Plot
How does the narrator know Roderick?
He's a childhood friend
What is the name of Madeline's sickness?
Trick question: Her illness is unknown
What is mysterious about their bloodline?
Incest
What types of things did Edgar write?
Horror stories and poems
Why does he go to visit Roderick?
Roderick is very sick
What is catalepsy?
Severe muscle rigidity, making someone like a corpse
What is the name of the poem that the narrator reads aloud?
The Haunted Palace
What issues did Edgar struggle with?
Alcoholism, Loneliness, Debt, Poverty
How does the narrator entertain Roderick?
Reading aloud stories, chatting, looking at paintings
What are Roderick's key features?
Large luminous eye, arabesque expression, wild hair, extreme anxiety, paleness, tremors
What is the name of the story that the narrator reads to Roderick? (They begin to hear strange sounds as they continue to read)
The Mad Trist
Who passed away in Edgar's life?
His father and mother, his wife, his adopted parents
What happens to Madeline in the story?
She has an episode of catalepsy resulting in her being entombed alive, she later returns to kill Roderick out of revenge
What is Roderick and Madeline's relationship?
It is revealed that they are twins
What are the true origins of the sound that the narrator and Roderick begin to hear during the story? (Specifically at the part in the story with the dragon)
Madeline breaking out of the tomb
What was Edgar's relationship with his adopted father?
Didn't care for Edgar, didn't send him money or offer sympathies
How does the House of Usher come to an end? (Needs 2 ways)
House physically collapses through the fissure
At what point does the narrator also start to feel sick after being surrounded by the gloom of the house?
After Madeline's death
What are five features of the house?
Eye-like windows, fissure, tarn, fungi, crumbling stones, dilapidation (disrepair), features from antiquity, a eerie sense of gloom
What was mysterious about his death?
Calling out Reynolds, wearing someone else's clothes, alone in the street, barely conscious