TFOTHOU 7 GR B

Apollonyan

Usher's appearance is sometimes Apollonyan (the narrator writes that he is "remarkable," surpassingly beautiful," "luminous," finely moulded," "miraculous lustre")

Painting, writing, playing music, talking, reading are all Apollonyan activities. 

The symmetry of the twins / Harmony

Dyonisian 

Usher's room is dark.

Usher's condition is Dyonisian (he's melancholy, it verges on insanity)

Usher's appearance is sometimes Dyonisian ("cadaverousness," "very pallid,"  "web-like," "ghastly pallor").

There's a ("futile" ?) struggle inside Roderick between his Apollonyan and his Dyonisian natures. The House mirrors this struggle too : it's magnificient and huge and symmetrical, but it's decaying and ancient.

The relationship bewteen Roderick and Madeline seems tensed.

Oppression

Superstition

Sickness (she's cataleptic; he's going to go crazy) - > Tragedy 

Homework :

Reading Assignment for Jan. 5th

1. Read from page 98 (I have just...) to page 105 (...this terrible night together)

2. Sum up the plot

3. What's Dyonisian ? What's Apollonyan ?

4. Select your favourite WORD from this passage and write it down your diary.

What's a Phantasmagoria ?

A phantasmagoria was a type of show that was popular in the late 18th, early 19th century in Europe and in the USA. It used magic lanterns (old-school projectors) and special frames with painted glass that could move, and these images would reflect on smoke in the dark. 

 

The Monk, M. Lewis, 1796

Plot :

It's about a man, Lorenzo, who goes into a church. There are strange things in it. Doors close on their own.He walks in the church ; at some moment, there are silver lamps on the roof that turns on, singers start singing, an organ starts playing, he can see his wife, and behind her, there's a preacher.

Gothic ?

The church / the organ / dark / melancholy / "Gothic obscurity"

The Mysteries of Udolpho, A. Raddcliffe

Plot

the setting is a castle, it's very dark and melancholy. 

Gothic :

Dark, melancholy, the architecture