厄舍古屋的倒塌ppt课件

1、“The Fall of the House of UsherEdgar Allan Poe18391;.“The Fall of the House of UsherThe gothic context of the taleThe doubling motif of the taleThe function of setting in the taleThe structural unity of the tale2The Gothic literary traditionBegun in eighteenth century EnglandNovelistsHorace WalpoleA

2、nn RadcliffeMatthew “Monk LewisPopular form in British literary journalsImported into American short story - 19th centuryKey ingredient was sensationalism3 Gothic Architecture in AmericaStarted in US about 1840Steeply pitched roofsPointed arch windowsElaborate trim around roof edgesHigh dormersLance

3、t windows4Poes “house of Usher looks more like a medieval castle or English cathedral in Gothic style5The house might look something like this (from a photograph by Simon Marsden in his Visions of Poe)6Elements of Gothic WritingEmphasis on settingExterior: landscapeInterior: housesCastle-like archit

4、ectureCharacters are brooding, secretiveBuried family secretsLong history of family tied to place7The Doubling MotifIn literary criticism, this is called a “doppelganger, from the German for “double-goerExamples are:Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson)The Secret Sharer (Joseph Conrad)8Wh

5、at function does the doppelganger motif serve?Represents the dual nature of manIn Poe, one side of man is reason, or the mindThe other is emotion, or the bodyRoderick and Madeleine are genetically twins, but psychologically they are also doubles.9Who Represents What?RoderickAn artist figure (509)Ner

6、vous agitation (509)Lives in dark upstairs apartment (511)Cadaverous complexion (511)“want of moral energy (511)“excessive nervous agitation (511-12)10Rodericks mental condition is affected by his environment“He was enchanted by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he te

7、nanted . . . An effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence. (512)11Here, “physique refers to something physicalAnd “morale refers to something mental Roderick is all mind

8、 in a weak bodyHe represents in one way the life of the isolated artistPaintingsReadingGuitar playing12MadeleineIllness has debilitated herAll descriptions focus on the body“gradual wasting away of the person (513)Roderick and the narrator screw down the lid of her coffin (518)She returns from the t

9、omb to reclaim her twin brother, her “double“the huge antique panelsthrew back (521)She “fell heavily inward uponher brother andbore him to the floor a corpse13What is Poes point?Poe addresses the dual and conflicted nature of the SelfMind and body are at war with each other in each of usWe try to r

10、epress one side and live without itBut we cannot achieve a harmonious existence in this way14The Function of Setting - ExteriorThe “house of Usher has two meaningsThe physical dwellingThe family line, or lineage“the entire family lay in the direct line of descent15The house is also a type of charact

11、er in the storyLike the family, it is of “an excessive antiquity (510)The landscape is overgrown and raggedOn the front down the middle is “a barely perceptible fissure going in “a zigzag direction (510)16Interior SettingGothic architecture (511)“windows were long, narrow and pointed“feeble gleams o

12、f encrimsoned light“dark draperies“atmosphere of sorrowRoderick lives upstairs (mind)Madeleine is entombed below ground (body)17Structure and UnityPoe creates texts within texts“The Haunted Palace (poem) reflects the Usher family life in the house (515)“The Mad Trist (story) parallels Madeleines ret

13、urn from the graveThe storm outside is analogous to the turmoil inside the characters in the houseThe book titles in Rodericks library are symbolic of the themes of the story18Rodericks Library“the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean DIndagine“the Directorium Inquisitorum“old African Satyrs, over whi

14、ch Usher would sit dreaming for hours (516-17)19Poes Theory of Literary UnityPoe earned his living as a “magazinist, not a fiction writer.He was an editor and reviewer for many major magazines.Poe wrote a great deal of literary criticism, literary theory, and book reviews.His theory of literary unit

15、y was articulated in a review of Hawthornes collection of stories, Twice-Told Tales in 184220An author should “conceive, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, and then invent such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.21Unity in “Fall of the House of UsherFirst an