THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Edgar Allen PoeWritten: 1839

EDGAR POE WAS BORN IN BOSTON ON JANUARY 19, 1809.

WROTE THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER IN 1839

"The Fall of the House of Usher," which first appeared in Burton's Gentleman's

Magazine in September, 1839, and was reprinted in Poe's books of 1840 and 1845,

is a detailed, symbolic account of the derangement and dissipation of an

individual's personality. - By Martha Womack

GOTHIC ROMANCE

Three points of a Gothic Romance: Removed from time and/or space to an exotic location

Narrator goes to Roderick in an ambiguous location with no aspect of time (when the story is taking place)

Suggestions of the supernatural, or the supernatural may just in the storyThe feeling of the actual House having some a form of control over Roderick and

MadelineThe gas surrounding the house

Gender StruggleBrother and Sister both psychologically unstable as a result of their lineage.

Basic Summary: • Un-named narrator arriving at The House of Usher

• Dilapidated House (typical of gothic romances)

• Air of depression

• Visiting an ill friend (that the narrator admittedly know little about)

• INCEST

• Crack in the house

• Fear of the house

• Madeline is ill

• Madeline dies (but does she really? )

• Madeline and Roderick are TWINS

• Madeline returns

• Gas around the house

• The twins die

• The house literally falls down

THEMES AND MOTIFS FREQUENTLY USED BY POE

• Fear• Madness• Isolation• Identity• Family

Which of these themes and/or motifs are present in The Fall of the House of Usher?

VOCABULARY LESSON:

• Doubling spreads throughout the story. The tale highlights the Gothic feature of the doppelganger, or character double, and portrays doubling in inanimate structures and literary forms. The narrator, for example, first witnesses the mansion as a reflection in the tarn, or shallow pool, that abuts the front of the house. The mirror image in the tarn doubles the house, but upside down—an inversely symmetrical relationship that also characterizes the relationship between Roderick and Madeline.

• http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section3.rhtml

I. doppelganger

Someone that looks the exact same as another person. yet not a twin. ghost

identical to living person: an apparition in the form of a double of a living person

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doppelganger

II. dichotomy1.division into two parts, kinds, etc.; subdivi

sion into halves or pairs.2.division into two mutually exclusive, oppos

ed, or contradictory groups:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dichotomy

As hinted at by the word "dual" within it,duality refers to having two parts, often with opposite meanings, like the duality of good and evil.

If there are two sides to a coin, metaphorically speaking, there's a duality. Peace and war, love and hate, up and down, and black and white are dualities. Another term for a duality is a dichotomy

Duality

• House and Family name• Twins• Painting in the vault and Madeline• Song and Rederick

Now let’s talk about how these are dualities.

Take a moment and list the Dualities you’ve found in the text:

• The name of the house is Usher. This is also the family name. The two entities have become intertwined over the years, because of the single “branch” on the family tree.

• This brings us to INCEST. Obviously the family was procreating in some manner, but with the mention of a single branch to the family tree we come to the conclusion that the family must continue on through incestuous relationships.

• Roderick and Madeline are TWINS!! This is a pretty big deal when we talk about DICHOTOMY OR DUALISM. They are two halves of the same whole (That just happen to be born from an incestuous relationship!)

•Now its your turn…Find a partner and spend 5 minutes talking about any other Dichotomies you can find.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE “HAUNTED PALACE” POEM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY:

POE VERY EFFECTIVELY BLENDS THE BEAUTIFUL WITH THE HORRIBLE IN THE POEM.

• Poetic metaphor for insanity• Represents the House of Usher (literally and

figuratively)• Palace symbolizes the mind• The transition into insanity• Comparison of the sane and the insane

• How does our limited knowledge of the narrator effect the way we read the story.

• Describe an instance of foreshadowing in the story.

• What paralleles are there between the poem “The Haunted Palace” and the story of the Ushers?

•How is appearance important? Discuss the appearance (interior and exterior) of the House relate to Usher’s physical and mental conditions?

 •What is the significance of Roderick and Madeline being twins and not just brother and sister?