Edgar Allen Poe

 The House…  Blank eyes, desolate, GLOOMY, cracked, decaying, mirrored by the tarn (twin), crumbles/”dies”  Roderick Usher (twins of the house)  Socially awkward, very private, $, artists, musicians, incest, bug-eyed, looks dead, floating hair, bi-polar (druggie?), “acuteness of senses,” afraid of fear, he NEVER leaves home, (house won’t let him), “the house is alive”, buries his sister alive, dies of fear (heart attack?)

 Madeline – sister, dying, (does she exist?), twin (twin telepathy), physically wasting away, buried alive, claws her way out, collapses on Usher  The Narrator  The house makes him uneasy, unnerved by the storm, becomes high strung like his friend as he stays in the house, runs from the house as it crumbles.

 Doppelganger - a paranormal double of a living person often view as bad luck or evil, an omen of death…  Single Effect - goal of creating one strong emotion. Plot and character are simplified and often inconsequential to the force of the story's feeling.  Archetype – a message or symbol that remains the same despite time or place.

 The narrator arrives at Usher (rec’d letter – he is Usher’s only friend).  He tries to distract Usher from his depression by reading, painting, playing music…  Lady Madeline will be entombed in the “basement” (which used to store gunpowder).  Usher becomes even more neurotic  The Narrator is afraid (?) as a storm brews and noises can be heard.  The Narrator reads to calm them. The noises of the night/Madeline mimic those of the novel.  Both brother and sister die together. The house crumbles in unison.

 Darkness  Isolation  Atmospheric Conditions  Color  Maze-like setting  Death  Gore  Unnatural