Fall Of The House Of Usher Literary Analysis

“The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a horror classic written by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most well-known writers of all time. Conversion through Madeline, from seemingly normal, but gravely sick sister of Roderick Usher, to ghostly, and blood covered makes the story much more chilling. For instance, we hear about Madeline for the first time in paragraph 13 and 14 where Roderick explains how Madeline has fallen ill with catalepsy and her death would leave him being the last of the Usher family. Finally, we see Madeline attack Roderick out of the blue, “For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold,-- then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent

The relationships of the three main characters in the movie are not only different but completely different compared to the short story. In the short story, Roderick and the narrator are portrayed as childhood friends, and the narrator was visiting because Roderick wrote him a letter asking the narrator to keep him company. Also, Madeline and Roderick, siblings, are matrimonial due to their family traditions. On the other hand, the movie portrays Roderick and the named narrator, Philip, seem to have no personal connection at all. Roderick doesn’t even want Philip there because he states, “I’m afraid you are going to have to leave.” Furthermore, the most shocking difference was when Philip arrived and asked for Madeline. He said that he was there because she was will and he plans to marry her. This being said, Madeline and Roderick have no other relationship other than being siblings.

Corman’s film implied that the house itself was the monster. Viewers saw this throughout the film, by the objects falling mysteriously, the houses’ constant trembling, the eerie sounds etc. The role of the narrator was eliminated in the film, so the viewers had to make conclusions and descriptions based on what the viewers might have seen. This is a challenging task because the viewers were so caught up in the movie that the viewers might have not noticed a few things which would have otherwise been explained and described in the short story. In the short story Roderick asked for Phillip, through a letter. Roderick was sick and wanted comfort and company. Poe’s story was captivating and creepy but Corman changed the story and made Madeline and Phillip lovers. The story and the film both depicted the siblings’ illness the same way. The film also implied that Roderick may have viewed Philip as a romantic rival, which suggested an incestuous relationship between Madeline and Roderick. They were not regarded as twins in the film and were not at all similar. In the film, Phillip was preoccupied with Madeline and fear. In the story, he spent most of his time reading, painting, and listening to Roderick’s music. His whole purpose of being there was to cheer Roderick up. In the story, Madeline was barely mentioned or known of until the end. In the film, she was a critical character and essential to the plot of the movie. The foreshadowing in the film was much more

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Rodrick Usher’s twin sister Madeline, is a major, yet flat character. While there is no recorded dialog with Madeline, there is still a vivid description of her outward presentation which characterizes her as an ill, pale, woman, who is “wasting away” (Usher 5). However, Madeline is more than Rodrick’s diseased sister and her imminent death makes Rodrick nervous. Rodrick does not want loose his “soul companion” and find himself the “last of the ancient race of Ushers” (Usher 5). This applies to the theme of the fear of death, as Madeline’s impending fate makes Rodrick increasingly afraid as both the story and Madeline’s disease

One of Roderick's fears was death. He was from a well-known and honored family, and he and his sister were the last of the long line of Usher descendants. His sister, Madeline, had been fighting a severe and long-continued illness for quite some time, which had added to much of Roderick's gloom. " Her decease, would leave him the last of the ancient race of the Ushers." Roderick seemed not only to fear the death of his sister and ultimately of himself, but also the uncertainty of the future. "I dread the events of the future, not only in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul."

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.

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.

Violent or macabre incidents are often used in American Gothic Literature to present imposing, though quite unsettling, portraits of the human experience by way of terror. Poe accomplishes this in “The Fall of the House of Usher” at what time Madeline Usher reappears at the end of the story, covered in blood and kills Roderick Usher. “There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold—then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to

Poe’s use of foreshadowing, the act of providing hints of future actions, in “The Fall of the House of Usher” foretells the “death” of Madeline Usher, along with her grandiose return. “She succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer”. The "destroyer" here is Roderick Usher, referring to the end of the story, when he buries his sister alive. Poe uses foreshadowing again when Roderick “stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight, in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of the building”. By “preserving” Madeline’s corpse, Roderick leads the audience, as well as the narrator, to believe that she is still alive, thus giving her the ability to “rise from the dead”.

Madeline, who is Roderick’s sister and wife, represents the incestuous romance, which connects to Poe’s love life with his young cousin. Brett Zimmerman makes the connection with the statement of “the In light of our new understanding of Madeline as the allegorical-phrenological representative of perverse sexuality, we may have to revise our understanding of Poe's Platonic and idolatrous attitudes toward women.” The image of incest is again repeated with the reflection on the lake, where the twins are on top of one another, only Madeline is weaker than Roderick just like the reflection. Brett Zimmerman displays this when he writes “the narrator has already experienced a visual analogue of the sister atop the brother in the image of the House astride its reflection in the tarn.” Critics consider the house itself to symbolize Roderick, while the paler, weaker reflection represents Madeline. Madeline represents the incestuous romance, the bigotry of Poe’s time, and the constant decay of households he shared with the women in his life.

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.

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.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” follows a similar symbolic storyline. Throughout the story, the narrator uncovers significant details regarding the mysterious childhood friend of his and many of the important elements are revealed. Specifically, Poe designed the plot in such a way that the Usher siblings represent two sides of the same individual; Madeline and Roderick as the body and the mind respectively (Miller par 32). Since the twins are the first in their family, it shows the separation from original unity (genetically) and foreshadows that the twins must die in order for the restoration of peace. The House of Usher also has a significant symbolic value in the story; it represents Roderick’s psychological state of mind and is described by the narrator as having disturbing realistic qualities (Poe 893). Nevertheless, toward the end of the story, the epitome of the symbolic nature of this story is revealed and is concluded by an epic turn of events. Madeline collapses on Roderick as the narrator rushes to leave the house; the siblings death at the end symbolize the destruction of the physical world as shown by Madeline and the destruction of the spiritual world as displayed by Roderick’s immediate death

Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher In Poe's, 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Roderick Usher is the main protagonist, he is a male, an outcast (as he doesn't seem to have many friends), part villain (as he buried his sister alive) and also part victim (as he suffers from an illness which makes him allergic to most everyday things) and is descended from an incestuous family. The story is like all other gothic stories, it has an emphasis on horror, old-fashioned settings, stereotyped characters (Roderick), and the use of suspense and supernatural elements. It has many themes common to the gothic genre, life and death, power and control as Roderick wants control over Madeline when he buries

In the fall of the House of Usher, the setting, plot, characters, and imagery, creates a unique unity of sadness and gloomy tone. A woman also returns from the dead in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The story’s narrator is summoned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher to visit him during a period of emotional distress. The narrator discovers that Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, is also sick. She takes a turn for the worse shortly after the narrator’s arrival, and the men bury Madeline in a tomb within the house. They later discover, to their horror, that they have entombed her alive. Madeline claws her way out, collapsing eventually on Roderick, who dies in fear (Poe).