Paragraph 1

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Paragraph 1

• Note the words which indicate the narrators
  frame of mind upon first seeing the house
• Dull, dark, dreary soundless, autumn,
  oppressively, dreary, melancholy, insufferable
  gloom, desolate, terrible, bleak, decayed,
  depression, bitter
• What do these words indicate about the
  narrators state of mind (and therefore what he
  will write about)?

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Paragraph 1 The opium allusion

• Explain the difference between the state of
  being high on opium and sobering up. What is that
  state of mind?

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The House of Usher Itself
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Describe the house and its surroundings

• House
• Tarn
• Trees
• Sedges
• What kind of person would live here?

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The interior of the house the interior of the
Dark Romantic mind

• The hallways to Rodericks room
• The Gothic archway
• Tapestries
• Paintings
• Armor
• Darkness of floors and drapes/lack of light

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What does this suggest about this other side of
the Romantic Imagination?

• Dark
• Chaotic
• Frightening
• Gloomy
• Dangerous

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Whats wrong with Roderick?

• Too sensitive p. 317
• Excessively agitated p. 317
• Fear of FEAR

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Whats wrong with Madeline?

• Catatonic
• Apathetic
• Wasted
• The opposite of Roderick

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What happens at the end of the story?

• To Madeline
• To Roderick
• To the house
• To the narrator (esp. his state of mind)

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Romanticism V. Dark Romanticism

• What two sides of the human mind does Romanticism
  explore?
• What do the Dark Romantics (like Poe) seem to
  think about the possibilities inherent in the
  human mind?

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Homework

• Hawthornes The Ministers Black Veil
• on pp.263-272