Terrance Williams Diary Entry

Most immediately, Roderick’s hair is described as “wild” and of “Arabesque expression,” which the narrator is unable to connect “with any simple idea of humanity” (Poe 2003).  Similarly, Roderick’s manner strikes the narrator with “an incoherence – an inconsistency,” and his voice is compared to that of “the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium” (Poe 2003), all of which mark his social difference as not understandable.  After the entombment of his sister, Roderick’s external madness intensifies: he roams with “unequal, and objectless step,” has a “more ghastly hue” of face, a “species of mad hilarity in his eyes,” a “restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor,” and speaks in a “gibbering murmur” (Poe 2003).  But all of these are, as the narrator puts it, “the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness” (Poe 2003).  When it comes to representing the internal process of mental breakdown, Poe (at least in this story) still only describes Roderick’s irrationality from an external and stereotypical position.  Roderick describes his condition as a “deplorable folly” that will force him to “abandon life and reason,” he is “enchained by certain superstitious impressions,” and suffers from “melancholy” and “hypochondria” (two terms associated with earlier misunderstandings of madness) (Poe 2003).  The only time we see the irrational thought process represented is in Roderick’s monologue about entombing his

Roderick’s symptoms are very similar to a vampire’s. As the text states, Roderick’s symptoms are that:

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 explained in the letter that he was feeling ill. The narrator tells us how only one member of his family has survived for many generations.

"In the manner of my friend I was struck with an incoherence -- an inconsistency...habitual trepidancy, and excessive nervous agitation...His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision...to that...of the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium" (p. 667). Roderick shaken seals her up in the tomb anyways, was this to terminate the Usher line or to end his own life by killing his doppleganger? Both of the remaining Ushers were psychologically unstable, I believe this instability ran throughout the family. The incesstual Ushers genetically passed down their mutated traits, while Rodericks physically appearance was not harmed, his mind that was the mutilated part. Filled with irrationality and overcome with fear. To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I shall perish," said he, "I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their

Fear has the ability to alter our perception and can affect the mind. In the fall of the house of usher, The most thing usher feared was the death of his sister Madeline “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 the terrors he had anticipated.” (Poe 30) Roderick believes that the sounds he hear are being made by his sister who was alive when she was entombed. He somehow knew that she was alive. The door is blown open and Madeline was standing there. She falls on her brother,

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."

All these things put together and a few others help to connect the house to Roderick and Lady Madeline. When the narrator first sees Roderick after a long period of time, he thinks that he resembles that of a corpse. Then Roderick tells him the reason for his appearance, why he looks so bad. He said he had an illness that was a “morbid acuteness of the senses.” The word morbid, when used anywhere, has very strong meaning and it is of the negative type. He uses the word tortured when he is describing his eyesight and says that even the slightest sound is almost unbearable. Thinking about having all of these symptoms put together is a very bad picture to paint in your mind. His condition, in this case, is very comparable to that of the condition of the house.

Though he is not truly a frightening man, little things such as his ghostly appearance and various disabilities that prevent him from everyday life such as severe sensitivity to light make him as a person unnerving and slightly disturbing. Even the narrator’s understanding of Roderick and the home are shown to be similar when he recalls that “the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling” (267). Not only are there various nooks and crannies in the mansion, but the narrator also understands that there are many things about Roderick that are so personal that he will never be able to understand him completely. Poe uses the narrator to show the audience that making connections between living and non-living

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

While most people have their life flash before their eyes just before tragedy strikes, Roderick is receiving his flashes after his life-altering event. His desire before it is forgotten was to lay it down for others to read as well as to help him recover. This is his story – the good and the bad. Taking us from his birth in 1962 to present a wonderfully

Poe, presents almost an observational story of Roderick’s decent into darkness and madness because of a life or slow rotting evil consuming him because he is unable to escape

From the very beginning of the story we realise that Roderick has no coherent personality. The author makes many an allusion to put the readers onto the right track. The fissure that the narrator first observes

The battle can be even more difficult when external forces such as your town or your home works against you. In The Fall House of Usher, the Usher mansion served as a major conflict for both the narrator and Roderick. In the narrator’s case, he could have made the decision not to deal with the mysterious even that were taking place at the Usher mansion, but he chose to stay and serve as a companion to his boyhood friend who was in dire need of a friend; to an extent, the narrator was dealing

Roderick suffers from a nervous illness which manifests itself both in his appearance and his temper. We soon find out that his sister, Madeline, is also wasting away and has an unknown sickness, the symptoms of which include cataleptic attacks. Soon after, Madeline dies and Roderick entombs her in a vault placed where there once had been a donjon-keep, with the narrator’s willing aid. He is quick to do so and does not take into consideration the fact that she might actually be still alive, which, as we will find out, is really the case.