Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of

Usher
The Raven

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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

His mother, his friends mother, step-mother, and

wife all died of tuberculosis (consumption)

Born in Boston
Parents were travelling actors
1 of 3 children
His father abandoned the family
Raised by the Allans
Mr. Allan was a successful tobacco exporter
He lived with Mrs. Clem (his aunt) and his 8 year
old cousin, Virginia in Baltimore
He married his cousin Virginia; he was 27
and she was 13.
His
8/29/2008 updated 9-2lasted 11 years
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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Lived in England, Boston, Richmond,

Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore

Went to the University of Virginia, West Point
Drinking, Drug, and Gambling problems
Enlisted in the military under an alias (Edgar A.
Perry)
Disinherited by his step-father
Researchers theorize he may have been a diabetic
explaining some of his behavior
At the end of life, he was engaged to his fiance
from when he was young Elmira Shelton, now a
wealthy widow
He died in Baltimore alone
Slanderous obituary

8/29/2008
updated 9-2Edgar
Mystery Writers of America
Award
Mrs. Billet
pages 310-337
3 The
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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Wrote 3 volumes of poetry

Tammerlane and Other Poems, Volume 1
Al Aaraaff. Volume 2
Poems, Volume 3
The Raven
Inventor of the detective story

His story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is widely

considered to be the first modern detective story

Short Stories published in newspapers
Only novel was The narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym
Known for his psychological thrillers
Known as Americas first imaginative writer
The Fall of the House of Usher
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Single Effect pg 311, 335

Single Effect-In writing constructed to

achieve a single effect, every character,

incident and detail contributes to an overall
impression.

Poe believed that every character,

incident, and detail should contribute to

this effect.

Example There was an iciness, a

sinking, a sickening of the heartan

unredeemed dreariness of thought
which no goading of the imagination
could torture into aught of the
sublime.
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**Elements of Gothic
Literature**
The
story is set in bleak or remote
places
The plot involves macabre (ghoulish)

or violent incidents
Characters are in psychological

and/or physical torment

A supernatural or otherworldly
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element
is often present
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Gothic Literature Examples

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein
Bram Stokers Dracula
Anne Rices Interview with a

Vampire

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****Vocabulary pg 311

Importunate

insistent

Munificent

generous

Equivocal

having more than one possible interpretati

Appellation
name or title
Specious
Seeming to be good or sound without actua
Anomalous

abnormal
Sentience
Capacity of feeling
Obeisance
gesture of respect
Craven
Very
cowardly
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Additional Vocabulary
phantasmagoric - an exhibition or display of
optical effects and illusions pg 316
Phantasm- fantasy, dream
pallid - Lacking intensity of color or
luminousness
Wariness- guardedness, suspiciousness
Porphyrogene- a royal birth
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pg 321
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Additional Vocabulary

Slanderous=
spoken lies

pg 310

Eccentric=strange, odd, unusual

Irreparable=

beyond repair, permanent

Legacy lasting
= record, remembrance
Tarn=

pg 314

lake

Fissure=crack

pg 316

Countenance=
face

Ennuye=

bored (French)

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Additional Vocabulary
Cadaver, cadaverous =
dead body, deadlike

pg 317

sickly, pale

Wan=
Pallor=

pale, white
ill, symptom, problem

Malady=

dull/tasteless

Insipid=

pg 318

Fantasy/dream

Phantasm=

Someone with an imaginary illness

Hypochondriac=
Dirges=

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improvised song or hymn

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Additional Vocabulary
Ethelred-

Hero of the story Mad Trist

Hermit=

a person who wants to live alone

Tempest-

storm

Mace=

Middle Age Weapon, (spiked club)

Emaciated-

very thin (starving)

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The Fall of The House of

Published in 1839
Usher
Odd deterioration of Roderick Usher
Narrator uses reason
Consists of mystery and horror
Psychological thriller
Mansion of gloom, tarn (lake), decayed trees
Letter addressed to his friend
Roderick is described as being in an excessive

nervous agitation, mental disorder, and has an

earnest desire to see his friend
The friend travels on horseback to the House of
Usher. It is the autumn of the year, and there is a
sense of death and decay surrounding the Usher
mansion.
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The Fall of The House of

Usher

Ushers Inbreeding

House of Usher- fungi covered, Gothic mansion,

somber tapestries, antique tattered furniture,

uncomfortable
Gloom, sullen
Characters:
Roderick Usher
Lady Madeleine (twins), died during youth
Boyhood friend, Narrator
Family doctor
Valet, Stable person
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The Fall of The House of

Usher
The
phrase equivocal appellation of
the House of Usher refers to the fact
that
The title House of Usher seems to include
both the estate and the family.
****The causes for Rodericks affliction are

a mystery. One possible factor Usher

mentions is the failing health of his
beloved sister.
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The Fall of The House of

Usher
Symptoms pg 318, " They are both suffering
from rather strange illnesses which may be
attributed to the intermarriage of the family.
"...
Description of Lady Madeleine pg 318
Her disease baffled doctors
Roderick and his friend painted and read

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together, his friend listened, as if in a dream,

to the wild improvisations of his speaking
guitar.
Pg
319
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The Fall of The House of

Ushersuffers from "a morbid acuteness of
Roderick
the senses"; while Madeline's illness is
characterized by "...a settled apathy
(lethargy), a gradual wasting away of the
person, and frequent although transient
affections of a partly cataleptically
(trancelike state marked by loss of
voluntary motion) character..." which
caused her to lose consciousness and
feeling. The body would then assume a
deathlike rigidity.
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The Fall of The House of

Usher
Usher
described as a hypochondriac, pg 319
Vault or tunnel, pg 320
Guitar, accompanied with words of

fantasies, rhymed verbal improvisations

The Haunted Palace ballad (song) =
Usher's improvised poem
Ballad
The Haunted Palace its lyrics

of the song describe the

mysterious, desolate palace of a
doomed king.
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Metaphor- One thing conceived

as representing another; a
symbol
The
Haunted Palace ballad
(poem/song) within a story
The lyrics describe the

mysterious, desolate palace of

a doomed king.
The doomed king is a metaphor

for Roderick Usher (mind).

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The Fall of The House of

Description of the tomb pg 323,
Usher
massive iron doors
The tomb was originally used to stored

gun powder
Pg 324, description of Ushers madness
Narrator being affected by Ushers
behavior
7th or 8th day after the Lady Madeline
was entombed
Pacing through the apartment, heard
sounds on the staircase
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The Fall of The House of

Usher

Have you not seen it? pg 325

Stormy night
Agitated vapor, unnatural light
7-8 days after entombing the

Lady Madeleine
A fierce storm raged outside,
and neither Roderick nor his
friend were able to sleep.
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The Fall of The House of

MadUsher
Trist of Sir Lancelot Canning pg 325, 326

Ethelred, hero
Hermit
Dragon
Mace
Walls of Gold and Silver, Shield falls
The hero of the tale was Ethelred who must

break into the dwelling of the hermit and slay

the dragon who guards the palace of gold
with a silver floor in order to capture the
brass shield which hung upon its wall. As his
friend read, it seemed that "...from some remote
portion of the mansion, there came indistinctly to
[their] ears what might have been, in its exact
similarity of character, the echo...of the very
sound[s] that Sir Lancelot had so particularly
described."

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The Fall of The House of

Usher
Roderick roamed the halls in bitter grief
Echo
Unusual screaming or grating sound
Roderick makes a mad mans confession
Gothic description of Lady Madeleine
The house is destroyed, it falls into the tarn

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What gothic elements are used when the

Lady Madeline appears at the end of the

story?
pg 328
Macabre
(ghoulish) or violent plot details
Blood upon her white robes
Some bitter struggle
Violent
And now final death agonies
Characters in physical or psychological

torment
Madeline and Roderick
The presence of a supernatural or

otherworldly element
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Superhuman energy

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The Fall of The House of

Usher

**Central theme of The Fall of the House of

Usher
A person cut off from the world can fall
prey to irrational
fears and mental illness

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Poes Writing consists of:

Fascinating duality
Idealist, sensitivity
Dark escapes from reality, writes

of eerie thoughts, impulses, fears

Very descriptive writes of fears,

daring tales of wickedness,

anguish, crime, and death
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Poes Poetry

Alliteration- repetition of the same sounds

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to

dream before
Repetition
Internal Rhyme- rhyming in a middle of a line
External Rhyme- rhyming at the end of a line
Onomatopoeia when words imitates the

sounds, ex. Buzz and Murmur Line 13 And the

silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
The tone of the poem was created using depressing
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symbols,
topics,
and themes, writers attitude 8/29/2008 updated 9-2Mrs. Billet pages 310-337

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The Raven
Assonance-resemblance of sound, especially of

the vowel sounds in words, as in: that dolphintorn

An example of assonance is " the rare

and radiant maiden whom the angels

named Lenore."
Consonance characterized by the repetition of

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two or more consonants using different vowels,

for example, the "i" and "a" followed by the
"tter" sound in "pitter patter."
It repeats the consonant sounds but not vowel
sounds
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The Raven - 2 Elements

1. A man grieves for his lost love, Lenore.

A mysterious talking raven appears at the speakers
door, prompting him to question the bird about
Lenore.
The raven responds to each questionincluding
the question of whether the speaker will ever see
Lenore againwith the single word Nevermore,
leaving the speaker broken and devoid of hope.
2. ***The poem explores how grief and loneliness
can turn to madness. Poe depicts a mind going to
pieces and watching itself in the process.
What is the central theme of The Raven?
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Isolation can lead to 8/29/2008 updated 9-209

madness

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The Raven
***The following elements contribute to the

poem's
single effect

the repetition of
words
the meter
the poet's sorrow

The Raven is a narrative poem it tells a story

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The Raven

Quoth the Raven 'nevermore' (Raven: 48).

The speaker is continually losing his mind as he

mourns the death of his lover, Lenore.

Poe was able to maintain a melancholy feeling

throughout his poem using the refrain nevermore

and following some very strict, self-set, rules.
Every stanza in the poem uses the same rhyme

scheme, ABCBBB
His rhythm is also very structured and

unwavering.
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The Raven
Poe also used many similes, metaphors, and

examples of personification.
Simile= A figure of speech in which two

essentially unlike things are compared, often in a

phrase introduced by like or as
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he

did outpour. (Raven: 56) is an example of a

simile that Poe used to compare the raven's
reply to the narrators state of grief.
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The Raven
Metaphors- One thing conceived as representing

another; a symbol

Line 105 And his eyes have all the

seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

is an example of a metaphor used in
The Raven by Poe to compare the
raven's eyes to a demon's;
therefore, comparing the raven to a
demon.
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The Raven
Example of personification found in

Poe's poem The Raven Quoth the

Raven 'Nevermore' (Raven: 48). Giving
human qualities to animals or
objects.

Since birds cannot really talk,

the raven was given a human

characteristic of speech.
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Gothic Effects of The Raven

Supernatural= Includes the speakers

relationship to the Raven

Otherworldly overtones in the Ravens
presence in the speakers chamber
Macabre (Ghoulish) effect of the Ravens
repetition of the word nevermore
The Psychological torment the speaker
feels because of the Ravens unwillingness
to appease (pacify/calm down the narrator)

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Additional
Dreary Dismal,Vocabulary
depressing, dull
Lore

Lesson, wisdom

EntreatingPlead
ImploreBeg
Mien Attitude
EbonyBlack
Beguiling
Charming
Conversation
Discourse

Placid Calm

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Raven Additional Vocabulary

Balm Ointment
Fiend

Monster, Evil person

Pallas
Goddess of Wisdom

Bust

Sculpture representing the upper part of a body

Respite
Quaff
37

Relief

Drink

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Bust of Pallas
(Goddess of Wisdom)

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What does the speaker want the

Raven to tell him? Pg 333
Line 89 Is there balm in Gilead?tell me

tell me I implore
The speaker want the Raven to say whether

there is balm in Gilead (healing ointment

made in Gilead a region of ancient
Palestine)in other words, whether is a
prospect of relief from his grief.

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In Line 12: When the speaker describes Lenore

as nameless here for evermore, what does he
mean?

Lenore is so

special that she

is nameless in the
speakers heart
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When the poet in The Raven thinks that

Lenore may be at his door, what are his
feelings?

Hope and doubt

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Pg 334 1. This poem has been popular

for more
than one hundred years.
Explain why
you think the poem does or
This poem has been popular for more
does not
than one hundred
because
of it
merit thisyears
continued
attention.

sound effects and rhythm, as well

as its fantastic elements. The
poem also has an enigmatic
(mysterious) feeling because of the
ravens personification and the
longing for Lenore.

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Pg 334 2. Why is the speaker

reading at the
beginning of the poem?
The speaker is reading at the
beginning of the poem in order to
forget his sadness about the
death of his lover, Lenore.

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334
2b. What is his emotional
state as
the poem begins?
The speakers emotional state
at the beginning of the poem
is sad, tired, and abstracted
(distant).

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334
the

3. With what emotion does

speaker first greet the

The speaker is at first

Raven?

amused by the Raven,

but then changes.

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334 3b. During the course of the poem,

how does
the speakers attitude toward the
Raven
During the course of the poem, the
change?
speakers attitude toward the Raven
changes from amusement and
amazement (marvel) that that raven
can speak, and the speaker tries to
understand its meaning; he begins
to believe that the bird is a
messenger from heaven; then he
thinks it is evil; finally he becomes
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09
angry and orders the bird to leave.

334 3c. In what way is the word

nevermore
related to these emotional
The speaker grows increasingly
changes.
agitated by the Ravens use of
the wordbecause of the
unvarying quality of it
response, as well as because the
speakers queries to the bird grow
more and more important as the
poem progresses.
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334 4. What does the speaker

eventually
order
the
Raven
to
do?

The speaker
eventually orders the
Raven to leave.

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Pg 334 4b. At the end of the poem, what

does the
speaker mean when he says
the Raven
The Raven never left the chamber
still is sitting above the
door?
The creature (raven) disturbed the
speakers mind that he now believes the
Raven is still there, although actually it
has departed

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334 5. What is the relationship between

the
ravens shadow and the
speakers soul at
the end
ofeffect
the poem?
The effect
of the
of the Ravens visit
symbolizes by its shadow, has been to
permanently darken the speakers
soul.

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334 5b. What does the Raven

finally
come
to
represent?
The Raven
finally comes to
represent the speakers
permanent state of madness
and despair.

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Website Sources
http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/basementpa

pers/papers/stack10_4.html

http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/usher/
http://www.bookstove.com/Classics/Literary-

Analysis-of-the-Raven.34165

http://www.netwurx.net/~krauklis/authorpoe.ht

http://www.answers.com/topic/edgar-allan-poe

52

http://www.PHSchool.com
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Era-6404
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Websites Sources
http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/shortstori

es/Usher/houseofushermain.htm

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