What did Roderick Usher paint?
Roderick paints, plays music, and writes poetry and prose. At the time of the narrator’s visit, he observes Roderick’s paintings, and notices that they are so abstract in form that they cannot be described.
What are the narrator’s first impressions as he draws near to the House of Usher?
What are the narrator’s first impressions as he draws near to the House of Usher? He suddenly felt a sense of gloom. What words and parses in the description convey a strong sense of sickness and death?
What picture catches the narrator’s eye in the fall of the House of Usher?
What things did Roderick and the visitor do to help relieve Roderick’s melancholy attitude? Reading the books and singing. What picture catches the narrator’s eye? A vault, this foreshadows Madeline being locked in the vault.
What does Usher’s painting suggest to you?
What does Usher’s painting suggest to you? The flood of light in the closed, apparently underground room suggests Roderick’s desire to overcome the oppressive atmosphere of the mansion. It might also suggest his desire to banish something sinister about either the house, or Madeline, or both.
How does Usher’s condition affect the narrator?
FHU: What is the significance of the detail that the narrator finds himself becoming affected by Usher’s condition? Once the narrator felt a change in mood, he has an urge to peer into the darkness (like Usher did), but that frighten hims where he gets out of bed and paces around to forget his thoughts.
What might be the reasons for Usher’s erratic behavior?
Pg 268: What might have been the reasons for Usher’s strange behavior? His illness, his heightened senses, or superstitions. His sister is dying from a strange illness also.
What is wrong with Madeline?
Madeline is very ill; she is cataleptical and her body is wasting away. A cataleptic is a person who has seizures and can go into a death-like trance afterward. Madeline supposedly dies and her body is entombed below ground. Madeline breaks out of her tomb and comes upstairs to scare her brother to death.
How does Usher’s attitude and mood seem to switch back and forth while talking to the narrator?
Although it is not something that the reader readily notices, Usher does change his attitude and mood many times throughout the story as he speaks to the narrator especially when the two first meet, when Madeline passes away, and when Madeline rises again.
Why did Roderick bury Madeline alive?
Madeline soon dies, and Roderick decides to bury her temporarily in the tombs below the house. He wants to keep her in the house because he fears that the doctors might dig up her body for scientific examination, since her disease was so strange to them.
Did Roderick kill Madeline?
Roderick kills Madeline by burying her alive, but his reasons for doing so are unclear. His actions bring about his own death as well, as Madeline emerges from the vault and kills Roderick in her final act.
How does Madeline kill Roderick?
Madeline stifles Roderick by preventing him from seeing himself as essentially different from her. She completes this attack when she kills him at the end of the story.
Why are Roderick and Madeline twins?
The fact that Roderick and Madeline are twins is crucial because it emphasizes the close connection between the Usher siblings. Twins were often presented in popular literature as being possessed by dark, Satanic forces that made them especially prone to commit unspeakable acts of evil.
Did Roderick know that Madeline was alive?
It’s possible that Roderick knew Madeline was alive when he asked the narrator for help in entombing her. In this scenario, Madeline comes back from the dead to get even with her brother for burying her alive. We can also think about the spooky connection that Roderick shares with his house.
What happens to Roderick in the days after they bury Madeline?
How did Roderick change after Madeline’s death? He becomes even more uneasy after Madeline’s death and constantly looks at the door. Roderick had been hearing it for days and he believed it was his sister trying to escape.
What is the symbolism for the house falling down at the end of the story?
In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the collapse of the house at the end of the story symbolizes the fall of the family of Usher with the deaths of its last two members, Roderick and Madeline.
What is the irony in the Fall of the House of Usher?
What is ironic about the narrator’s role in “The Fall of the House of Usher” is that he introduces dramatic irony by inadvertently showing that Madeline is buried alive.
What does the storm symbolize in The Fall of the House of Usher?
Important to note also is that the storm helps the reader realize the end of the House of Usher. Just as storms can often be devastating in nature, the lightening from the storm destroys the house, representing the end of the incestuous and perverse family Usher.
What does the narrator symbolize in The Fall of the House of Usher?
The fungi and physical deterioration of the house symbolizes the physical deterioration of Roderick and Madeline. The upside down reflection of the house in the tarn symbolizes the upside down thinking of the Ushers. The bridge over the tarn symbolizes the narrator who serves as the only bridge to the outside world.13
What does Madeline’s vault symbolize?
What could Madeline’s Vault symbolize? It could represent the mind. How does the place and nature of Madeline’s burial contribute to the meaning of the story? It has to do with the way Madeline was carried down through the chamber to the vault.
Why does the narrator come to the House of Usher quizlet?
usher requests a visit from the narrator because he says that the narrator is his only friend and that he wanted him to visit before he dies. usher looks very ill and almost deadly but the narrator can still recognize him.
What are the two meanings of the phrase the House of Usher?
The “house of Usher” has two meanings. Symbolic of deterioration of Madeline’s body, Roderick’s mind and Usher family line. “The Haunted Palace” (poem) reflects the Usher family life in the house. “The Mad Trist” (story) parallels Madeline’s return from the grave.
Why is the narrator visiting the House of Usher?
The narrator is going to the House of Usher because he has received a letter from Roderick, of that same family, stating that he has contracted an illness of the mind, and asking that the narrator come to stay with him for awhile.
Why does the narrator describe the house in this way?
The reasons that back the answer in the first place are that the description is never aimed to praise the style of the house because it focused on the people inside.7
What changes do you notice in their interaction after Madeline is entombed in the vault?
What changes do you notice in their interaction after Madeline is entombed in the vault? The narrator is creeped out about the house and wonders why he was even invited. They bury madeline in the vault even though they still see color in her face, which means she is still alive.
How does the narrator respond to Usher’s announcement that he is going to entomb his sister?
How does the narrator respond to Usher’s announcement that he is going to entomb his sister? The narrator is happy because it means that Roderick’s health will begin to improve. The narrator accepts Madeline’s death because he knew that she did not have long to live.
Why does Roderick want to wait two weeks before they do anything with Madeline?
Because he doesn’t want doctors poking and prodding her because she had such an unusual illness Because the ground is too hard to bury her Because it’s the traditional wait time for mourning Because it’s so cold where they are, her body won’t begin decomposing anyway.2
What is the main idea of the fall of the House of Usher?
The main themes in “The Fall of the House of Usher” are madness, the supernatural, and artistic purpose. Madness: The Usher family has a long history of incest and, as a result, many contemporary Ushers, including Roderick, suffer from insanity.
Who is the protagonist in The Fall of the House of Usher?
As such, Roderick Usher is the protagonist of the tale. In Poe literature, the protagonist need not be an admirable hero. And indeed, if Roderick knew his sister was alive when he put her in the tomb, then he is anything but admirable.
What is the most accurate description of the ending of The Fall of the House of Usher?
What is the most accurate description of the ending of “The Fall of the House of Usher”? During a storm, the barely perceptible fissure in the facade of the house widens until the house collapses.