Incoming English II Students: Discussion Boards for "Fall of the House of Usher" and "Tell-Tale Heart"

9/26 Update: At this point all responses need to be made on paper. Please submit your COMPLETE (not partial) responses when all 12 questions have been answered.

Please answer two questions for either story.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" (audio):

• Epigraph: An epigraph is a brief quote before a story that the author hopes will resonate with the reader as he or she reads the text. The epigraph that begins "Usher" translates to English as

  His heart is a suspended lute* / Whenever one touches it, it resounds.

  Discuss how this quote (or perhaps the fact it's in French) relates to the story as a whole?
  
  * A lute is a guitar-like instrument with a vaguely heart-shaped body.
  
  


• Diction: Authors choose specific words to help build a mood, set a tone, create suspense, or otherwise contribute to the story beyond just telling what happens (plot). Find and discuss three words Poe chose in the (long) opening paragraph that help set the mood for the rest of the story. How would you describe the mood, and how do those words contribute to it?
  
  There are far more than just three words and multiple possible moods, so even if someone (or two or three) has responded to this question, there's more for you to do, too.


• Intertextuality: Poe includes a full-length poem -- "The Haunted Palace" -- in the middle of the story. He also provides an excerpt of a short story (also original to Poe): "The Mad Trist." In part, these help the narrator better understand Roderick Usher, his host, but Poe likely included the poem and story for the reader to gain an insight into the story as a whole. Discuss what you think that might be (i.e., what similarities there are between them).


• Gothic: This website from Carson-Newman College in Tennessee defines the Gothic literary genre as

  Poetry, short stories, or novels designed to thrill readers by providing mystery and blood-curdling accounts of villainy, murder, and the supernatural. As J. A. Cuddon suggests, the conventions of gothic literature include wild and desolate landscapes, ancient buildings such as ruined monasteries; cathedrals; castles with dungeons, torture chambers, secret doors, and winding stairways; apparitions, phantoms, demons, and necromancers; an atmosphere of brooding gloom; and youthful, handsome heroes and fainting (or screaming!) heroines who face off against corrupt aristocrats, wicked witches, and hideous monsters.

  List one element from "Usher" that lines up with this definition and describe how it contributes to the development of the story as a whole.


• Motif: Because medical technology in the 18th and 19th was fairly unsophisticated, the people of the time were concerned with a doctor declaring dead someone who was only "mostly dead," resulting in that person being buried alive. Premature burial is a subject/plot device that occurs fairly regularly in Poe's fiction*. Today, it's less of a concern (though the Internet Movie Database lists over 200 films and TV shows with the Buried Alive tag), and usually people who are buried alive are known to be alive at the time of their burial. If Poe were writing today -- and based on your own phobias -- what would he substitute as a subject or plot device to creep his readers out? Discuss.
  
  *Spoiler alert: Premature burial occurs in Poe's stories "The Cask of Amontillado," "The Black Cat," and (obviously) "The Premature Burial," among others.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" (audio):

• Metaphor: The narrator describes the old man's eye as "the eye of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it." Discussthe connotations (or subconscious associations) that are associated with a vulture and might have prompted Poe to include it in the story (perhaps the connotations of something having "a film over it" would also bear discussion).


• Voice: What elements of the narrator's storytelling technique (e.g., diction (word choice) syntax (word order), narrative flow (in this case, how the story's punctuated), etc.) contribute to the reader's understanding that the narrator is insane (though he insists he's not crazy). Provide an example and discuss it.


• Irony: The narrator believes that the "low, dull, quick sound—much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton" he hears on two occasions is the sound of "the beating of [the old man's] hideous heart!" Discuss a more likely explanation for the source and/or reason for the sound.


• Supplements: For each of the stories so far I've provided links to audio files, and with "Tell-Tale" I linked to a graphic novelization. Have you used them? Have they benefited you? Please provide me with feedback and discuss other things that may not only make your reading experience more enjoyable, but -- more importantly -- add to your understanding of the story and the underlying techniques, as well.

Remember: if you have questions about the stories -- or other subjects for discussion -- please post them in the comments.