TFOTHOU 8 gr A

Today we finished studying the Fall of the House of Usher. We talked about the imaginary book that the narrator read to Roderick to calm him down, the Mad Trist.  This story within the story (like a Matrioshka) is set in the Middle Ages, reinforcing the Gothic element of the short story. Coincidently, the Mad Trist parallels what happens in the "real plot" : the storm outside is replicated in the adventures of Ethelred, and the noises of the dragon mimics the sound of Madeline getting out of her vault.

Some words hinted at the Gothic nature of the end :

Sensations
oppressed
Hollow
A strange alteration
wonder and extreme terror

In the end, Madeline falls on her brother and kills him. Dying this way means they're finally together in death (the double is reunited, Roderick is no longer alone).

Likewise, the end is the triumph of the Dyonisian side, culminating in a storm, by night, in death and fright and destruction and chaos. The two Houses fall.

The narrator escaped the "intricate labyrinth" of the house ; the story itself could be seen as a labyrinth, just like Poe's writing, with its intricate syntax and its dark words. In the end, the maze collapses.

 

 

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