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

2. 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”

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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).

18. Narrator Character’s thoughts p. 122 “what was it that so unnerved me”
Method 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

19. Narrator Other character’s thoughts p. 122 Roderick asks him to visit
Method 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

20. Roderick Usher Other characters’ words/own actions
Method 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

21. Roderick Usher (cont) Character’s own words
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

22. Roderick Usher (cont) Character’s own actions
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

23. Madeline Usher Other characters’ words
Method 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
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

24. Madeline Usher Character’s own action
Method 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

25. The House of Usher Other characters’ thoughts/narrator’s comment
Method 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

26. The House of Usher Other characters’ thoughts
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
p. 123 “barely perceptible fissure”; p. 135 collapses
Unstable/ run-down

27. Romantic Story Analysis Chart

28. 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

29. Love of Nature
N/A

30. 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

31. Sympathetic interest in the past, medieval
Mansion seems medieval, including old furniture, crypt
Old, noble family
Ethelred

32. Exotic Places Huge mansion
Underground crypt with copper clad floor and iron doors
Strange reflection of house in tarn (pond)

33. Legends and Myths Ethelred Vampires Stories of being buried alive
Roderick’s superstitious beliefs about house

34. Death
Madeline
Roderick
House of Usher

35. 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.

36. 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

37. Failed Love
N/A

38. 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.

39. Rural Life and the Common Man
Mansion seems to be in a rural area
NOT common people