“The Fall of the House of Usher”

by Edgar Allan Poe

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”

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

What do you predict will happen after the narrator reads about the

shield falling to the floor?

• He will hear a crashing sound.

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.

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.

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).

NarratorMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Character’s thoughts

p. 122 “what was it that so unnerved me”

Rational/logical

Character’s words

p. 122 feels he must go to RU

Kind, sympathetic

NarratorMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Other character’s thoughts

p. 122 Roderick asks him to visit

Trustworthy

Character’s actions

p. 130 doesn’t question Madeline’s burial

passive

Character’s own words

p. 122 Describes Roderick

observant

Roderick UsherMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Other characters’ words/own actions

p. 122 “passionate devotion to … musical science”; his painting; plays music; poetry

artistic

Character’s own words

p. 125 “nervous affection” “morbid acuteness of the senses” “fatal demon of fear” p. 123 “web-work” fungi p. 124 “weblike” hair

Sensitive, controlled by vampire house

Roderick Usher (cont)Method of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Character’s own words

p. 126 “tenderly beloved sister” “bitterness” about her illness

Loving, values family

Other characters’ words

p. 122 “his reserve had been … excessive”

reserved

Roderick Usher (cont)Method of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Character’s own actions

p. 134 “I heard her first feeble movements …yet… I dared not speak”

Passive, possibly cruel

Madeline UsherMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Other characters’ words

p. 126 “Hitherto she had steadily borne up”

Tenacious

Other characters’ words

p. 135 “Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste?”

Vengeful

Other characters’ actions/words

p. 134 “we have put her living into the tomb”

Possibly vampiric

Madeline UsherMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Character’s own action

p. 126 “sole companion for long years”

Loyal

Narrator’s comments

P. 126 “disease…. Had long baffled… physicians”

mysterious

The House of UsherMethod of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Other characters’ thoughts/narrator’s comment

p. 122 “utter depression of soul” when looking at house; “vacant eye like windows”

Oppressive/ lifelike

other characters’ thoughts/narrator’s comment

p. 129 order of stones, fungi (similar to R’s hair p. 124), reflection in tarn, vapor around house

sentient

The House of Usher

Method of Characterization

Example or Quote (with page number)

What it shows about character

Other characters’ thoughts

p. 123 fungi in “webwork”; p. 124 R’s “web-like” hair; loss of life force; Madeline rises from dead (sort of)

Vampiric

Other characters’ thoughts

p. 123 “barely perceptible fissure”; p. 135 collapses

Unstable/ run-down

Romantic Story Analysis Chart

Fantasy and 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

Love of Nature

• N/A

Intense Emotion

• Roderick’s fear and guilt

• Narrator’s fear and dread

• Madeline’s desire for retribution

• Possible vampiric tendencies of the house and/or Madeline

Sympathetic interest in the past, medieval

• Mansion seems medieval, including old furniture, crypt

• Old, noble family

• Ethelred

Exotic Places

• Huge mansion

• Underground crypt with copper clad floor and iron doors

• Strange reflection of house in tarn (pond)

Legends and Myths

• Ethelred

• Vampires

• Stories of being buried alive

• Roderick’s superstitious beliefs about house

Death

• Madeline

• Roderick

• House of Usher

Morbid melancholy; 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.

The 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

Failed Love

• N/A

Mysticism

• Roderick possibly understands what is happening to Madeline when Roderick 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.

Rural Life and the Common Man

• Mansion seems to be in a rural area

• NOT common people