The fall of the house of Usher

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

1) The characters

The characters' identity

- The narrator

- Roderick Usher

- Lady Madeline

Their links to one another

- The narrator and Usher where boon companions in boyhood and intimate associates

- Lady Madeline is Usher's sister and they are also twins

- Tenderly beloved sister, only sole compagnian for long years and only relative on earth for Roderick Usher

Their circumstances and what happens to them

- The narrator receives a letter from Usher which gives him an evidence of nervous agitation, speaking of acute bodily illness and request a desire to see him. The narrator goes for a sojourn.

- Usher find himself a malady of constitutional and family evil. He suffers from a morbid acuteness of the senses. He thinks he will perish in a deplorable folly.

- Madeline has a disease, a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person. She succumbs on the evening of the arrival of the narrator at the house

What they want and what they do to achieve it

- The narrator is rushing to Usher's assistance, tries to cheer him up by painting, reading together and listens Roderick play guitar and make up words for his songs

- Usher sends a letter to the narrator writing he is physically and emotionally ill, that he needs has an earnest desire to see the narrator. He wants to posits his theory that the house itself is unhealthy.

-  Madeline wants her brother to die with her. She attacks Roderick as the life drains from her, and he dies of fear.

2) The narrator: Who is it ?

Internal – Intradiegetic – reliable – limited

Explain :

The narrator gives descriptions with clear details of everything he sees and feels. He realy tries to help his friend and is not leaving from the haunted place. One night, when the narrator cannot sleep and meets Roderick who shows him a bright-looking gas surrounding the house, he tells it's a natural phenomen. He decides to read « Mad Trist » by Sir Launcelot Canning to calm down Usher. He's doubting about the noises he hears.

What do you learn (or suppose) about the narrator ?

Although he is Roderick's most intimate boyhood friend, he does not know much about him. He is mysteriously trapped by the lure of Roderick's attraction. He analyses every single detail of the outside and surroundig of the house but also the inside. The mystery of the family.

3) & 4) Choose what for you are the 2 main ideas/themes + quote a passage that illustrates it best :

Madness :

- At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound.

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