The Boarded Window quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre best describes "The Boarded Window"?

   • Correct answer: Gothic Horror
   • Romanticism
   • Realism
   • Science Fiction
   • Comedy of Manners

   Gothic Horror is the best fit. The story combines all the hallmarks of the genre: an isolated frontier setting, a narrator who admits to conjecture and secondhand knowledge, psychological dread, a vigil over a body, and a horrifying revelation that blurs the boundary between life and death.

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2. 2

   Question 2. How does the narrator know Murlock's story?

   • He witnessed the events himself as a young child living nearby
   • He discovered a diary hidden inside the boarded window of the cabin
   • Correct answer: He heard it from his grandfather, who had known Murlock personally
   • He read it in a newspaper account published at the time of Murlock's death

   The narrator explicitly says he got Murlock's story from his grandfather, who had lived near by and known Murlock personally. This makes the account thirdhand and introduces deliberate unreliability — the narrator even admits to sketching in details "from conjecture."

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why couldn't Murlock get medical help when his wife fell ill?

   • He was too poor to afford a physician's fee and had no money
   • Correct answer: There was no physician for miles and she was too ill to be left alone
   • He refused to trust frontier doctors and believed in home remedies
   • His wife forbade him to leave, insisting she would recover on her own

   Bierce states plainly: "There was no physician within miles, no neighbor; nor was she in a condition to be left, to summon help." The frontier's isolation is total — Murlock is trapped, unable to act or get assistance as his wife dies.

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does "Indigence" mean in this story?

   • Correct answer: A state of extreme poverty or destitution
   • A state of moderate wealth and comfortable living
   • A deep feeling of longing for a distant home
   • A physical illness that weakens the body over time

   Indigence means extreme poverty. Bierce uses it with deliberate irony: the degree of prosperity frontier settlers attained before moving westward was so minimal that today we would call it indigence — abject poverty.

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5. 5

   Question 5. How does Murlock react immediately after his wife dies?

   • He weeps uncontrollably and cannot bring himself to touch her body
   • He rides immediately to town to report her death and summon help
   • Correct answer: He becomes numb and mechanically prepares her body, unable to weep
   • He rages at the wilderness around him in grief-stricken fury

   Murlock is struck numb by grief. He mechanically prepares his wife's body — adjusting her hair, binding her wrists — but cannot weep, and is surprised by this. Bierce explains it as a blow that crushes and benumbs rather than sharpens. Murlock even tells himself "it must be all right, somehow."

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6. 6

   Question 6. With what did Murlock bind his wife's wrists for burial?

   • Correct answer: A ribbon
   • A rope
   • A cord
   • A cloth strip

   Murlock bound her wrists with a ribbon — and at the story's end, this ribbon is broken, her hands are tightly clenched, a key detail suggesting she was still alive.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What sound enters through the open window just as Murlock falls asleep?

   • The distant howl of wolves circling the cabin in the dark forest
   • Correct answer: A long, wailing cry like that of a lost child in the darkening woods
   • A low growl and the sound of heavy paws padding through fallen leaves
   • A sharp knocking as if someone were striking the outside of the cabin

   As Murlock drops his face onto his arms in exhaustion, a "long, wailing sound like the cry of a lost child in the far deeps of the darkening woods" enters through the open window. Bierce writes: "Perhaps it was a wild beast; perhaps it was a dream. For Murlock was asleep."

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8. 8

   Question 8. What does "Cataleptic (implied state of the wife)" mean in this story?

   • Correct answer: A trance-like condition mimicking death, with muscular rigidity and suspended sensation
   • A violent fever that causes delirium and hallucinations in the patient
   • A medical condition causing rapid and uncontrollable muscle spasms
   • A state of deep unconsciousness with no possibility of revival

   Though Bierce never uses the word, the wife appears to have been in a cataleptic state — a condition that can mimic death so completely that the untrained observer (Murlock had "no experience in grief" and no medical knowledge) could not distinguish it from actual death. The horrifying possibility is that she was alive when buried in his mind.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What wakes Murlock in the darkness, and what does he sense first?

   • His wife's voice calling his name from across the room
   • Correct answer: An unknown sound and then what seems like bare feet on the floor
   • The sound of the window being forced open from outside the cabin
   • The crash of his rifle falling from the wall rack where it was stored

   Murlock wakes with no clear cause, strains to see and hear in the pitch darkness, and then — "Suddenly the table shook beneath his arms" — he hears "a light, soft step — another — sounds as of bare feet upon the floor." The ambiguity of whether this is the wife or the panther is central to the story's horror.

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10. 10

    Question 10. How does Murlock finally see what is in the room with him?

    • He lights a candle after fumbling in the darkness for several minutes
    • Dawn breaks and the first light reveals the panther at the window
    • Correct answer: He fires his rifle blindly and the muzzle flash illuminates the room
    • He throws open the cabin door and moonlight floods in from outside

    Terror drives Murlock to madness, and madness to action. He grabs his loaded rifle and fires without aim. The muzzle flash lights the room "with a vivid illumination" — and in that instant he sees the panther dragging his wife toward the window. Then "darkness blacker than before, and silence."

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does the boarded window symbolize on a psychological level?

    • Murlock's distrust of the outside world after being robbed by frontier bandits
    • Correct answer: His attempt to block out the unbearable memory of that night and his failure to protect his wife
    • A practical precaution against wild animals common to frontier cabins of the era
    • His wife's preference for privacy, which Murlock honored out of loyalty after her death

    The boarded window represents Murlock's psychological repression. He literally seals off the opening through which the panther entered — and through which his failure entered his life. It is a physical act that mirrors his complete emotional withdrawal: boarding up the window, boarding up himself from the world, aging beyond his years in isolation.

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12. 12

    Question 12. How old does Murlock appear to be? How old is he actually?

    • Correct answer: Appears 70, actually about 50
    • Appears 80, actually about 60
    • Appears 60, actually about 40
    • Appears 50, actually about 35

    "He was apparently seventy years old, actually about fifty." Grief and isolation aged Murlock twenty years beyond his true age — Bierce makes this discrepancy explicit to show how devastating the trauma was.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What physical evidence in the morning proves the wife may have been alive when the panther attacked?

    • Her body had moved to the other side of the room and her eyes were open
    • Her burial shroud was torn and scratch marks were found on the inside of the window boards
    • Correct answer: A fragment of the panther's ear was clenched between her teeth and the wrist ribbon was broken, her hands tightly clenched
    • Murlock discovered a pulse in her wrist and realized she had been in a fever-coma all along

    The final paragraph reveals two damning details: the ribbon binding her wrists was broken and her hands were tightly clenched (consistent with a living person's grip), and between her teeth was a fragment of the panther's ear — meaning she bit the panther during the attack. Together these imply she was still alive when the animal dragged her.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does the story suggest about nature and the frontier?

    • Nature is a benevolent force that provides for those who respect it and live simply
    • The frontier rewards hard work, self-reliance, and determination to survive
    • Correct answer: Nature is indifferent and predatory — it offers no comfort and recognizes no human grief
    • Wilderness is dangerous but ultimately less threatening than civilized society

    Nature in this story is brutally indifferent. Murlock's wife dies because there are no doctors and no neighbors — the wilderness isolates her from all help. Then the panther enters during the most sacred moment of grief, treating the body as prey without any regard for human ritual or emotion. Bierce presents the frontier as actively hostile to human life.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does "Recluse" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: A person who lives in voluntary isolation, withdrawn from society
    • A fugitive who has fled from the law and lives in hiding
    • A religious hermit who lives alone for purposes of spiritual discipline
    • A frontiersman skilled at surviving alone in the wilderness

    A recluse is someone who withdraws from society and lives in isolation. Murlock is described as a recluse — living alone, speaking rarely, supplying his simple wants through animal skins. The story reveals why he became one.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What literary device does Bierce use when the wailing sound enters through the window just before Murlock falls asleep?

    • Flashback — the sound transports Murlock to a memory of his wife's voice
    • Correct answer: Foreshadowing — the cry hints at the animal danger that will soon threaten the cabin
    • Personification — Bierce treats the forest as a living being calling out to Murlock
    • Dramatic irony — the reader knows it is the panther while Murlock assumes it is a dream

    The wailing cry that enters through the open window is foreshadowing: it signals the panther's approach before Murlock loses consciousness. Bierce writes "perhaps it was a wild beast; perhaps it was a dream" — this planted ambiguity prepares the reader for the violent revelation to come.

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17. 17

    Question 17. When the narrator says "from what we know of a nature like his we may venture to sketch in some of the details," what technique is he using?

    • Omniscient narration — the narrator has godlike access to Murlock's inner thoughts
    • Correct answer: Unreliable narration — he openly admits he is filling gaps with conjecture, not fact
    • Stream of consciousness — the narrator enters Murlock's mind directly without filter
    • Second-person narration — the reader is invited to imagine themselves in Murlock's position

    This is deliberate unreliable narration. The narrator openly admits the account is thirdhand and that he is conjecturing details he cannot actually know. This technique is characteristic of Bierce — he introduces uncertainty into what seems like a factual ghost story, making it impossible to know exactly what happened to Murlock's wife.

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18. 18

    Question 18. What does "Lacerated" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Deeply cut or torn, leaving a ragged and irregular wound
    • Bruised and discolored from blunt-force impact
    • Stained or darkened by prolonged exposure to the elements
    • Swollen and inflamed from a fever or infection

    Lacerated means deeply cut or torn with a jagged wound. Bierce describes the wife's throat as "dreadfully lacerated" — the panther's teeth had gripped her there. The word choice underscores the violence of the attack.

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19. 19

    Question 19. What does Murlock's lifelong isolation after the incident reveal about the story's theme of guilt?

    • He is afraid of other people and simply prefers solitude over company
    • Correct answer: He carries the guilt of having given up on a wife who may have been alive, and cannot face others
    • He mourns his wife's death deeply but eventually finds peace in the natural world
    • He blames civilization for failing to provide a doctor who could have saved her

    Murlock's isolation is the punishment he inflicts on himself. The horror of the ending — the bitten ear, the broken ribbon, the clenched hands — implies he abandoned a living wife. He aged twenty years beyond his true age, never smiled, never spoke a needless word. The boarded window is not just a barrier against animals but a monument to guilt he could never escape.

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20. 20

    Question 20. What does the panther symbolize in the story?

    • Correct answer: The brutal, predatory force of nature indifferent to human grief and ritual
    • The spirit of Murlock's wife, transformed into an animal by her violent death
    • The frontier justice that punishes those who abandon loved ones in the wilderness
    • The danger of living alone, which Bierce uses to warn against the solitary life

    The panther represents nature's brutal indifference. It enters at the precise moment of Murlock's grief — his most sacred and vulnerable state — and treats the body as mere prey. It recognizes no human ritual, no grief, no love. This is Bierce's vision of the frontier: wilderness that does not accommodate human emotion, even death.

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21. 21

    Question 21. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • Murlock bound his wife's wrists with a ribbon before her burial.

      Happened

      The text explicitly states that "the ribbon with which he had bound the wrists was broken" — confirming he had bound them as part of preparing the body.

    • Murlock wept over his wife's body before falling asleep.

      Didn't happen

      The text specifically notes that Murlock did NOT weep: "he was surprised, too, that he did not weep — surprised and a little ashamed." His grief stupefied him rather than releasing him into tears.

    • A fragment of the panther's ear was found between the wife's teeth.

      Happened

      The final line of the story states: "Between the teeth was a fragment of the animal's ear." This is the story's central and most horrifying revelation.

    • Murlock deliberately aimed his rifle at the panther before firing.

      Didn't happen

      The text says he fired "without aim" — the shot was an instinctive, panicked act, not a deliberate one. It was the flash, not the bullet, that saved what remained of the situation.

    • The wailing sound outside the window entered while the window was still open.

      Happened

      The story describes the cry coming "in through the open window" — crucially, the window was still open at this point. Murlock had not yet boarded it. The boarding would come after the night's events.

    • The narrator personally visited the ruined cabin as a boy.

      Happened

      The narrator describes throwing a stone at the ruined cabin "in company with an equally intrepid spirit" when he was a lad — and running away from the ghost every boy knew haunted the spot.

    • Murlock eventually remarried and had children after recovering from the trauma.

      Didn't happen

      The text says the opposite: Murlock lived entirely alone for the rest of his life, aging far beyond his years, until he was found dead in his cabin. He never recovered.

    • The wife's hands were tightly clenched when discovered the next morning.

      Happened

      The final paragraph states: "the hands were tightly clenched." Combined with the broken ribbon and the ear fragment in her teeth, this implies she was alive and fighting during the panther's attack.

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