1. “The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale”
Edgar allan Poe
“The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale”

2. Characteristics of the short story
30 minutes to 1 or 2 hours to its reading
Must be able to be read at one sitting
Must contain a unique or single effect
Incidents in the story must be created and organized to achieve that single effect

3. The Cask of amontillado
By Edgar Allan Poe

4. setting Dusk, carnival season Narrator’s palazzo
Montresor catacombs (family burial vaults)
Damp, covered with mold, walls of piled bones

5. character
Montresor: the narrator, cunning, vengeful, a mason (bricklayer), psychotic, dressed in a dark suit with a cape
Fortunato: the victim, a wine connoisseur, dressed in a court jester’s outfit (motley), name means “good fortune”
Luchesi: NOT A CHARACTER, just mentioned as part of the bait to lure Fortunato into the trap

6. characterization Narrator’s thoughts Narrator’s actions
Narrator’s speech
Physical appearance
What another character says

7. plot Exposition Introduces the characters Describes the setting
Hints at the conflict (Point of Conflict)

8. plot Rising Action Meets Fortunato Lures him to his palazzo
Gets him to go down into the catacombs
Shackles Fortunato to the wall
Montresor builds a wall in front of Fortunato

9. plot Climax “For the love of God, Montresor!”
“Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”

10. plot Falling Action Finished the wall Replaced a skeleton Denouement
“In pace requiescat!”
May he rest in peace!

11. Point of view 1st Person Narrator
Told through Montresor’s point of view
Only know what Montresor is thinking
Creates an unreliable narrator
Narrator presents himself as completely in the right to do what he does
Until the climax, the reader could possibly by sympathetic
Only until the end does the reader realize what has happened

12. theme
How far does one go to get even?

13. irony
Technically these really don’t become ironic until the reader realizes that Montresor has buried Fortunato alive
Verbal
“. . . you are luckily met.” (468)
“. . . your health is precious.” (469)
“And I (drink) to your long life.” (469)
The last line of the story (rest in peace)

14. irony Fortunato’s name means “good fortune” Situational
Fortunato is dressed in motley (court jester)
The joke is on him.
Montresor’s profession is that of a mason
Fortunato mistakenly thinks he is of the Masonic Order
Fortunato’s name means “good fortune”

15. irony Dramatic Montresor Coat of Arms
Gold foot crushing a serpent whose fangs are imbedded in the heel
Montressor Motto
No one wounds me without being punished.

16. The fall of the house of usher
E. A. Poe

17. setting Dreary tract of country Evening, “melancholy House of Usher”
Establishes gloom
Mere house, simple landscape, bleak walls, vacant eye-like windows, rank sedges, white trunks of decayed trees
An utter depression of soul
An iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart

18. SETTING
“Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web work form the eaves. . .”
“. . . A barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.”

19. SETTING
Studio
Very large and lofty, long and narrow windows, black oaken floor
Gleams of encrimsoned light through trellised panes
Dark draperies
Comfortless furniture
Books and musical instruments lay scattered about
An atmosphere of sorrow
Stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom

20. Character Roderick Cadaverousness of complexion Large, liquid eye
Lips somewhat thin and very pallid
Delicate Hebrew nose
Chin in want of prominence
Hair of a web-like softness and tenuity (tenuous: delicate and fine) “fell about the face”
Ghastly pallor of the skin

21. Roderick (cont.)
Suffers from a condition that causes a morbid acuteness of the senses
Extreme sensitivity
Could only eat certain food
Could only wear certain garments of certain textures
Odors were oppressive
Light and sound sensitivity

22. Character Madeline Roderick’s sister
Has a disease that causes gradual wasting away
Has incidents of cataleptic seizures

23. Characterization Character’s actions Character’s thoughts
Physical appearance
Speech
Other character’s actions

24. plot
Exposition: includes the narrator’s description of the exterior of the house, of the studio, of Roderick, and of Madeline; introduces an internal conflict that the narrator is having

25. plot
Rising Action: Narrator is greeted by Roderick; discussion Roderick’s and Madeline’s afflictions; narrator attempts to alleviate Roderick’s melancholy through painting, reading, and conversing; Madeline “dies”; entombed her in the burial chambers beneath the Usher mansion; Roderick becomes increasingly more agitated; “Mad Trist” of Sir Launcelot evokes loud noises from beneath the mansion; Madeline breaks from her tomb
Climax: doors to the room open; Madeline rushes at Roderick
Falling Action: Narrator flees the mansion; the mansion crumbles being swallowed entirely by the tarn

26. conflict
Internal: narrator’s perceptions of the House of Usher and his desire to help alleviate Roderick’s depression and help him
Physical: Roderick’s struggle with his physical and emotional maladies; Madeline’s struggle with her affliction; Madeline’s struggle to escape from her tomb
Psychological: Roderick’s inability to deal with reality

27. Point of view
Told through the first-person narrator - his thoughts and perceptions

28. Theme 3 Possibilities Simply supernatural Workings of the human mind
Role of the Romantic artist

29. Theme Simply Supernatural
Suggests that the story was written primarily for entertainment purposes
A horrific story that fits into the Gothic Tales for which Poe was so famous

30. theme Workings of the Human Mind On the brink of insanity
Madeline (unconscious) and Roderick (conscious)
When the conscious strives to deny the existence of the unconscious, the human mind (the Usher mansion) must fall into destruction
Symbolism involves the use of vivid description of the house as the exterior of the mind and body and of the studio which is the inside of the mind

31. theme Role of the Romantic artist
Roderick is an artist (poetry, paintings, music)
The realm of creativity and the desire to achieve the ideal creative plane
Roderick leaves the real world behind in search for the sublime (beautiful, heavenly, of the highest moral or spiritual value)

32. Theme
No contact with the external world that might serve as the subject matter of his art
Shut down his senses with no source for his art but his own subjectivity
Metaphorically, he must “feed” upon himself
The price the artist must pay for cutting himself off is annihilation