The Fall of the House of Usher 3 GR B

 The first paragraph of The Fall of the House of Usher

Reading this introduction, we got a feel for its poetic nature, and its sadness, its gloom. Then we wondered about the number of characters in this passage. We found two of them : the narrator, and the house itself. Indeed (en effet), the house is "melancholy," just like a human being ; and just like a human being, it's got "vacant, eye-like windows." This last motif is a figure of speech called personification, or catechresis. The catechresis of the house in the opening of The Fall of the House of Usher has become extremely famous, and has inspired generations of writers and movie directors.

For instance, the house in The Amityville Horror has windows that look exactly like eyes. Just like in Poe's story, these eyes are empty, and feel evil. 

 

le narrateur arrive à cheval dans les environs de la maison, qui sont sordides. Il décrit la maison, et ses sentiments alors qu'il la contemple pour la première fois : il se sent abattu : "a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit." 

Il compare ensuite la maison et ce qui l'entoure aux rêveries d'un fumeur d'opium : "the afterdream of the reveller upon opium," ainsi qu'à un dévoilement hideux : "the hideous dropping off of the veil."

Il ne comprend pas d'où lui vient cette langueur (présence de questions, "a mystery all unsoluble"). 

Quand il s'approche, il voit que la maison se reflète dans un lac.

The "inverted images" of the house feels like the house itself has a double. When the narrator looks into the "black and lurid tarn", he shudders even more. His fear could illustrate this sentence from Nietzsche :

"Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does become a monster in the process. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1881

 

NXT:

finir sur regard homme maison / vice versa

 

 

 

 precipitous brink / tarn

First paragraph:
the story is simple: a man is riding his horse, alone, and arrives at the House of Usher. He describes the house, there are dead trees, everything is dark and gloomy. He goes near a moor (a big pool of water) near the house. He looks in it, and he can see the reflection of the house.

Here are themes we noticed:

the atmosphere is sinister (dull, dark, soundless, ghastly, bleak, gloomy)
the setting (décor) is mysterious, we don't know much. 
It looks similar to the beginning of a horror movie.
We can imagine we are inside the story, there are many details, and we know the thoughts of the narrator.
It's a first person narrative.
The house is personified ("vacant eye-like windows" is repeated twice).

Lexical fields of darkness and gloom are used throughout (à travers) the text.
the narrator also highlights (souligne) words related to imagination (imagination, reveller upon opium, the sublime), or lack of imagination (beyond our depth, without doubt). 
Another word for personification is prosopopeia, or catechresis. They mean that an object has human qualities. Here, the house seems to look at, to gaze at the narrator, and the effect is reinforced by the mirror-like description with the tarn (water).