Poe Test Review
Biography
What happened to Poe’s father?/ How old was Poe when his mother died?/ What did she die of?/ What happened to Poe and his siblings after his mother’s death?/ Who was Jane Stannard? What happened to her?/ How did John Allan behave while his wife was dying of tuberculosis?/ How did Poe impress his classmates at the University of Virginia?/ How did Poe get into financial trouble in college?/ Where does Poe find a home after Mrs. Allan died?/ Describe Poe’s last visit with his foster-father./ Describe Poe as a critic./ What precipitated Poe’s first “drinking binge”?/ What are two unusual circumstances of Poe’s marriage to Virginia Klem?/ What kind of a husband was Poe?/ What happened when Poe met the President?/ Beside horror stories, what other type of story did Poe invent?/ What mysterious circumstances surrounded Poe’s death?
Black Cat
With whom does the narrator share his abode?/ What is his first cat's name?/ What vice leads the narrator on the road to ruin?/ . What two terrible things does the narrator do to his cat? In each case, why?/ What subsequently happens to his home?/ Where does the narrator find a new pet?/ Why does he decide to adopt it?/ What are this cat's two distinguishing features?/ How does the narrator like his new pet?/ What does he want to do to it? Why doesn't he?/ How does his wife die?/ How does he dispose of the body?/ Who leads the police to the body? Why?/ Who provides the final clue revealing the whereabouts of the body?
The Pit & Pendulum
MAIN CHARACTERS ~ Don Nicholas Medina (the grief-stricken widower)/ Catherine Medina (his sister)/ Elizabeth Barnard Medina (Don Nicholas’s late wife)/ Francis Barnard (Don Nicholas’s skeptical brother-in-law)/ Dr. Charles Leon (Don Nicholas’s best friend)/ Maximillian and Maria (servants)/ In Flashback ~ Sebastian Medina (Don Nicholas’s father and sadistic Inquisitor)/ Isabella Medina (Don Nicholas’s mother)/ Bartolome Medina (Don Nicholas’s uncle)
Why does Francis at first suspect that something is not right about his sister’s death?/ What, is Francis first told, was the reason for her death?/ What is the revised explanation?/ What lingering fear does Don Nicholas have about the death of his wife?/ What unusual things happen to suggest to Don Nicholas that he is being haunted?/ What evidence suggests to Francis that Don Nicholas is faking?/ How does Don Nicholas respond to the same evidence?/ How do they decide to determine once and for all what happened to Elizabeth?/ What is the outcome of their investigation?/ How did Don Nicholas’s mother die? his uncle? why?/ How does Dr. Leon prove not to be a good friend to Don Nicholas?/ How does Dr. Leon die?/ Why does Don Nicholas try to slice Francis Barnard like a bologna?/ What was the actual cause of Elizabeth Barnard Medina’s death?
Hop-Frog
How are the King’s ministers described physically (1)?/ What type of humor does the King prefer (2)?/ The fool’s value is trebled (tripled) because he is a ______, a ______, and a ______(5)./ How did “Hop-Frog” get his name (6)?/ How did Hop-Frog come to be in the court in the first place (8)?/ How does Hop-frog feel about wine? Why(12)?/ What does the King do when Trippetta tries to intervene on Hop-Frog’s behalf (22 – 25)?/ What strange noise follows? Where does it come from (28 – 32)?/ What does Hop-Frog call the plan he comes up with (34 – 36)?/ What is the chief attraction of this plan (for the King and his ministers) (38 – 40)?/ What four items make up the costumes the King and the ministers wear (45)?/ How does Hop-Frog “capture” the ourang-outangs (51)?/ What strange sound do we hear again? Where does it come from (56)?/ What is Hop-Frog’s “last jest” (57 – 59)?
The Masque of the Red Death
Why is Prince Prospero holding this “masque”? What is the peculiar layout of the castle? What happens every hour, on the hour? Who is the unexpected visitor, and what does he bring with him?
The Bells
What are the four different bells, and the different events associated with each?