View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Usher hope to gain from the narrator?

2. About what does the narrator say Usher had always been excessive and habitual?

3. What does the narrator describe as long and improvised

4. What odors does Usher find oppressive?

5. What is the creature guarding?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Roderick's response to Madeline falling upon him?

2. What does the narrator do before actually going inside the House of Usher?

3. How does the narrator react upon first seeing Roderick?

4. How does the narrator describe the door into the vault where they lay Madeline's coffin?

5. What do the narrator and Roderick do for one last time before placing Madeline's coffin in the vault?

6. How does the narrator describe the vault where they lay Madeline's coffin?

7. Who is at the door when it flies open and what does the person do?

8. Why does the narrator think the vault was used in more recent times to store gunpowder?

9. What does Roderick say in reply to the narrator's comment about how Roderick and Madeline resemble each other?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Oftentimes, a story has more of a character-driven plot rather than action driven, and oftentimes the other way. Some stories seem to balance the two.

What do you think it means to say that a plot is character driven or action driven? Which type of plot do you find more interesting? Why? Do you think it is possible to have a plot where action and character are developed to the same degree? Why or why not? What type of plot do you think The Fall of the House of Usher is? Explain your response.

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

The narrator gives a detailed description of the House of Usher as he first encounters it. The house appears to also symbolize Roderick and Lady Madeline.

What physical descriptions of the house seem to relate to Roderick? What ones seem to relate to Lady Madeline? Use examples from The Fall of the House of Usher to support your reasoning.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 651 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample