The Fall of The House of Usher

The Fall of The House of Usher

1. Notes

   • The speaker talks about the melancholy House of Usher
     • The speaker further describes the House of Usher that make the setting have a chilling sad atmosphere
   • The speaker decides to stay in the gloomy mansion
     • Roderick Usher is a owner of this mansion
       • Usher had sent a letter to the speaker and asked him to come see him because he was ill
         • The speaker complied with the letter
           • The Usher family had little variation and had one line of descent
             • This leads the speaker to believe that this is the reason behind his illness
             • The speaker says that he starts learning parts of Roderick's mental state at intervals
               • Inside the mansion the speaker finds it creepy
                 • Roderick's senses are heightened and seems scared of his own home
                   • Roderick's sister is sick from an unknown disease and has lost control of a limb
                     • Roderick's sister Madeline dies from the sickness and he keeps her body so the doctors wouldn't experiment with her
                       • One night the Roderick goes to stay with the speaker
                         • They see some mist that Roderick explains isn't very uncommon
                           • Roderick and the speaker hears strange noises and Roderick believe them to be Madeline coming out of her grave
                             • Roderick is killed and the speaker flees
             • The Usher Family has also never been a family that has fluorished

2. Vocab

   • Desolate
     • deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness.
   • Bleak
     • charmless and inhospitable; dreary
     • Sojourn
       • A temporary stay
       • Proprietor
         • the owner of a business, or a holder of property
         • Dilapidation
           • The state or process of falling into decay or being in disrepair.
           • Phantasmagoric
             • A form of horror theater
             • Palpable
               • So intense as to seem almost tangible