Fear In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

“I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in an unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows” (Poe). In the exposition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the narrator travels to the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, and in an attempt to rectify the rise of negative emotions, gazes at a small lake, at the reflection of the eerie house surrounded by dead trees. Like the narrator, who uses unorthodox methods to obtain a clearer image, Roderick Usher’s strange behavior, surrounding his twin sister and the forms of art that he partakes in, appear as madness, but actually reveal deep insight.

In the story, “The Fall of The House of Usher”, there are many mysterious happenings that go on throughout the story between the characters Roderick Usher and the narrator. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe uses themes such as madness and insanity to connect the house back to Roderick Usher. In the “Fall of The House of Usher”, the narrator goes through many different experiences when arriving to the house. The narrator’s experiences start out as almost unnoticeable in the beginning, turn into bigger ones right before his eyes, and end up becoming problems that cause deterioration of the mind and the house before the narrator even decides to do anything helpful for Roderick and his mental illness. In “The Fall of The

Roderick Usher, the head of the house, is and educated man. He comes from a wealty family and owns a huge house. He seemed to have once been an attractive man in the way the narrator described him to be. However, his appearance deteriorated over time. When the narrator finally saw Roderick, his appearance had completely altered. The narrator notes various symptoms of insanity from Roderick’s behavior: “in the manner of my friend I was struck with an incoherence and inconsitency...habitual trepidancy, and excessive nervous agitation...His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision...to that....of a lost drunkard, or the erreclaimable eater of opium”. Roderick’s state worsens throughout the story. He becomes increasingly restless and unstable, especially after the burial of his sister.

The Fall Of The House of Usher is a terrifying tale of the demise of the Usher family, whose inevitable doom is mirrored in the diseased and evil aura of the house and grounds. Poe uses elements of the gothic tale to create an atmosphere of terror. The decaying house is a metaphor for Roderick Usher’s mind, as well as his family line. The dreary landscape also reflects his personality. Poe also uses play on words to engage the reader to make predictions, or provide information. Poe has also set the story up to be intentionally ambiguous so that the reader is continually suspended between the real and the fantastic.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” there is dense symbolism that surrounds the house that may lead the reader to infer many conclusions about Roderick himself. Perhaps the most interesting understanding comes in the femininity that is present in the story. Poe uses very specific descriptors in the story, many of which seem to indicate the gentle, soft, delicate features of woman. These substantiations seem to be interconnected in opposition to death, and by the end of the story, they overwhelm any masculine threat that appeared in the story. The pervading presence of woman in the interior and exterior of the Usher Manor is indicative of Roderick’s feminine qualities. Ultimately, Roderick’s inability to deal with his

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.

Roderick Usher sends his childhood friend a letter, crying for company and good memories. As his friend passes the dark tarn and nears the House of Usher, all that is seen is a land of the dark and decaying. The Usher family within “The Fall of the House of Usher,” have lived in the house for generations, a house at one time filled “by good angels, (Being a) radiant palace-reared its head.”

Roderick and his twin sister Madeline are the last of the all time-honored House of Usher. They are both suffering from rather strange illnesses which may be attributed to the intermarriage of the family. Roderick suffers from "a morbid acuteness of the senses", while Madeline's illness is characterized by " a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent all though transient affections of a partly cataleptically character" which caused her to lose consciousness and

“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

The Usher mansion is slowly deteriorating, just like Roderick Usher himself. The “sombre tapestries,” “ebon blackness,” and “phantasmagoric armorial trophies” did not just start showing in the house; these elements have had time to develop and is now represented as a never ending darkness, which is just like Roderick Usher’s mental illness. Not only does Poe create an image of the house, he also uses lucid details describing the Usher’s mansion and the rooms inside the home to show that Roderick’s mental illness has physically and mentally trapped him. Roderick is a gloomy and mysterious character who looks as if he is dead. Poe describes Roderick’s appearance as one to not easily be forgotten (Poe 152). In Roderick’s mind, he feels as if he has no escape from this illness, which terrifies him. His biggest fear is fear himself. The evil that has overcame his body will take a toll on his life and he is aware of it because he says “I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed no abhorrence of danger, except in it absolute effect-in terror” (Poe 153). As described in the story, the Usher house has rooms that create a somber life and with this creation, Poe is able to portray the kind of life that Roderick Usher is living and will live. Not only is this technique used in “The Fall of the House of

Perhaps, the house is the cause of Roderick's illness. The narrator states that Roderick is also terrified of the house. Roderick says that the house is what is making

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

To showcase how Roderick and Madeline see the world, the setting of the house is very strange and borderline fiction. The narrator often asks themselves if this is a dream, because of all he is seeing around him and how strange and out of reality the House of Usher is. The home is straight out of one’s nightmare and this helps the reader visualizes furthers the house as a symbol to see just how deeply disturbed, dark, and morbid the Ushers are. Then, the isolated nature of the house describes how lonely, disconnected, and sheltered the Usher family is. The strange ambiance of the setting helps the reader see, that through the broken lens of the Ushers, just how lonely they are. Roderick, not able to have offspring, goes insane, thus leaving him to feel alone cause his rampage of burying his sister alive. The disconnect and brainwashing the Ushers went through not only hurts them but kills the family in the end. Only having relationships within the family is what leads to the demise of the beautiful mansion which is described by the narrator in his youth, and is also the gloomy palace we see in the story. Without caring for the house because of the incapable family members, helps the reader understand and see how greatly mental illness and distancing have affected the storyline.

Roderick Usher is a victim of circumstance. The House he has known his whole life seems to have turned against him. Poe

     Family is a prevailing theme in this story. The tale essentially documents the demise of a family name. The Ushers have been a significant and reputable family: their house is of considerably large size, they are apparently well educated, and they have servants. On the other hand, they have not produced enough offspring in order for their lineage to persevere. Furthermore, Roderick claims that the nervous exhaustion he continually suffers is hereditary. Therefore,