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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 name does Lewis write in the pentagram in Chapter Five?

2. How did Tarby break his arm as said in Chapter Three?

3. What is the town that Lewis is going to live in, as said in Chapter One?

4. Who does Lewis see on deck of the Spanish Armada in Chapter Four?

5. What is carved on the arch of the graveyard as said in Chapter Five?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lewis notice that is weird in the mansion in Chapter Two?

2. What does Uncle Jonathan do in Chapter Three to make the moon disappear?

3. How does Uncle Jonathan explain to Lewis that magic works in Chapter Two? How is this different than Lewis’ previous idea?

4. Where is the cemetery in relation in New Zebedee as described in Chapter Five? How does Lewis get there?

5. What is Lewis’ new challenge in Chapter Three? Why is he bullied?

6. Who previously owned Barnvault’s Folly as said in Chapter Two? What were the old owners like?

7. What is strange to Lewis about playing poker in Chapter One?

8. What happens with Lewis and Tarby’s friendship in Chapter Four? How does Lewis feel about this change?

9. How does Tarby act after the magic in Chapter Three? Why does this make Lewis afraid?

10. What does Lewis do when he gets home in Chapter Five? What does he dream about that night?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Verisimilitude is a literary term that means creating a believable world in a novel that feels as if it is its own world. How does the novel craft verisimilitude in the town of New Zebedee and Lewis’ experiences? How does it apply that verisimilitude to accepting extraordinary events such as magic? Write three pages with at least four textual examples.

Essay Topic 2

A house in literature can stand as a metaphor of a mind, and in the Gothic tradition, what is trapped inside of a house may represent what is trapped within a mind. A locked door may be a part of the brain that is locked away, a corridor may be a shortcut from one thought to another. Apply this understanding of a haunted house to the novel. What is trapped inside, how is it trapped, and whose mind, or minds, does this represent? Write three pages with at least four textual examples.

Essay Topic 3

Light and dark dichotomies are typically used in the Gothic to illustrate good versus evil. How does the novel use this typical color palette to heightened literary effect? Find two examples from the text to support your response. Then look at how the novel uses other colors. What other colors and forms of light does the novel incorporate? How does it create a new palette of the Gothic and why does it do this? Make sure to consider that Barnavelt's Folly has had two recent owners. Use at least four examples in four pages for your overall answer.

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