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The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher

1.Describe the setting.

In Haunted Mansion, Several Dark and Stormy Nights.

The story begins at dusk on an autumn day in an earlier time, probably the 19th Century. The place is a forbidding mansion in a forlorn countryside. The mansion, covered by a fungus, is encircled by a small lake, called a tarn, which resembles a moat. A bridge across the tarn provides access to the mansion.

2.Underline all the expressions about “the vacant eye-like windows”, “the fissure”, “the tarn and the walls”, “the fungi”. Count how many times they respectively appear. And point out the artistic effect. “The vacant eye-like windows”"空置的眼睛象窗口"

(1) Hollow, cadaverous eyes of Roderick Usher;

(2) Madeline Usher’s cataleptic gaze;

(3) The vacuity of life in the Usher mansion.

“The fissure”"裂缝"

“The tarn and the walls”"塔恩和墙壁", "

a Small Lake Encircling the Mansion and Reflecting Its Image:

(1) Madeline as the twin of Roderick, reflecting his image and personality;

(2) The image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceive; though the water of the tarn reflects details exactly, the image is upside down, leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a false reality;

(3) The desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world.

“The fungi”真菌

3.Restate the interior of the house and make a comment.

重述房子的内部并作出评论

书上第6/7 段划横线的

Comment:

4.Poe makes a pun with “the House of Usher”. Figure it out.

The house has two meanings

1.The physical dwelling

2.The family line or lineage. the entire family lay in the direct line of

descent.

The house is also a type of character in the story

1.Like the family,it is of an excessive antiquity

2.The landscape is overgrown and ragged

3.On the front down the middle is a barely perceptible fissure going in

amazing direction.

5.What is the peculiar temperament of the family? State it by quoting the text.什么是家庭奇怪的性格?通过引用文本来陈述它。

第3段划线部分

6.What is the similarity of the house and the “old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault”?房子和"老木工在一些被忽视的拱顶上腐烂了很长时间" 是什么相似之处?

课文第5段划线部分

Similarity:

7.Underline the depiction of Roderick’s countenance and figure out what his look suggests.强调对罗德里克的面容的描绘, 并弄清他的表情暗示了什么。

第8段

8.“He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses. ...... which did not inspire him with horror.” What does the part imply?"他患有一种病态的敏锐的感官这并没有让他惊恐。这部分暗示了什么?

课文第10段

Imply:

9.How do “I” and Roderick spend the days in the mansion? What do the improvised music, the paintings, the verses indicate, in terms of Roderick’s temperament?"我" 和罗德里克在豪宅里度过的日子怎么样?在罗德里克的性格方面, 即兴创作的音乐、绘画、诗句是什么?

第16段音乐画画。15段性格。

10.How do the epitaph, the books in the studio, and “Mad Trist”function to highlight the atmosphere and the disposition of the characters?墓志铭、画室中的书籍和"疯狂Trist" 的功能如何凸显出人物的气氛

11.Roderick and Madeline are “twins with sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature”. What is the importance or implication?罗德里克和马德琳是"一对双胞胎的同情, 几乎没有理解的性质"。什么是重要性或含义

He pointing out that “sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them.” There is a pos sibility, too, that they are partners in incest–which, in their case, would be a kind of narcissism, or self-love, because they would be making love to their own image. Now to the motives: It may be that Roderick is longing for independence; he does not want to be simply a mirror image or alter ego of his sister. Also, he may wish to end the oppressive guilt he suffers under the burden of the family evil, incest. (See Other Themes, Evil.)

It may be, too, that he wants to rid himself of the illness Madeline passes on to him via the “sympathies” described above. So he decides to eliminate her. He summons his friend (the narrator) to commiserate with him, hearten him, and help him dispose of Madeline while she is in the throes of a cataleptic trance. After awakening from the trance, Madeline–refusing to allow Roderick to dissever their relationship–summons unearthly strength to break out of her coffin and the vault. Then, after entering her brother’s chamber, she thrusts herself upon him “and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the

terrors he had anticipated.” Their bodies locked, they go to their doom as a single, pitiful lump of humanity.

12.What are the symbolic meanings of the twins’ names?这对双胞胎名字的象征意义是什么?

13.What is the point of view of the short story?短篇小说的观点是什么?

●Poe addresses the dual and conflicted nature of the Self

●Mind and body are at war with each other in each of us

●We try to express one side and live without it, but we can’t achieve a

harmonious existence in this way.

14.Define Gothic novel.

A.Popular in the 18th century, gothic novel is the ancestor of the modern

mystery story, fantasy, and science fiction. It emphasizes the grotesque,

mysterious, and desolate. It is first applied by Horace Walpole to his novel

The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story.

B.Gothic novels are English literature factions, popular literature in the West a

thrilling mystery novel. Gothic fiction horror movie can be said that the

originator, but more importantly, it will enable us today habit and dark gothic

horror together. Remarkable Gothic elements include horror, mystery,

paranormal, doom, death, decadence, lived an old ghost house, mania, and

other family curse.

15.Classify Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and exemplify each of them.对爱伦·坡的短篇小说进行分类并举例说明。

16.What is Poe’s aesthetic view as a critic? How is his aestheticism reflected in his short stories and poems?爱伦·坡的美学观是什么?他的唯美主义在他的短篇小说和诗歌中如何体现?

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