Post date: Mar 1, 2016 6:07:03 PM
Read p. 321-p. 333: “Fall of the House of Usher”
Work: In composition book, answer Questions 1-18 from Question Handout
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
The Fall of the House of Usher
1. In what point of view is the story written?
2. How does the first paragraph set the tone?
3. Describe the house of Usher.
4. Why was the narrator going to visit Roderick Usher?
5. Describe Roderick Usher.
6. What was the diagnosis of Lady Madeline's disease?
7. What happened to Lady Madeline on the day the narrator arrived?
8. In what way(s) does "The Haunted Place" compare to Usher's house?
9. What did Usher want to do with his twin sister's body?
10. Describe the vault in which Madeline was placed.
11. What happened on the "seventh or eighth day after the placing of the Lady Madeline within
the donjon"?
12. For what purpose does Poe include the details about the dark night (with dense clouds
pressing upon the turrets) and the "unnatural light" which surrounded the house?
13. What happened as the narrator read the story to Roderick Usher?
14. In the third paragraph from the end of this story, Poe uses repetition again to heighten the
fantastic effect in the story. Give some examples.
15. What did the living corpse of Madeline do when it came into the narrator's room?
16. What did the narrator do?
17. What happened to the House of Usher?
18. Considering the setting, characters and subject matter of The Fall of the House of Usher,
explain how it is a gothic story.