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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 the salesman in the story sell?

2. What is the Rue Morgue?

3. How did the person of interest obtain the animal?

4. Which word describes Dupin's family?

5. What does Dupin tell the person of interest that he has?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is the protagonist of the story? Why?

2. What elements make "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" a detective story?

3. Could Dupin's analytical skills be a curse, or a bad thing? Why or why not?

4. Why is robbery not a motive for the murders?

5. Why does Dupin give The Narrator a pistol?

6. How might this short story have been considered controversial when it was written?

7. What did the sailor plan to do with the orangutan?

8. Describe the relationship between the laundress and the two murdered women.

9. Describe the argument that ensues over the second language that the neighbors heard.

10. What does the reader know about The Narrator?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the role of the story's narrator in the overall story?

Essay Topic 2

In what ways are the murders at the Rue Morgue strange? What special circumstances surround the murder, and what role do they play in the story?

Essay Topic 3

Determine the tone of the short story. Find three specific elements of the story that create this tone.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 604 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample