“The Fall of the House of Usher”

1. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

3. After reading ¶1 on p. 123, summarize what the narrator already knows about Roderick Usher and his family estate. • The family is very old • The family is very reserved, artistic and charitable. • The family isn’t very big – only a direct line of descent (inheritance) • The mansion and the family are identified as one in the name “House of Usher”

4. How does the description of the room contribute to the mystery of the story? • The large, high ceilinged room seems dark, suggesting claustrophobia • The light is “encrimsoned” or reddened, suggesting blood or death • The narrator describes the atmosphere as stern and gloomy

5. In your own words, sum up Usher’s view of his situation. • He suffers from overly sensitive senses • He is afraid of being taken over by fear • He thinks that fear will kill him

6. What is so startling about the narrator’s first glimpse of Madeline Usher? • She looks just like Roderick. • He’s overcome with stupor and he notices that Roderick goes pale and cries.

7. What does Usher’s painting suggest to you? • The flood of light in the closed, apparently underground room suggests Roderick’s desire to overcome the oppressive atmosphere of the mansion. • It might also suggest his desire to banish something sinister about either the house, or Madeline, or both.

8. How might the poem parallel Roderick Usher’s situation? • The poem begins with a prince who is happy and a palace that is bright, musical, and beautiful. However, evil corrupts the happy palace and leaves it full of sinister beings. • The “red-litten windows” echo the “encrimsoned light” in the Usher mansion and suggest that the Usher family was once happy but now is oppressed by sinister forces.

9. What is strange about Madeline’s face as she lies in the coffin? • She and Roderick look unnervingly alike • She has some color in her face • She has a slight smile on her face

10. What do you infer about the changes in Usher’s behavior? • His voice trembles and he wanders constantly, suggesting agitation • He seems like he has a secret he wants to tell, and he looks sometimes like he’s listening closely to something • This suggests that he is very afraid and knows something he should tell the narrator

11. Which of the narrator’s experiences in the Usher mansion might have led to what he “endeavored to believe”? • He is increasingly fearful and tries to believe that it’s just because of the dark, gloomy atmosphere of the house. • However, the burial of Madeline probably unnerved him, too.

12. What is the storm like and what is gathering around the house in the storm? • The storm seems like a whirlwind (vortex!) with wind going in all directions • There’s also a mist or fog gathering around the house that actually glows unnaturally.

13. Describe the mood of the story after the narrator thinks he hears “the very cracking and ripping sound …” from his reading. • This creates a frightening and suspenseful mood, as well as mysterious as the reader tries to figure out where the noises are coming from.

14. What effect do the passages from the “Mad Trist” have on the events of the story? • They add to the suspense as the sounds the narrator hears are not only predicted by the story, but slowed in pace by the intervening passages from the story.

15. What do you predict will happen after the narrator reads about the shield falling to the floor? • He will hear a crashing sound.

16. On the basis of what Usher is saying on this page, what do you expect to happen next? • He says, “I tell you that she now stands without the door” • This suggests that Madeline is about to enter, having broken out of her coffin.

17. What happens to Roderick and Madeline Usher? • She comes in, covered in blood from her struggle to escape her coffin, and falls on him. • He falls with her and dies of fear.

18. What happens to the Usher house? • The crack noticed by the narrator at the beginning of the story rips wide open and the house collapses into the tarn (pond).

28. Romantic Story Analysis Chart

29. Interest in the common man and childhood • Although Roderick and Madeleine are adults, they seem innocent and are unmarried.

30. Strong senses, emotions, and feelings • Roderick’s fear and guilt • Narrator’s fear and dread • Madeline’s desire for retribution • Possible vampiric tendencies of the house and/or Madeline

31. Love of Nature • Nature swallows the house • Shows healing/restorative power of nature

32. Celebration of the Individual • Roderick & Madeline are misunderstood outcasts

33. Importance of imagination • Madeline being buried alive and breaking out of coffin and crypt • Story of Ethelred • “Haunted Palace” poem • Mansion’s oppressive personality and possible vampirism

34. Gothic elements • Old, noble family • Mansion seems medieval, including old furniture • Underground crypt with copper clad floor and iron doors • Strange reflection of house in tarn (pond) • Roderick’s superstitious beliefs about house

35. Gothic Elements - insanity • Roderick’s guilt and fear drive him insane • Could interpret Roderick and Madeline as two parts of a personality – Roderick is repressing all his physical desires, leaving himself out of balance and dangerously unstable. • Mansion might also be sapping the energy from Roderick and Madeline like a vampire.

36. Gothic Elements - Supernatural • Madeline seems to rise from the dead • House has oppressive and possibly vampiric personality (sentient) • House falls apart when Ushers die as if only their life force keeps it together

37. Gothic Elements – horrifying events • Roderick seems to understand what is happening to Madeline when narrator doesn’t – her being victimized by the house and possibly turned into a vampire. • This might explain her burial in crypt with copper floor and iron doors.