Roderick Usher Paranoia Essay

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.

The Fall of the House of Usher, a 19th century Gothic short story indirectly deals with the theme of incest between the protagonist Roderick Usher and his twin sister Madeline. The author takes the utmost care not to mention the term anywhere in the text but rather conveys it through the description of the extraordinary nature of their family.

Madeline both have illness The narrator is the childhood friend of Roderick usher The house of has a connection to all three of them living in the house The fall of the usher is

In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” there are three characters the narrator, Roderick Usher, and Madeline Usher. The story starts with the narrator arriving at the Usher family home where both Roderick and Madeline live, Roderick is both physically and mentally ill and Madeline is just mentally ill. The Usher family

As Poe is known to do he builds up the suspense all the way to the horrifying ending. It starts off pleasant enough. An unnamed narrator is called to the manor of his childhood friend, Roderick. The narrator is actually quite excited to go. He remembers the place from his boyhood as being a wondrous place. When he arrives, the house is not at all how he remembers it. In fact, he describes a small fissure running through The House of Usher. This small fissure is actually a representative of a disruption in the unity of the family, more specifically, between Madeline and her brother. Madeline is Roderick’s brother and she ends up dying due to disease. It is also revealed that the two were twins and share a sort of bond. With one of them dying, they wouldn’t be unified anymore, causing a fissure that destroys The House of Usher. This is actually foreshadowed by Roderick himself when he says, "…the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." (Poe 10) The horrifying conclusion to this story happens when Roderick goes mad, claiming to hear his sister from inside her coffin and that they entombed her alive. What’s even crazier, is that a bloody Madeline is actually standing outside the door and tackles her brother where they both die. This causes the narrator to run away as he watches the house crack in

Edgar Allan Poe wrote, "The Fall of the House of Usher", using characterization, and imagery to depict fear, terror, and darkness on the human mind. Roderick and his twin sister, Madeline, are the last of the all time-honored House of Usher (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 462). 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"(464), 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 cataleptical character"(465) which caused her to lose consciousness and feeling. The

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

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 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

“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

     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,

Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher’s twin sister, is a key element in the story. She suffers from a disease much like