literature: stories of ourselves

Question 1

who wrote the house of usher

Answer 1

edgar allen poe

Question 2

when was the house of usher written

Answer 2

1839

Question 3

what type of text is the house of usher

Answer 3

gothic literature combined with aspects of psychological horror

Question 4

how is the house of usher described in the opening paragraph, and give a correponding quote

Answer 4

it is compared to the crash after taking opium.

“the bitter lapse into everyday life,”

Question 5

the house of usher is personified in the opening paragraph. why is it and how is it impactful?

Answer 5

it is personified to reinforce the link between the house and the usher’s and they co-dependency between them, and also provides an eerie symbolism of the house being alive.

Question 6

give a quote used to describe the house of usher in the opening paragraph.

Answer 6

“vacant eye-like windows”

Question 7

what impact does the description of the house of usher in the lake have

Answer 7

it introduces the theme of secrecy and hidden knowledge and again makes the setting more eerie.

Question 8

why is the narrator travelling to the house of usher

Answer 8

to reunite with his childhood friend, rodrick usher who has become ill and is in need of a friend.

Question 9

what is odd about the usher family and give the quote.

Answer 9

incenst is hinted at, with the quote “the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain.”

Question 10

how is the crack in the house of the usher initially described

Answer 10

“a barely perceptible fissure”

Question 11

how is the interior of the house of usher described

Answer 11

ghostly, dark and gothic

Question 12

is rodrick usher healthy and stong

Answer 12

no he is described as pale, ghostly and thin.

Question 13

who is madeline usher

Answer 13

rodrick usher’s sister who is ill and fragile

Question 14

what is weird about rodrick usher

Answer 14

he is a hypochondriac and hated the light

Question 15

what verses are written out in the house of usher

Answer 15

the haunted palace

Question 16

what was one of rodrick usher’s weird beliefs

Answer 16

the sentience of all vegetable things

Question 17

when madeline died what did roderick do

Answer 17

preserve her corpse for a fortnight in a tomb underneath the narrator’s bedroom

Question 18

what does the narrator realise when ‘burying’ madeline and give the quote

Answer 18

that they are twins

“a striking similitude between the brother and the sister,”

Question 19

what does it mean by ‘gaseous exhalation’ in the house of usher

Answer 19

the entire house is glowing - a natural phenomenon and is repeating the personification

Question 20

what is the main text read near the end of the house of usher

Answer 20

mad trist by sir lancelot canning

Question 21

what happens as they read mad trist in the house of usher

Answer 21

the sounds in the story start appearing in real life

Question 22

what happens at the end of the house of usher

Answer 22

madeline is standing at the door after being buried for 2 weeks and falls onto rodrick, killing him. the narrator flees from the house of usher as it crumbles to the ground.

Question 23

who wrote the open boat

Answer 23

stephen crane

Question 24

when was the open boat written

Answer 24

1898

Question 25

was the boat in TOB large? how do you know

Answer 25

no, “many a man ought to have a bathtub larger than the boat”

Question 26

who are the characters in TOB

Answer 26

the cook, the oiler, the correspondant, and the captain

Question 27

who is billie in TOB

Answer 27

the oiler

Question 28

where is the beginning of TOB set

Answer 28

just before dawn, and not far off the coast of Florida

Question 29

how is the sea anthropomorphized in TOB?

Answer 29

like an animal: “not unlike a seat upon a bucking broncho,”

Question 30

are the men aware of their surroundings at the beginning of TOB

Answer 30

no “the colour of the sea changed from slate to emerald green streaked with amber lights, and the foam was like tumbling snow. the process of breaking day was unknown to them.”

Question 31

what are the cook and the correspondant arguing about near the beginning of TOB

Answer 31

the difference between a house of refuge by Mosquito Inlet Light or a lifesaving station.

Question 32

what came near TOB in the beginning of the second part

Answer 32

canton-flannel gulls

Question 33

why didn’t the captain get the gull off his head

Answer 33

he didn’t want to capsize the boat.

Question 34

who is the most optimistic in TOB

Answer 34

the cook

Question 35

are the men close in TOB

Answer 35

“it would be difficult to describe the subtle brotherhood of men that was here established on the seas.”

Question 36

who thinks the lifesaving station has been abandoned in TOB

Answer 36

the cook

Question 37

what does the correspondent find that is comforting and encouraging in TOB

Answer 37

four dry cigars

Question 38

do the men become accustomed to the boat

Answer 38

yes “they now rode this wid colt of a dinghy like circus men”

Question 39

was there a lifesaving station where the men were looking in TOB

Answer 39

no, but they didn’t know that

Question 40

what do they say about fate in TOB

Answer 40

they are angry that they survived that longa and had that much hope, when they are intended to die anyway. she is personified. “just as I was about to nibble the sacred cheese of life?”

Question 41

how do the men in TOB switch from rowing to sailing

Answer 41

they put the captains overcoat on the end of the oar and use it as a sail

Question 42

what does ‘spell’ me in the context of TOB

Answer 42

take over the rowing temporarily

Question 43

what does the correspondent (and captain) see during the night

Answer 43

a shark

Question 44

what does the correspondent think about during the night

Answer 44

why he is trying and rowing, when he will probably drown, and how nature does not regard him as important, and there is nothing he can do about it. also a poem about a soldier who is at war, and never returns home. (very similar to his situation).

Question 45

what happens when the men finally see on the shore in TOB

Answer 45

the boat is overturned in the surf, and so they must swim.

Question 46

what are the men compared to consistently throughout TOB

Answer 46

“children” “babes”

Question 47

what does the correspondent mean when he says in TOB

Answer 47

“they were not afraid, but the full meaning of their glances were shrouded,”

Question 48

why does the dinghy “drunken with this weight of water, reeled and snuggle deeper into the sea”

Answer 48

it personifies the dinghy, relates to the state of dizziness and exhaustion the men are feeling, and makes the fate imagery true by implying the dinghy wants to sink, and it was always intending to.

Question 49

why is it so major that the water was cold in TOB

Answer 49

it emphasizes the situation and seems unluckily coincidental

Question 50

who is swimming fastest at the beginning of the rescue in TOB

Answer 50

the oiler, Billie

Question 51

who dies in TOB

Answer 51

the oiler, Billie

Question 52

how is the oiler’s death portrayed powerfully in TOB

Answer 52

“his forehead touched sand that was periodically, between each wave, clear of the sea.”

Question 53

where is it shown that the men in TOB have formed a connection with the sea

Answer 53

“the wind brought the sound of the great sea’s voice to the men on the shore, and they felt that they could then be interpreters.”