EOC READING SOL Review Packet - "The Fall of the House of Usher" - Edgar Allan Poe

Animated Version of "The Fall of the House of Usher" Feel free to watch this short video to further understand this week's short story. Paraphase what happens in "The Fall of the House of Usher." Write in complete sentences. What does the term "similitude" most likely mean as used in paragraph 23? supernatural connection physical resemblance closeness of relationship shocking discovery Which phrase from the paragraph best supports the answer to Part A? "arrested my attention" "diving, perhaps, my thoughts" "the deceased and himself had been twins" "sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature" Which of the following statements best summarizes the relationship between the family and the literal House of Usher? They are considered the same, in name, amongst the people. The Ushers have seldom deviated outside its house and family tree, in terms of land and inheritance. Roderick believes that the house communicates with and senses the Ushers, so that they reflect one another. Like the dying twins, both the family and the house are falling into ruin. What do the reactions to Sir Lancelot's "Mad Trist" reveal about the narrator's and Roderick's different points of view in the passage? The narrator misses the parallels between Ethelred's actions and those of Lady Madeline, accidentally exacerbating Roderick even further. The narrator brushes off the noise of Madeline's escape as coincidence when matching Ethelred's situation, showing his engrossment in fiction whereas Roderick is all too present in reality, despite his madness. The narrator considers the writing of the "Mad Trist" boring, but Roderick applies the fictitious action to the events of the storm, exciting his anxieties further. The narrator only comes to recognize the house as sentient when the doors, like the jaws of the dragon from the "Mad Trist," open to reveal a half-dead Madeline, suggesting that the two male characters briefly share a similar point of view only at the end of the piece. How are the details of both Roderick's and Madeline's illnesses important to the development of the plot? Their sicknesses reflect the decay of the estate and their familial line. Madeline is near death, while Roderick's sensitivity (or possible hypochondria) prevents him from leaving the house, ensuring the end of their line. Madeline's cataleptic condition leads to her early burial, while Roderick's heightened senses forces him to hear her struggle to break out of the tomb, driving him mad. Madeline's weakened condition permits Roderick to take advantage and kill her off symbolically killing his own illness but his heightened senses send him into madness over his guilt.