Reading Assignment Topics

Edgar Allan Poe

Instructions: Write a page (minimum) in response to each of the following topics. Be as detailed and as
thoughtful as you can. This is not a research exercise. The aim is to encourage close reading and specific
thinking about the texts as part of your preparation before coming to class. You must be clear and coherent,
but thought, attention to detail, and willingness to play with reasonable possibilities of meaning will all
count more than either “expression” or “correctness.” Handwritten responses are acceptable. Late
responses will not be counted

Bonus: (Not required)

1. What is the problem or “response” the narrator is having at the outset of “The Fall of the House of Usher”
and how does it echo and change throughout the story? Put differently, how does the narrator initially
respond to the house and the scene he sees, how does that response change, and what significance does this
have?

2. How would you characterize the state of mind of Roderick Usher, and how is that reflected through the
details of the “house” and usher’s sense of relationship to it?

3. Insofar as the narrator tries to define Ligeia as an ideal of beauty, what are the essential terms of that
definition?

Due: Wednesday, October 28