the narrator find Roderick's mental state?

8. What had Roderick written to the narrator to get the narrator to come visit?

9. What does the narrator notice Roderick doing as they hear a clanging sound at the same time the book mentions the same such sound?

10. What is the only instrument Roderick can tolerate hearing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in The Fall of the House of Usher. Trace and analyze one major theme of The Fall of the House of Usher. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

Essay Topic 2

Trace and analyze the theme of madness or mental illness in The Fall of the House of Usher. Consider the following questions as you write: Examine which characters are sane and which do not seem sane. What are some symbols of madness? How does the madness of the characters relate to the story? How does the madness of the characters move the story along?

Trace and analyze the theme of isolation in The Fall of the House of Usher. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to have been affected by isolation? What are the reasons some of the characters are isolated? How does the theme relate to the plot? Could the plot have occurred without the isolation of some of the characters?

Essay Topic 3

Poe includes a poem, The Haunted Palace, in the story which he later publishes separately.

Discuss the meaning the poem has to the story. Use examples from The Fall of the House of Usher to support your reasoning.

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This section contains 634 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample