The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

The catalog of the Usher mansion symbolises its inhabitants. The article Themes and Construction: "The Fall of the House of Usher" from Gale Cengage Learning, remarks, “The Usher mansion is the most important symbol in the story; isolated, decayed, and full of the atmosphere of death, the house represents the dying Usher family itself”. Poe writes that Roderick and Madeline are the last two members of the Usher family left alive. Also, Madeline is on the brink of death, and Roderick mental state isn’t stable. Nevertheless, there are more symbolisms between the setting and the family of Usher. The melancholy

The house seems to be absorbing Usher’s mental health and physical health. Evidence of this is shown by the faltering health and growing fears of Roderick Usher in relation to the growing scariness of the house.

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.

As with many of Edgar Allan Poe's pieces, "The Fall of the House of Usher" falls within the definition of American Gothic Literature. According to Prentice Hall Literature, American Gothic Literature is characterized by a bleak or remote setting, macabre or violent incidents, characters being in psychological or physical torment, or a supernatural or otherworldly involvement (311). A story containing these attributes can result in a very frightening or morbid read. In all probability, the reason Poe's stories were written in this fashion is that his personal life was fraught with depression, internal agony, and despair. Evidently this is reflected in "The Fall of the House of Usher." Conjointly, Edgar Allan Poe's "The

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.

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.”

From the beginning of the story, the narrator has been a window to see the life of Roderick Usher. The narrator is questioned to be unreliable in the story as he is believed to be so accustomed to the life of Roderick Usher. The narrator in the story is reliable to an extent as he is Roderick’s childhood friend and would not falsely tell details about his experience in the mansion. The narrator doesn’t seem as shocked to the outburst from Roderick and Madeline coming back from the tomb which shows he is familiar with gothic emotions. He starts off as an outsider but begins to see the story unfold in front of

The narrator of the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a interesting character. Throughout the story the narrator interacts with Roderick and Madeline and witnesses their mental illnesses and Rodericks physical illness and how the incest between their ancestors have caused major problems in the family. What the narrator witnesses in the story is traumatic and in certain ways very life changing or altering. As a result of the events that occur in the Usher family home the narrator becomes unreliable as a narrator. The narrator is unreliable as a narrator because of the traumatic events that occur in the Usher family house and how they could have compromised the narrator's credibility as a narrator by changing or traumatizing him, and the events that occurred right before the Usher family house collapsed.

Another story told in the first-person, “Fall of the House of Usher” is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, as he visits a childhood friend, Roderick Usher. The only other major character in the story is Madeline Usher, Roderick’s twin sister. The story takes place in Roderick’s manor, which has fallen into a state of extreme disrepair. The narrator takes note of this dilapidation, and the estate’s condition becomes a key theme in the story. Roderick’s quarters are dimly lit, with barely any light coming in through the windows. Later in the story, a severe storm hits, and the Narrator is in his room as the estate weathers it.

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

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.

As the story progresses, the narrator also questions the unique relationship Roderick and his sister Madeline experience and how they participate in an immoral connection which is modern day incest. Furthermore, the insanity is present in Roderick when he expresses his desire for burying his dead sister in a tomb which is located under the house. This is also a direct connection for Poe between the title “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Roderick’s depleting sense of sanity. As described earlier, the external structure is starting to decay which is a direct link to Roderick’s mental capacity and the burial of his sister, who is believed to be dead, is a decaying of the internal structure due to the location of the tomb. “The brother had been led to his resolutions (so he told me) by consideration of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men” (Poe 1123). Here the narrator is commenting on the downward spiral he is observing in Roderick as the story progresses because he believes that the doctors that were unable to cure her sickness would inevitably dig up the body of Madeline and uses it for scientific research. As the story comes to a conclusion, the narrator petitions to Roderick that he has been hearing noises. Roderick exclaims that he had been hearing the noises that were being described for “many hours, many days” (Poe 1127). As the noises drew closer, both

Another story told in the first-person, “Fall of the House of Usher” is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator, as he visits a childhood friend, Roderick Usher. The only other major character in the story is Madeline Usher, Roderick’s twin sister. The story takes place in Roderick’s manor, which has fallen into a state of extreme disrepair. The narrator takes note of this dilapidation, and the estate’s condition becomes a key theme in the story. Roderick’s quarters are dimly lit, with barely any light coming in through the windows. Later in the story, a severe storm hits, and the Narrator is in his room as the estate weathers it.

Next, the house symbolized the twin’s collapse, which led to the collapse of the house itself. The state that Madeline was in caused her death, which also lead to Roderick’s death. The disintegration of the twins' minds was, most likely, the cause of the catastrophic breakdown of the house. The twins were also in the same condition as the house, which might also be another cause to the collapse of the house since both were, again, described as old and cracked. The separation of the twins “disrupts the balance, destroying both [the house and the Usher twins]”

At first an unknown narrator receives a letter from Roderick Usher, a childhood friend, who informs him of his illness and requests to see the narrator. The narrator hesitantly accepts the request. Poe paints a detailed picture of Roderick through his use of imagery throughout the story. He describes Roderick as “A cadaverousness of complexion ; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison ; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve ; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations ; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity” (Poe 313).