Usher/Raven

The Fall of the House of Usher/The Raven

​Literary Analysis: Single Effect

Edgar Allan Poe said that a short story should be written to create a single effect. Every character, detail, and incident, from the first sentence on, should contribute to this effect. This same principle can be applied to narrative poems, poems that tell a story.

​Literary Analysis: Gothic Style

The gothic style has several well-known characteristics that have made it popular for centuries among writers and other artists. To concoct a gothic style, a writer would use several distinct ingredients and techniques:

Recipe for Gothic Style

• Take one bleak and remote setting.

• Fold in a character who suffers physical and/or psychological torment.

• Mix with events of a macabre or violent nature.

• Add supernatural or otherworldly elements (optional).

• Stir using vivid language with dark and dangerous meanings.

​Reading Strategy: Break Down Long Sentences

When an author writes a long, complicated sentence, you can clarify the meaning by breaking it down into its logical parts. Look especially for the subject and predicate at its core.

After you have identified them, state the core in your own words.

​Reading Strategy: Break Down Long Sentences

Poe’s sentence:

A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breath of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely molded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than weblike softness and tenuity— these features, with an inordinate expansion above the region of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten.

Core sentence:

These features made up a countenance not easily forgotten.

Own words:

He had a memorable face.

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of that year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree stems, and the vacant and eyelike windows.

Multiple Choice

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which word best describes the single effect

created by the opening description of the house?

• interest

• gloom

• enthusiasm

• sorrow

Multiple Choice

Which choice below best restates this long sentence from “The Fall of the House of Usher”?

Feeble beams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling.

• Not enough light came through the windowpanes, and I had trouble seeing

  even the larger objects in the room.

• The light that came through the windows was so dim that it made everything

  in the room seem shadowy.

• The dim light coming through the windows lit up the larger objects, but my

  eye could not see anything in the corners of the room.

• The reddish light coming through the windows helped my eyes focus on

  everything in the room.

Multiple Choice

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” what does the narrator find to be the explanation for his host’s sad situation?

• the condition of the old house

• the unending gloomy weather

• his sister’s mortal illness

• his own failing health

Multiple Choice

What gothic element may be seen in details such as the black tarn, decayed

trees, and vacant, eyelike windows of Usher’s house?

• macabre or violent incidents

• bleak or remote settings

• characters in psychological and/or physical torment

• strong language full of dangerous meanings

Multiple Choice

Which choice below best restates this long sentence from “The Fall of the House of Usher”?

Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by an observation, the sensitive nervousness of my companion.

• Though I was oppressed by many feelings, the feelings of terror and nervousness were the two strongest.

• I was overcome by many difficult emotions and was unable to avoid upsetting my friend.

• I felt many different responses, but realized that my friend had not observed it at all.

• Though the coincidence overcame me with many feelings, including terror, I

  was careful to avoid upsetting my friend.

Multiple Choice

What macabre or violent incident contributes to the gothic element of the story?

• the narrator’s decision to visit his childhood friend

• Roderick’s guitar playing

• the long hours spent alone by the narrator

• Roderick’s having buried his sister alive

Multiple Choice

When the poet in “The Raven” thinks that Lenore may be at his door, what are

his feelings?

• fear and anguish

• hope and doubt

• anger and disgust

• curiosity and relief

Multiple Choice

Which of these identifies a main cause-and-effect relationship in “The Raven”?

• poetry and happiness

• loss and heartbreak

• sleeplessness and illness

• strange visitors and dreams