E3H: Anti-Transcendentalism/Dark Romantics (Spring 2011)
Edge
Study Guide
1. Tom Walker might best be described as— (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
2. Tom Walker’s wife might be described as— (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
3. Tom’s wife decides to go into the forest because she— (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
4. In this story the woods are used to symbolize— (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
5. What does Irving use to symbolize hypocrisy and hidden evil? (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
6. What feeling does Irving want to arouse with the setting of his story? (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
7. What helped you predict that the figure in the forest was the devil? (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
8. Why do you think Tom was not surprised when he met the devil? (“The Devil and Tom Walker”)
9. Roderick invited his childhood friend to his home because— (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
10. What can you infer about Roderick’s character based on his actions throughout the story? (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
11. What can you conclude about Roderick’s feelings toward his sister based on his actions throughout the story? (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
12. What type of atmosphere is created by the phrase “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens . . .”? (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
13. Poe makes many allusions to books and authors because— (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
14. Read the following sentence: “I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored that it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain.” What is the most likely interpretation of the sentence? (“The Fall of the House of Usher”)
15. The veil changes Mr. Hooper’s personality in that it makes him— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
16. No one will ask Mr. Hooper why he is wearing the veil because— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
17. Wearing the veil changes Mr. Hooper’s sermon in that it makes the sermon— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
18. Mr. Hooper tells his fiancée, Elizabeth, “There is an hour to come . . . when all of us shall cast aside our veils.” He means that— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
19. Why does Mr. Hooper refuse to allow Mr. Clark to remove the black veil? (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
20. Why did Hawthorne call “The Minister’s Black Veil” a parable? (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
21. One of the reasons the black veil has such a powerful effect on people is because— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
22. The black veil is most likely a symbol of— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
23. Mr. Hooper chooses to look physically different from other people. This symbolic act is meant to— (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
24. Why do you think no one walked alongside Mr. Hooper after church services on the first Sunday that he wore the black veil? (“The Minister’s Black Veil”)
25. What is the most likely reason the poet has the Raven perch on the bust of the Greek goddess Pallas Athena? (“The Raven”)
26. At first encounter, the speaker’s reaction to the Raven is— (“The Raven”)
27. In lines 93 and 94, near the end of the poem, what does the narrator wish to know when he asks the Raven: “Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, / It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—”? (“The Raven”)
28. Readers can infer from the poem’s conclusion that the speaker will— (“The Raven”)
29. In the poem, the Raven most likely represents— (“The Raven”)
30. In “The Raven”, what is one way that Poe explores “that species of despair which delights in self-torture” as described in “Build Background”? (“The Raven”)
31. In which quotation below are the underlined words an example of sound effects created by alliteration? (“The Raven”)
32. Why does Poe use such devices as alliteration, internal rhyme, and onomatopoeia in “The Raven”?
33. What does the word croaking suggest in the following lines: “What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore / Meant in croaking ‘Nevermore’”? (“The Raven”)
34. In “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper’s sudden adoption of a black veil makes his congregation uneasy because—
35. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the narrator comforts Roderick by—
36. In “The Raven”, how does the narrator change after the Raven enters his room?