The Fall of the House of Usher

1. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the 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 the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.
   
   I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. 

2. 1.How does the author use the above passage to establish mood?

• Poe uses extended sentences to establish mood.

• Poe compares the living with dead to establish mood.

• Poe uses language that appeals to the senses to establish mood.

• Poe uses concrete objects to represent abstract ideas to establish mood.

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During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the 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 the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.

I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. 

2.What mood is illustrated in the passage through the author's description of the setting?

• "The clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens," creates a mood of calm and peace.

• "But with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit," creates a mood of mystery and foreboding.

• "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year," creates a mood of celebration and cheer.

• "as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher," creates a mood of chaos and pandemonium.

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This opinion, in its general form, was that of the sentience of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy the idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack words to express the full extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with the gray stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions of the sentience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of these stones—in the order of their arrangement, as well as in that of the many fungi which overspread them, and of the decayed trees which stood around—above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn.

3.Which of the following techniques does the author use to reveal the effect of the house's curse on Rodrick's emotions?

• by describing the fungi spreading

• by explaining how the house was built

• by showing that Roderick regrets his family history

• by revealing that Roderick is tortured by his unusual theory.

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There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage. 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. It was no wonder that his condition terrified—that it infected me.

4. 4.How does the passage reveal the narrator's internal conflict?

• It suggests that the narrator no longer believes Rodrick is telling the truth.

• It reveals that the narrator now believes Rodrick is truly insane.

• It shows a difference in how others in the house see Rodrick.

• It implies the narrator has regrets in helping Rodrick.

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5.This question requires two answers.

Part A: How does the author develop the theme of tension between science and superstition?

Part B: Find evidence from the text that supports your answer in Part A.

• Part A: The narrator believes he hears sounds in the storm.

• Part A: The narrator and Rodrick spend time reading scientific journals.

• Part B: "Our books—the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of the mental existence of the invalid—were, as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over such works..."

• Part B: "I struggled to reason off the nervousness which had dominion over me. I endeavored to believe that much, if not all of what I felt was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture in the room—of the dark and tattered draperies."

• Part A: The narrator rationalizes his fears while Roderick languishes in anxiety and despair.

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6.How does the author use descriptions of the crumbling state of the house to develop the theme that uncontrolled fear destroys one's sanity? Mark only one oval.

• As the house falls apart, Usher's sanity deteriorates with it.

• As the house falls apart, the narrator spirals into insanity.

• As the house deteriorates, Madeline escapes the grave.

• As the house deteriorates, the fissure grows.

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7.What narrative technique does Poe employ to enhance the story's suspense?

• First-person narration that immerses the reader in the narrator’s thoughts

• Third-person omniscient perspective that provides multiple viewpoints

• Flashbacks that reveal the characters' pasts

• Dialogue that distracts from the main plot.

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1. 8.a Determine how the quote "I looked upon the house... with vacant eyelike windows" develops Poe's elevated style of writing.

• Lofty figurative language

• High level vocabulary

• Heightened word choice for vivid imagery

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8.b Determine how the quote "the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light." develops Poe's elevated style of writing.

• Lofty figurative language

• High level vocabulary

• Heightened word choice for vivid imagery

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8.c Determine how the quote "One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although feebly, in words." develops Poe's elevated style of writing.

• Lofty figurative language

• High level vocabulary

• Heightened word choice for vivid imagery

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