Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. From where does the atmosphere surrounding the house emerge?

A) From the air of heaven

B) From the aspect of the house

C) From the trees, the tarn, and the house itself

D) From the narrator’s sense of depression

2. Why does the narrator agree to stay with Roderick Usher after not seeing him for so many years?

A) The narrator is in love with Madeline.

B) Roderick is on the verge of death.

C) The narrator feels nostalgic to see his childhood friend.

D) Roderick’s request to visit him is so urgent that the narrator cannot refuse.

3. What changes does the narrator observe in Roderick Usher?

A) Roderick has become exquisitely sensitive to all kinds of stimuli.

B) Roderick has become stern and autocratic.

C) oderick has come to hate his sister.

D) Roderick is determined to marry and continue the family line.

4. Which description best fits Roderick?

A) Dark and saturnine, indicating a brooding nature

B) A weak chin, indicating a lack of moral energy

C) Long fingers, indicating a sensitive nature

D) Lean and hungry, indicating a rapacious greed

5. Why does Roderick want to wait a fortnight before burying Madeline?

A) It was Madeline’s last request.

B) He wants to be able to visit her daily.

C) He fears she may not really be dead.

D) It is a family tradition.

6. What is the significance of the story of Ethelred that the narrator reads aloud to Roderick?

A) The action of the story parallels the noises they hear as Madeline escapes the vault.

B) The action of the story parallels the destruction of the house.

C) The story foreshadows Roderick’s death.

D) The story signifies Roderick’s conquest of his sister, who is represented by the dragon from the story.

7. What is the cause of Roderick Usher’s death?

A) He wastes away from guilt over Madeline’s death.

B) The house collapses, falls in on him, and crushes him.

C) Madeline strangles him to death.

D) He dies of fear when Madeline attacks him.

8. What is the significance of the house collapsing into the pit and being swallowed by the tarn?

A) The narrator is at last set free from his captivity.

B) The house is synonymous with the family’s destruction.

C) Madeline Usher has exacted her revenge for being buried alive.

D) The villagers are free from the oppression of the Usher family.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Explain how Roderick’s lyric poem, “The Haunted Palace,” parallels the gradual degeneration of the Usher family.