Usherrrr

Question 1

Edgar Allan Poe’s stories depict

Answer 1

depict the inner life of their characters and complex forces that motivate human behavior.

Question 2

Some themes of his short stories are

Answer 2

Obsession
Madness
Untimely death
Live burial

Question 3

He was a master of gothic fiction and invented the ghost story. He established along Hawthorne the short story.

Answer 3

Edgar Allen Por

Question 4

Gothic fiction is characterized by

Answer 4

medieval setting, a musky atmosphere of horror and gloom, and grotesque, mysterious, or violent crimes.

Question 5

The gothic hero is haunted by some

Answer 5

secret, sin, or crime, is self-destructing, a bit diabolical, would exile himself, has incredible strength and rebels against social norms.

Question 6

Themes in TFOTHOU

Answer 6

death in life
decay
illness
insanity

Question 7

The narrator in the TFOTHOU

Answer 7

is nameless and is a childhood friend of Usher.

Question 8

Roderick Usher is unaware he is

Answer 8

Going insane

Question 9

The setting time is

Answer 9

is autumn (fall) on a dark and soundless day.

Question 10

• The setting place is

Answer 10

is the House of Usher in a dreary track of country.

Question 11

The house of usher is described as

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Usher’s family had

Answer 12

had incestuous relationships with each other, so the house and the family name became one.

Question 13

The symbols in this story is

Answer 13

House and characters

Question 14

Exposition

Answer 14

-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.

Question 15

Rising action

Answer 15

-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.

Question 16

Climax

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Falling action

Answer 17

Madeline Usher falls on her brother and they both die, resulting in the end of the Usher family.

Question 18

Resolution

Answer 18

The narrator escapes and the house collapses into the tarn.

Question 19

Description of the house

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

Roderick’s letter to the narrator

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Atmosphere

Answer 21

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.

Question 22

External view of the house

Answer 22

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.

Question 23

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.

Answer 23

Ushers room

Question 24

Rodrick’s ushers description

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Nature of Roderick’s malady according to himself

Answer 25

he said that the nature of his malady was a constitutional family evil (curse), which he wanted to find a remedy to.

Question 26

Roderick’s malady

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

Roderick’s mental condition

Answer 27

Roderick is afraid to die and is very superstitious. He believes that the family mansion obtained over his spirit and is making him sick.

Question 28

Lady Madeline

Answer 28

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.

Question 29

Lady Madeline’s malady

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Roderick’s paintings

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

The haunted palace

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

The books that Roderick read coincided

Answer 32

Coincided with his character

Question 33

It was stated by the narrator and Roderick that the house’s atmosphere is what

Answer 33

made him ill

Question 34

Roderick Usher was described as a

Answer 34

hypochondriac

Question 35

Madeline’s death

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

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.

Answer 36

Madeline’s vault

Question 37

Madeline’s death effect on Roderick

Answer 37

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.

Question 38

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.

Answer 38

The narrator begins to feel infected

Question 39

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.

Answer 39

Mad Trist

Question 40

Roderick reveals he hears sounds

Answer 40

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.

Question 41

Madeline appears in front of the door

Answer 41

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.

Question 42

The narrator escapes

Answer 42

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.