Essay On Roderick Usher

Madness and insanity describes Roderick’s illness because one cannot know that a person is mad or insane without having several conversations with them. This connects back to the thesis when it says that looks can be deceiving. A person can look perfectly fine but can actually be completely insane. The House of Usher and Roderick may seem alright, but when looking deeper into the situation, there are more concerning problems than it seems. For example, Roderick’s friend needs to look deeper and not just focus on the person Roderick used to be. The outside of a person can be an allusion if you pretend that they still are the same person as they’ve always been.

Due to the lack of social interaction between the two, literary expert Craig Howes believes the already mad Roderick now “draws the narrator into madness,” (Howes). Now that Roderick has become less sociable with the narrator and there is one less person in the house, the narrator lacks the social interactions required by most humans. He feels uneasy about the “corpse” they have entombed and begins to fear the initial dark and gloom of the house itself both inside and out.

Poe’s use of play on words contributes to the sense of confusion and disarray. For example, Usher, is not only the family name, but it could also be interpreted as the exact definition of usher, which means to show or guide someone to a certain place. This is what Roderick did when he invited the narrator to the house. Roderick “ushered” him into a whole new world of darkness and deception. This may explain the reason of the house’s downfall. There was a compassionate man that entered the house, which led to an imbalance. The house, almost like a person, could not handle the change within and it crumbled into the ground.

Most times, anything abnormal or odd tend to be pushed under the rug. Edgar Allan Poe subtly brings attention to topics the are typically ignored. E. A. Poe had far from a perfect childhood. His father left when he was young and his mother died when he was three. Poe also seemed to have a lonely childhood after his parents were gone. He was separated from his relatives and didn’t appear to have many friends. He attended the army and after went into West Point. His academics there were well but he was eventually kicked out because of poor handlings of his duties. Before Poe died, he struggled with depression and a drinking problem. Some believe Poe’s tragic lifetime was the inspiration for some of his stories. Such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. A possible theory about this story is that Roderick and the Narrator were one in the same. This essay will discuss the possibility of them being the same through plot, characterization, and personification.

Introduce the second main point of the argument. Then, provide evidence from the sources. Multiple pieces of evidence should be provided to support the main point.

A concern of Roderick Usher is the waning health of his twin sister, Lady Madeline. Usher explains to his dear friend, the narrator, that she is the only surviving relative he has. He further explains that his sister’s health condition baffles any physician that has come to the house. After a few days of the narrator’s visit, Lady Madeline dies. Usher explains to the narrator that he wishes to preserve her body by placing her into the underground crypt of the house. I believe that Poe is trying to use symbolism in Lady Madeline’s death in relation to Roderick’s faltering mental stability. For example, Lady Madeline represents a part of Usher that he has lost; a part of him that has become so strange and frightening to him. When he and the narrator place Lady Madeline’s body into the crypt, it is a desperate act to help preserve a part of himself.

The nature of their illnesses also reflect the gender roles of the era. While Roderick’s illness amplifies his senses, Madeline’s disease, described as “a settle apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person”, dampens hers, reducing her into an ‘barely-there’, almost ghostly, individual. Roderick is able to isolate himself from the outside world to spare him from the torture

Another theme that Poe explores in The Fall Of The House Of Usher is fear. It is fear that drives the story, fear that traps the narrator, and eventually fear that kills Roderick Usher. Poe foreshadows the paradox of Roderick’s fear early in the story: “There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition…is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis.” Roderick Usher is quoted as saying “I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect--in terror." This means that he is not afraid of death, but of fear itself. And it is this fear of fear that eventually leads to his death, when Madeline ‘returns from the dead’ and scares him to death.

The narrator of the story stated that Roderick's fear might have been linked directly to the house. He explained how he is "enchanted by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth." Roderick explained his feeling that he was stuck in the house and that horrible things would happen to him if he left. The narrator implied that Roderick's mental condition might have been relieved if he would leave the house and face his fears. However, because of

Roderick, who believes he buried her alive, is going insane because when he imagines that she appears in front of her. Poe describes the feelings of Roderick in a manner that one can sense the fear that he must feel seeing someone return from the grave.

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.

The narrator describes Roderick, the master of the House of Usher such: “….I could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression with an idea of simple humanity” hinting at the fact that Roderick in un-human. Roderick becomes depressed and starts to act in a possessed manner almost as if he were no longer entirely human but rather half-human and half something paranormal directing the reader to the un-human features that he possesses. At the end of this short story when the Usher estate is swallowed up by the tarn, which was previously described as sinister looking, implying that the tarn is a representation of the un-human aspects of Roderick and his family. Using various aspects of the background and plot Edgar Allen Poe directs the reader through the narration to the hints that Roderick is

In the story “ The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, has an American romanticism with its characters. Edgar Allan Poe is considered a Dark Romanticism because of the way he writes his poems and short stories centered around the concept of evil human nature, darkness, and death. Roderick and Madeline Usher were said to be related during the middle of the story; they were twins. It explained how they were sick, Roderick had a mental disorder and Madeline was physically sick. As the narrator enters the desolate house, he finds both Roderick and his sister in a severe state of depression and they both appear sick like. The narrator tries to make Roderick feel better, but Roderick wouldn’t budge. Roderick thinks that the house is making him sick and making him to appear crazy.

The narrator comes to the House to aid his dying friend, Roderick Usher. As he arrives at the House he comes upon an “aura of vacancy and decay… creating a pathologically depressive mood” (Cook). The state of the House is daunting to the narrator – he describes it with such features as “bleak walls”, “eye-like windows”, “rank sedges”, “decayed trees”, and “an utter depression of the soul”. These images foreshadow a less than pleasant future for the narrator and his dear friend Roderick. Poe continues to foreshadow the narrators turn of events with a description of the House’s “dark” and “comfortless” furniture. The House becomes a living hell for the narrator as he watches Roderick’s condition evolve and struggles to understand the mystery tying unfortunate events together. However, as the narrator gradually becomes more enveloped in Roderick and the House’s malady, he seems to develop a malady of his own. While the narrator’s illness is less prominent than that of Roderick and his sister Lady Madeline, the sicknesses are one in the same.

Usher represents the inner self of Edgar A. Poe, he is the personality for which Poe knew, and possibly became. Poe quite possibly became Usher but he did not realize it until he re visited his inner self and mind. “Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting” (236). Roderick Usher can represent Poe’s madness, Poe knew him in the past but finally along his journey he is coming to terms with his insanity. Edgar is excepting his madness although he still is frightened by the truth. “The writer spoke of acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him-and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend” (236). Poe realized that his insanity did exist but he needed to address it and come to terms with it.