Edgar Allan Poe

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Edgar Allan Poes Fall of the House of Usher

• Guided Story Notes
• Cobb 2011

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Edgar (Allan) Poe (c. 1809-1849)

• Personal History
• abandoned by father as an infant mother died of
  tuberculosis when Poe was 3yrs old
• Taken in by the Allans but did not get along
  with Mr. Allan Mrs. Allan died of tuberculosis,
  as well
• 18yrs oldPoe is thrown out of college for
  gambling
• Formed a new family with his aunt, and young
  cousin, Virginia Clemm
• Married Virginia (she was half his age13yrs
  old), but she died 2yrs later (seeing a pattern
  here?)
• Poe struggled to support his family with a
  series of literary magazine jobs, where he
  received scathing reviews
• His life matched the Romantic ideal of the
  starving artist who suffered for the purity of
  his art

One of literatures most brilliant, but erratic,
stars.
His Literature Success horror, science
fiction, detective stories Themes madness,
untimely death, and obsession Common
Characters Deranged narrators, young beautiful
(dead) women, etc., all which mirrored his
personal life Careful use of language, creation
of a single, calculated effect, championed
rigorous structure
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Poes Works Inspire Others

• The Murders in the Rue Morgue laid the
  foundation for the modern detective story
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired to write his
  series of detective adventures, Sherlock Holmes

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Poes Works Inspire Others (part two)

• Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevsky explored the
  criminal mind as a result of Poes influence
• Today, Stephen King accredits Poe with inspiring
  portions of his book (turned-into-movie) The
  Shining
• The Baltimore Ravens have three mascots Edgar,
  Allan and Poe

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(No Transcript)
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The Fall of the House of Usher
Point of View the vantage point from which the
writer tells a story

• (p. 276) the narrator (who we realize has no
  name) is a character who claims to provide an
  objective view, but whose rationality becomes
  suspect during the course of the tale
• He says, I feel a creeping upon me, by slow yet
  certain degrees, the wild influences of his own
  Usher's fantastic yet impressive
  superstitions.
• How would the story change if we read it from
  Roderick Ushers point of view? What would you
  see?

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The Fall of the House of Usher
Atmosphere the mood or feeling created in a
piece of writing

• Poe uses words like dull, dark, soundless,
  autumn, oppressively, dreary, evening, gloom,
  unredeemed dreariness, shadowy fancies, ghastly
  tree stems, vacant and eyelike windows to
  demonstrate atmosphere
• (p. 262, 280-281) a rotting mansion, mysterious
  illnesses, strange sounds at night, a person
  buried alive all to create a sense of dread and
  menace

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The Fall of the House of Usher
Parody a work that makes fun of another work by
imitating some aspect of the writers style

• The narrator reads the parody of Sir Ethelred to
  Roderick
• (p. 276) Poe is parodying the excesses of
  romances popular tales of knights who undertake
  adventures, perform heroic deeds and eventually
  win a virtuous lady
• How is Sir Ethelred not all a medieval knight
  should be?
• He requires wine for courage and strength
• He is intimidated by a stubborn hermit
• He confronts the hermit only to escape the bad
  weather

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(No Transcript)
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The Fall of the House of Usher
Symbol a concrete object, a person, a place or
an action that works on at least two levels it
functions as itself and suggests a wider meaning

• Poe uses the following symbols in this story and
  other connections
• The vacant, eye-like windows of the
  house---Rodericks lack of sensory feeling or his
  growing madness
• The gloomy, decaying house---the condition of the
  family/Rodericks mind
• Rodericks painting of a vault/tunnel---Madelines
  tomb
• The fissure, or crack, that runs through the
  middle of the house----the break in Rodericks
  mind
• The frequent and violent alterations in the wind
  during the storm---the split in Rodericks psyche
• Rodericks guitar---his inner turmoil or wild,
  creative energies

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Roderick Usher (above) And The House of Usher
(right)
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The Fall of the House of Usher
Doubling heroes and heroines are hard to
distinguish from one another and often have the
same physical and mental traits of Poe himself

• There are two instances of doubling in this
  story
• Roderick?house
• -local peasants use the name The House of Usher
  to mean both the family, and the mansion
• -the house is mirrored in the lurid tarn (dark
  lake) outside the narrator gazes into it hoping
  to escape the oppressive effect of the house

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Madeline and Roderick Usher
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The Fall of the House of Usher
Doubling heroes and heroines are hard to
distinguish from one another and often have the
same physical and mental traits of Poe himself

• Roderick?Madeline
• -What descriptions does the narrator give of
  their shared appearances?
• Doubling is common in Romantic literature and
  essential to Gothic fiction, where criminals
  resemble victims

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After Reading.

• What happens to
• Madeline?
• Roderick?
• The house?
• Where does the narrator go?
• Reflections? Comments?

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Birth
Death
This plaque marks the approximate location where
Edgar Poe was born in Boston.
Edgar Allan Poe is buried in Baltimore, Maryland