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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 does Holgrave suggest about the Judge?

2. What does Holgrave try to do at the beginning of the novel?

3. How does Hepzibah feel towards the Judge at the beginning of the book?

4. What does Phoebe find in the garden?

5. What becomes of the cousin of the convicted murderer?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe the House of Seven Gables?

2. What tragedies soon afflicted the Pyncheon family?

3. Describe Holgrave and Uncle Venner.

4. Who is Phoebe and how does Hepzibah react to her arrival?

5. Describe the events surrounding the murder that was committed 30 years before the start of the story.

6. Who is Hepzibah Pyncheon and why does she run a shop out of the house?

7. What did Maule do right before he died?

8. Describe the Puritan-era legal battle over the land the house sits on.

9. What were the Maules like as a family?

10. What does the Judge try to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that explores the symbolic significance of specific objects in the novel. Include discussion of the portrait, the well and garden, the posies, the harpsichord, and the daguerreotypes. What do they symbolize and how do they support the novel’s themes?

Essay Topic 2

Natural details in the novel play a small but noteworthy part in developing the setting and supporting the themes. Write an essay on the importance of natural elements, including the tree, the garden and the posies.

Essay Topic 3

Holgrave’s daguerreotypes play important roles at specific points in the narrative. Write an essay that explores the significance of the old photographs, how Hawthorne uses them and how they help develop the themes in the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 758 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample