Edgar Allan Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher”

FYI: The bold text provides explanation/notes to help you as you move through the story. For this assignment, you might want to write answers in a new document. If you write in this document, you will need to remove both the questions and this extra information.

1. What two meanings can the word “house” have in the title of the story?

Poe has been called “the father of the modern short story” because he was the first to define it as a distinct literary form. He developed a theory of the construction of a tale. Poe wrote:

A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned

his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with

deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then

invents such incidents – he then combines such events as may best aid him

in establishing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not

to the out bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the

whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency,

direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.

Keep this idea of Poe’s in mind as you read this story. Poe believed that the author of a well-crafted story should first determine the effect he wants his story to have. Poe was the master at the creation of a singular effect – usually one of horror, fear, or the fantastic.

2. The first paragraph of the story immediately establishes the tone, or mood, of the

tale which he is about to relate. What physical details accomplish this? I have begun

a list of sensory details he uses in this first paragraph. Add seven or more details from

the paragraph to the list.

~ dull, dark, soundless day

~ clouds hung oppressively low

~ a singularly dreary tract of country

~ sense of insufferable gloom

3. The next two paragraphs describe Roderick Usher, and Poe gives an even more

detailed description on pp. 751-752 as the narrator meets Roderick (paragraph

beginning, “Upon my entrance, Usher arose . . . .”). Write a brief physical description

of Roderick. What is his malady? To what is he “a bounden slave”? (p. 752) What is

the purpose of the narrator’s visit?

Back in the fifth paragraph, Poe describes the house of Usher. The house is decaying, yet free from “any extraordinary dilapidation.” The individual stones are crumbling, becoming discolored, etc., yet the building is holding together. HOWEVER, the narrator notes that there is a “barely perceptible fissure” which runs from the foundation to the roof. This small crack will be important later.

If you gave question #1 some thought, you probably see that there is some connection between Roderick Usher and the house of Usher. The two will decay together, just as they will fall together. In fact, on p. 753 in the paragraph beginning “I learned, moreover, . . . ,” the narrator tells us that Roderick was “enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth . . . .” Roderick believes himself united to the house, which has laid claim to him. Its influence over his spirit not only makes it impossible for him to leave the house, it has also brought about his malady. The description of the interior of the Usher mansion intensifies the impression of gloom and decay given by the outside. Roderick’s studio is reached “through many dark and intricate passages”; this fact indicates that his mind and personality are dark and complex – not easily understood. Roderick and the mansion are directly tied together. Keep this in mind as you read.

4. At this point in the story, we meet Madeline Usher. Describe her.

The next few paragraphs summarize Roderick’s pastimes. He plays “long improvised dirges,” his paintings are described as “phantasmagoric conceptions,” and the books he reads are occult and fantastic. The one poem that is shared in the story indicates Roderick’s fear of madness.

5. The poem “The Haunted Palace” is one that we could explore in detail, but the

meaning behind it is fairly simple.

a. What do the first four stanzas describe? List some of the pleasant images in

these stanzas (greenest of valleys, radiant palace, etc.). How do the “spirits”

move in stanza III?

b. What happens to the kingdom in stanzas V and VI? How do the “vast forms”

move now?

c. If the palace stands for the human mind, what does the poem mean?

Immediately after the descriptions of Roderick’s pastimes, we find out in a very matter of fact way that Madeline Usher is “no more,” and Roderick enlists the narrator’s help in entombing the body in a vault within the Usher home. This leads us to the horrifying ending.

6. What is Roderick’s manner in the days following Madeline’s burial?

7. Briefly describe the setting of the night of “the fall of the house of Usher.”

8. At this point, Poe places a story within the story. In my opinion, Poe’s crafting of the

story is brilliant here. To comfort Roderick, the narrator reads to him from The Mad

Trist, a story Poe invented for his purposes here in the story. Notice how the events of

the story correspond to the actual events in the Usher mansion on this particular night.

I am going to summarize what happens in the narrator’s reading. I want you to write

what is actually taking place in the Usher mansion as he reads. Also, describe

Roderick’s state of mind and his reactions at each point in the story.

Mad Trist: Ethelred breaks into the home of the hermit – he “crack, and ripped,

and tore all asunder” the door of the dwelling.

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction:

Mad Trist: Ethelred finds a dragon within and strikes it with his mace. The

dragon makes “a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing,” that Ethelred

has to cover his ears from the dreadful noise.

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction:

Mad Trist: Ethelred, who has killed the dragon, reaches for the shield, which falls

at his feet on the floor, “with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound.”

Usher mansion / Roderick’s reaction:

9. What does the reader discover that Roderick has done to Madeline?

10. The final two paragraphs describe the two “falls” of the Usher house. Write a brief

description of the fall of Roderick and the fall of the mansion.