Usherrrr Flashcards
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories depict
depict the inner life of their characters and complex forces that motivate human behavior.
Some themes of his short stories are
Obsession
Madness
Untimely death
Live burial
He was a master of gothic fiction and invented the ghost story. He established along Hawthorne the short story.
Edgar Allen Por
Gothic fiction is characterized by
medieval setting, a musky atmosphere of horror and gloom, and grotesque, mysterious, or violent crimes.
The gothic hero is haunted by some
secret, sin, or crime, is self-destructing, a bit diabolical, would exile himself, has incredible strength and rebels against social norms.
Themes in TFOTHOU
death in life
decay
illness
insanity
The narrator in the TFOTHOU
is nameless and is a childhood friend of Usher.
Roderick Usher is unaware he is
Going insane
The setting time is
is autumn (fall) on a dark and soundless day.
- The setting place is
is the House of Usher in a dreary track of country.
The house of usher is described as
It is described as a mansion of gloom. The mere house has bleak walls, eye-like windows, rotting plants, black and lurid tarn (mountain lake), gray sedge and ghastly tree stems.
Usher’s family had
had incestuous relationships with each other, so the house and the family name became one.
The symbols in this story is
House and characters
Exposition
-The narrator arrives at the Ushers’ house.
-The narrator’s spirit was pervaded by a sense of insufferable gloom.
- The narrator sees a barely perceptible fissure in a zigzag shape on the roof of the house.
-The narrator encounters the family physician.
-Roderick Usher tells the narrator that his disease is mainly a constitutional family evil which he wanted to find remedy to
-The narrator sees Madeline Usher for the first time walking through a remote portion of the apartment. He learns about her malady.
-The narrator sees a painting of a long and rectangular vault or tunnel.
Rising action
-Lady Madeline is found diseased.
-The narrator and Roderick place Lady Madeline in a tomb under the house.
- The narrator learns that Madeline and Roderick were twins.
- Roderick Usher’s demeanor and attitude changed.
- The narrator felt agitation as if he was being infected by the house.
-A storm intensifies as the narrator tries to calm Roderick down.
-There is a violent wind, thunder and lightning and noises are heard inside and outside the house.
Climax
The narrator begins reading ‘The Mad Trist’ to Roderick.
- As the narrator continued reading, the were noises around the house coming from different directions.
- After the narrator concluded reading, Roderick confesses he has been hearing noises for many days.
Roderick stands in front of the door as if he was waiting for something.
- Madeline stands in front of the door covered in blood.
Falling action
Madeline Usher falls on her brother and they both die, resulting in the end of the Usher family.
Resolution
The narrator escapes and the house collapses into the tarn.
Description of the house
is described as a mansion of gloom. The mere house has bleak walls, vacant eye-Like windows, rotting plants, black and lurid tarn (mountain lake), gray sedge and ghastly tree stems. As the narrator got there, he felt a sense of insufferable gloom, iciness, a sickening of the heart and nervousness.
Roderick’s letter to the narrator
sounded agitated in the letter. Usher spoke of his acute bodily illness and mental disorder. He stated that he wanted to see his best friend, the narrator, in hopes of alleviating his disorder. The narrator went to see him without hesitation.
Atmosphere
The narrator felt himself getting superstitious as he explained the atmosphere of the house. He said that it was peculiar to itself and its vicinity. The atmosphere had no affinity with the air of heaven, but with decay.
External view of the house
discoloration and minute fungi over the exterior, dilapidation, spiderwebs, no fallen masonry, little token of instability and a barely perceptible fissure that extends from the roof to the wall in a zigzag direction until it got lost in the tarn.
large and lofty. Long, narrow, pointed windows. Black oaken floors. Proteus, comfortless, antique, and tattered furniture. Encrimsoned (red) light. Dark draperied hung upon the wall. No vitality and the narrator felt an atmosphere of sorrow.
Ushers room
Rodrick’s ushers description
very different from when the narrator last saw him. He had a wan, cadaverous complexion. He had a large eye, liquid and luminous. Pale and thin lips. Delicate Hebrew nose with an unusual nostril. Finely molded chin. Weblike, silken, soft and tenue hair, which grew unheeded. He had ghastly pale skin. He had a tremulous voice.
Nature of Roderick’s malady according to himself
he said that the nature of his malady was a constitutional family evil (curse), which he wanted to find a remedy to.
Roderick’s malady
a host of unnatural sensations. He a had morbid acuteness of the senses. He couldn’t endure even the most flavorless foods, he could only wear clothes of certain texture, the smell of flowers was oppressive to him, his eyes were tortured by even a faint light. The narrator added some strange sounds from stringed instruments did not affect him or inspire him with horror. Roderick is afraid he will die soon.
Roderick’s mental condition
Roderick is afraid to die and is very superstitious. He believes that the family mansion obtained over his spirit and is making him sick.
Lady Madeline
Roderick’s sole companion for many years and his last and only relative. Roderick said that her disease was going to kill her, becoming him the last of the Usher family. As he spoke, lady Madeline walked through a remote area of the mansion and disappeared without noticing the narrator’s presence.
After she left, Roderick put his hands over his face and cried.
Lady Madeline’s malady
her disease baffled her physicians. Her malady was characterized by a gradual wasting away of the person. She was partially cataleptical, with frequent episodes of catalepsy. She had slowly succumbed to her malady and on the night of the narrator’s arrival she became bedridden. It became known that she would soon die, and this was negatively affecting Roderick. Roderick and the narrator did not mention her name for days because it caused Roderick a lot of melancholy. To distract him, the narrator and Roderick painted, read and played guitar together.
Roderick’s paintings
the narrator described Roderick’s paintings to have an utter simplicity and nakedness.
One of Roderick’s paintings was a small picture in the interior of a very long rectangular vault or tunnel with low walls. It was below the surface.
The haunted palace
song which Roderick performed to the narrator with his guitar. The lyrics described a palace that was once happy and glorious but now worsened because of evil things and sorrow. This song can be associated with the Usher Mansion that once thrived but now is a gloomy and sad house.
The books that Roderick read coincided
Coincided with his character
It was stated by the narrator and Roderick that the house’s atmosphere is what
made him ill
Roderick Usher was described as a
hypochondriac
Madeline’s death
Roderick Usher informed the narrator that his sister had died. He wanted to preserve her body for a fortnight (two weeks) in one of the vaults within the walls of the mansion. Roderick wanted to wait for that time because of Madeline’s catalepsy to wait and see if she was dead before burying her and because the burial grounds were far away. The narrator helped Roderick to entomb Madeline in a vault.
small, damp, dark. It was protected with copper. It had a massive, heavy iron door. Before closing the vault, the narrator learned that Madeline and Roderick were twins. Madeline had a mockery of a faint blush upon her bosom (chest) and face and a suspicious lingering smile upon her lip. They then closed the vault.
Madeline’s vault
Madeline’s death effect on Roderick
After Madeline’s death, Roderick’s mental disorder worsened and the light in his eye was gone. His skin was even more ghastly. He now spoke with a tremulous quaver. The narrator felt as if he was living with a secret. He stared vacantly for long periods of time as if he was listening to an imaginary sound.
The narrator felt as if Roderick’s superstitions had infected him (he believes the things he felt). The narrator couldn’t sleep and felt nervous and shaky. The narrator looked through the window and heard low and indefinite sounds through the passes of the storm. The narrator got up because he couldn’t sleep and encountered Roderick at his door, with a mad hilarity in his eyes. “And you have not seen it?’, Roderick asked, before opening the window to let in the storm.
The narrator begins to feel infected
the narrator tries to calm down Roderick and closes the window. To calm him down, the narrator begins reading one of Roderick’s favorite romances, the Mad Trist. While reading, the narrator heard an echo from a very remote portion of the mansion. It was a cracking and ripping sound. The storm increased. As he was reading, he paused and heard a screaming or grating sound. The narrator was not sure if Roderick also heard these sounds. Roderick had gradually turned from facing the narrator to face the door of the room. As the narrator finished reading, he heard metal falling, he quickly stood up and came over to Roderick, who was rocking in his chair.
Mad Trist
Roderick reveals he hears sounds
Roderick reveals he also heard the sounds for many days. He says that they entombed Madeline alive. He reveals that he heard her even in the first days of her entombment, that he hears her footsteps on the stairs along with her heartbeat. Roderick sprang to his feet and stated that Madeline was at the door.
Madeline appears in front of the door
The doors of the room flung open to reveal an emaciated Madeleine with blood covering her white robes. Se fell on her brother and they both dies.
The narrator escapes
The narrator fled the house. The mansion opened from the once barely perceptible fissure on the roof of the building. The house disappeared into the tarn.
