Edgar Allan Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher”
FYI: The bold text provides explanation/notes to help you as you move through the story. For this assignment, you might want to write answers in a new document. If you write in this document, you will need to remove both the questions and this extra information.
1. What two meanings can the word “house” have in the title of the story?
Poe has been called “the father of the modern short story” because he was the first to define it as a distinct literary form. He developed a theory of the construction of a tale. Poe wrote:
A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned
his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with
deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then
invents such incidents – he then combines such events as may best aid him
in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not
to the out bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the
whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency,
direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.
Keep this idea of Poe’s in mind as you read this story. Poe believed that the author of a well-crafted story should first determine the effect he wants his story to have. Poe was the master at the creation of a singular effect – usually one of horror, fear, or the fantastic.
2. The first paragraph of the story immediately establishes the tone, or mood, of the
tale which he is about to relate. What physical details accomplish this? I have begun
a list of sensory details he uses in this first paragraph. Add seven or more details from
the paragraph to the list.
~ dull, dark, soundless day
~ clouds hung oppressively low
~ a singularly dreary tract of country
~ sense of insufferable gloom
3. The next two paragraphs describe Roderick Usher, and Poe gives an even more
detailed description on pp. 751-752 as the narrator meets Roderick (paragraph
beginning, “Upon my entrance, Usher arose . . . .”). Write a brief physical description
of Roderick. What is his malady? To what is he “a bounden slave”? (p. 752) What is
the purpose of the narrator’s visit?
Back in the fifth paragraph, Poe describes the house of Usher. The house is decaying, yet free from “any extraordinary dilapidation.” The individual stones are crumbling, becoming discolored, etc., yet the building is holding together. HOWEVER, the narrator notes that there is a “barely perceptible fissure” which runs from the foundation to the roof. This small crack will be important later.
If you gave question #1 some thought, you probably see that there is some connection between Roderick Usher and the house of Usher. The two will decay together, just as they will fall together. In fact, on p. 753 in the paragraph beginning “I learned, moreover, . . . ,” the narrator tells us that Roderick was “enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth . . . .” Roderick believes himself united to the house, which has laid claim to him. Its influence over his spirit not only makes it impossible for him to leave the house, it has also brought about his malady. The description of the interior of the Usher mansion intensifies the impression of gloom and decay given by the outside. Roderick’s studio is reached “through many dark and intricate passages”; this fact indicates that his mind and personality are dark and complex – not easily understood. Roderick and the mansion are directly tied together. Keep this in mind as you read.
4. At this point in the story, we meet Madeline Usher. Describe her. Please do not write
that she is just like her brother. Describe her from your honest thoughts based on what you see in the text.
The next few paragraphs summarize Roderick’s pastimes. He plays “long improvised dirges,” his paintings are described as “phantasmagoric conceptions,” and the books he reads are occult and fantastic. Notice how consistent Poe is in his crafting of this protagonist.
The one poem that is shared in the story indicates Roderick’s fear of madness.
5. The poem “The Haunted Palace” is one that we could explore in detail, but the
meaning behind it is fairly simple.
a. What do the first four stanzas describe? List some of the pleasant images in
these stanzas . How do the “spirits” move in stanza III?
b. What happens to the kingdom in stanzas V and VI? How do the “vast forms”
move now?
c. If the palace stands for the human mind, what does the poem mean?
Immediately after the descriptions of Roderick’s pastimes, we find out in a very matter of fact way that Madeline Usher is “no more,” and Roderick enlists the narrator’s help in entombing the body in a vault within the Usher home. This leads us to the horrifying ending.
6. What is Roderick’s manner in the days following Madeline’s burial?
7. The night of “the fall of the house of Usher” has sometimes been described by students as “a dark and stormy night.” Yes, the night is definitely dark and quite stormy. However, visions of the many cartoons in which Snoopy struggles with writer’s block come to mind when I read those descriptions.
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