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English 215 Exam

You must remain in the room until your exam is submitted.

Part 1. Multiple choice. Write the letter of the correct answer IN CAPS in the blank on the answer sheet. Each question is worth 2 points.

1. Which of the following is true of “The Fall of the House of Usher?”

  1. Roderick was a victim of paralysis and was bedridden most of his life.
  2. Madeline was pretending to be dead so that she could come back to kill her brother and inherit the estate.
  3. As his sister becomes more physically ill, Roderick becomes increasingly ill emotionally and mentally.
  4. The house was uninhabited and in great disrepair.

2. What character does Poe say has, from infancy, been noted for tenderness of heart and “docility and humanity of disposition?”

a. The narrator of “The Black Cat”

b. The narrator of “The Fall of the House of Usher”

c. Roderick Usher

d. Montresor

e. None of the above

3. The family motto referred to in "The Cask of Amontillado" is

(A)Nemo me impune lacessit (“No one insults me with impunity”)

(B)Ancilium numquam deficiens (“Without which there is nothing”)

(C)Veritas et Integras (“Truth and Integrity”)

(D)De gustibus non est disputandum (“There is no accounting for taste”)

(E)None of the above

4. “The Raven" appeared in:

(A)1845

(B)1849

(C)1745

(D)it did not appear until after Poe's death, in 1903.

5. An image of a foot crushing a “serpent rampant” whose fangs are imbedded in the heal appears in:

(A)“Annabel Lee”

(B)“The Fall of the House of Usher”

(C)“The Raven”

(D)“The Cask of Amontillado”

(E)None of the above

6. What is being described in the following quote? "Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up and made to resemble the rest of the cellar."

(A)The basement in “The Black Cat”

(B)The caves in “The Cask of Amontillado”

(C)The sanctuary in “William Wilson”

(D)The exterior of the house of Usher/

(E)None of the above

7. In what city was Poe NOT a resident?

(A)Baltimore

(B)Richmond

(C)Philadelphia

(D)New York

(E)At one time or another, he lived in all these cities.

8. The period of time that Virginia was ill with tuberculosis was approximately:

a. 20 years

b. 2 years

c. 6 months

d. 5 years

e. none of the above

9. The basic facts of “The Fall of the House of Usher” include all of the following with one exception. Which of these statements is in error?

a. The narrator has been invited to visit Roderick Usher, an old friend.

b.Roderick has a twin sister who dies of a cataleptic seizure the first night.

c.Roderick and his sister are the only surviving members of an ancient family.

d.The sister is buried while still alive.

10Identify which one of the following texts appears within the narrative of “The Fall of the House of Usher”

(A)“The Inkling”

(B)“The Mad Trist”

(C)“The Domain of Arnheim”

(D)“The Spectacles”

(E)None of the above

11Freemasonry as a social movement is used symbolically within what text?

  1. “The Fall of the House of Usher”
  2. “The Cask of Amontillado”
  3. “The Raven”
  4. “William Wilson”
  5. All of the above

12 In what country does William Wilson murder his double?

  1. Italy
  2. England
  3. Sweden
  4. America
  5. None of the above

13. What does Wilson wear at the duke’s ball?

  1. A Spanish cloak (cape)
  2. A jester’s outfit
  3. A suit of clothes entirely in black
  4. A tri-cornered hat
  5. None of the above

14. Poe was born in:

a. Boston

b. Richmond

c. Philadelphia

d. New Orleans

e. None of the above

15Montresor appears as a character in:

  1. “The Minister’s Black Veil”
  2. “Young Goodman Brown”
  3. “The Fall of the House of Usher”
  4. “The Cask of Amontillado”
  5. None of the above

16Which definition best fits the word “doppelganger?”

  1. The objectification of emotion on nature
  2. The internalization of nature to depict character
  3. The alter-ego or unconscious Self
  4. The initiation archetype
  5. None of the above

17Which character is afflicted by “acute bodily illness” and “a pitiable mental idiosyncrasy?

  1. Madeleine Usher
  2. Brown
  3. Montresor
  4. Roderick Usher
  5. None of the above

18Which statement best describes “The Fall of the House of Usher?”

  1. It represents Poe’s theory of literary unity as well as his views of the organic unity of the Self
  2. It follows the Gothic tradition but also enhances its effects
  3. It combines the tradition of the bildungsroman with the strategies of the pathetic fallacy
  4. It is a version of the Gothic organized around the unifying archetype of the villanelle.
  5. Both (A) and (B)
  6. Both (C) and (D)

19Poe’s mother earned her living as:

  1. A seamstress
  2. An opera singer
  3. A watercolorist
  4. An actress
  5. None of the above

20Which of the following schools does William Wilson attend?

  1. Eton
  2. Harvard
  3. Cambridge
  4. Winchester
  5. None of the above

21“Minute fungi overspread[ing] the whole exterior” and “a barely perceptible fissure . . . in a zigzag direction” is a description of:

  1. The house of Usher
  2. The forest in “Young Goodman Brown”
  3. The windows outside the speaker’s chamber in “The Raven”
  4. The parsonage in “The Minister’s Black Veil”
  5. None of the above

22. What was the subject of Poe’s essay “The Philosophy of Composition”

a. “The Raven”

b. American literary nationalism

c. “The Fall of the House of Usher”

d. magazine editing and design

e. none of the above

23. One of Poe’s oft-repeated critical statements had to do with unity. Unity of what?

(a) Effect

(b) Character

(c) Setting

(d) Symbolism

(e) none of the above

24. What types of writing did Poe NOT publish

(a) play (drama)

(b) literary criticism

(c) science fiction

(d) detective fiction

(e) all of the above he published at one time or another

25. In “The Black Cat,” what shape does the second cat’s white fur form?

a. a gallows

b. the scales of justice

c. an olive branch

d. a set of prison bars

e. none of the above

Part 2. On the answer sheet: Identify the title of the Poe text from which the quote comes. 1 pt each.

26.her high-born kinsmen came /And bore her away from me, /To shut her up in a sepulchre, / In this kingdom by the sea. Annabel Lee

27.The sickness — the nausea — / The pitiless pain — Have ceased, / with the fever That maddened my brain —/ With the fever called "Living" /That burned in my brain.To Annie

28.[It] was found securely fastened from within. It resisted the utmost force of those who endeavored to raise it. A large gimlet-hole had been pierced in its frame to the left, and a very stout nail was found fitted therein nearly to the head. Upon examining the other window, a similar nail was seen similarly fitted in it; and a vigorous attempt to raise this sash failed also.The Murders in the Rue Morgue

29.But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan. This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body.The Black Cat

30.True! — nervous — very, very dreadfully nervous I had been, and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story. The Tell Tale Heart

31. And this I did for seven long nights — every night just at midnight — but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber, and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept. The Tell Tale Heart

32.Upon reaching the first landing heard two voices in loud and angry contention — the one a gruff voice, the other much shriller — a very strange voice. Could distinguish some words of the former, which was that of a Frenchman. Was positive that it was not a woman's voice. Could distinguish the words 'sacré' and 'diable.' The shrill voice was that of a foreigner. Could not be sure whether it was the voice of a man or of a woman. Could not make out what was said, but believed the language to be Spanish.The Murders in the Rue Morgue

33.At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size. Within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones, we perceived a still interior recess, in depth about four feet, in width three, in height six or seven.The Cask of Amontillado

34.I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the utterly porous, and evidently decayed condition of the individual stones.The Fall of the House of Usher

35.An excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphurous lustre over all. His long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among other things, I bear painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which I shuddered the more thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not why, from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely written words.The Fall of the House of Usher

Part 3. Short answer. Write your responses on the answer sheet. 2 pts each.

36.How did Poe’s essay, “The Poetic Principle,” originate?As a lecture

37.Why is Amontillado central to the sense imagery of that particular tale?It was a type of sherry that was the sweetest of the fortified wines at the time.

38.The books “of forgotten lore” mentioned in “The Raven” concern this subject: the occult.

39.Poe sarcastically referred to these writers as “Frogpondians”: the Transcendentalists

40.Poe’s great ambition in his professional life (never realized) was to own and operate his own magazine.

41.What did Poe say was “the most poetical of all subjects?”“the death of a beautiful woman”

42.Fortunado is dressed in the tale as a jester

43.A possible model for “Annie” in the poem of the same name may have been Nancy Richmond.

44.Agape is the Greek name for the type of love expressed in “Annabel Lee.”

45.Conscience is the subject of the epigraph (opening quote) to “William Wilson.”

Part 4. Brief essay. In your blue book, write a coherent, detailed and specific response of about 300 words on ONE of the following topics. Use plenty of examples to back up your points. Don’t claim anything you can’t back up with an example.20 points.

(a) Explain and illustrate how “The Fall of the House of Usher” demonstrates Poe’s theory of literary and psychic (human) unity.

(b) Explain and illustrate the purposes to which Poe uses the doppelganger motif (doubling) in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.”

Good luck to all.

Rev Sum 10