Fall of the House of usher Flashcards
Some themes of the story are
- Death in life (being buried alive)
- Decay
- Illness
- Insanity
The story has a nameless narrator which
helps create duality of meaning.
Symbols:
- House
- The Vault
- Characters
- The crack
atmosphere
dark, gloomy, depressive, horrific, had no affinity to the air of heaven
Appearance of house:
- Bleak walls, vacant eyelike windows, rank sedges, decayed trees.
- Black and lurid tarn (lake house), gray sedge, and ghastly tree stems.
time and place
fall, house of usher
Roderick suffered from morbid acuteness of the senses:
o The most flavorless food was intolerable
o Could only wear garments of certain textures
o Odors, even from flowers, were oppressive
o Sight was tortured by the faintest light
o Sounds horrified him except those from stringed instruments
- He is unaware that he is going insane, according to the narrator he is described as
a bounded slave (slave of his illness)
Roderick had a superstitious idea that
the house took over his spirit
- The thing Roderick worries about the most is
losing his twin sister madeline
Roderick decided to preserve Madeline’s body because
of her health condition
for how much time did roderick intend to preserve madelines body
for a fortnight (14 days) in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of the building.
rodericks room
o large and lofty
o dark (black oaken floors, feeble, gleams of encrimsoned light, dark draperies hung upon the walls)
o vaulted and fretted ceiling
o had an atmosphere of sorrow
o Narrator failed to give vitality to the scene
o Air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all
- The only sound that doesn’t bother Roderick is
his guitar
- The storm represented
Roderick’s mania/madness
o The vault was small,
damp, dark (without means of admission for light), lying at a great depth, sheathed with copper, protected by a massive iron door.
The door immense weight caused an unusually sharp grating sound as it moved upon its hinges
Madeline suffered from
a catalyptic condition which causes rigidity of the body
when the narrator arrives, Madeline..
succumbs to her illness
Madeline dies as
a consequence of her entombment
The storm is the omen that signals the events to come:
Madeline’s coming back from the dead and Ushers eventual death
The storm brewing and intensifying and the noises heard from around the house were simultaneous to the events happening in
“The Mad Trist”
In the mad trist, who do the characters represent
Ethelred: Madeline
The hermit: Roderick Usher
The dragon: the vault
exposition
The narrator receives a letter from his childhood friend Roderick Usher.
We are introduced to the surroundings of the house, the house and the inside.
The narrator notices a barely perceptible fissure that runs from the roof of the house in a zig zag motion down to the tarn.
We are introduced to Roderick Usher, his disease, his fear and his mental state and beliefs towards the house, and we are introduced to Madeline and learn of her afflictions.
Inciting incident
Roderick informs the narrator that Madeline Usher has died.
The narrator helps Usher place Madeline in a vault to preserve her for 14 days.
We also learn that Madeline and Roderick were twins.
Rising action
After the 7th or 8th day of placing Madeline in the tomb, the narrator feels physically and mentally unstable as if he was infected by Roderick Usher’s condition (as if the house was doing this to him).
A storm forms and begins to strengthen as noises are heard coming from a distant portion of the house. Roderick admits he has been hearing sounds as well for minutes and even days.
This is conducted by the story in the Mad Trist where Ethelred (Madeline) kills the dragon (escapes the vault) and reaches the hermit (Roderick).
climax
Madeline appears emaciated and covered in blood at Roderick’s door. At that moment he faces his greatest fear
falling action
Madeline falls on her brother Roderick bearing him down a corpse (conceived together, died together).
resolution
The house opens from that previously barely perceptive fissure seen by the narrator and with the storm collapses into the tarn. This is the literal fall of the house of Usher (the destruction of the descendants and the house ending this tormented lineage).
What hints at the rising action, climax and falling action?
the violent wind
