Who Is The Narrator In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a work that has gained notoriety as both a short story and a film. The short story written by Edgar Allan Poe is considered one of his finest works. The film, written by Richard Matheson, stars great actors of the 1900s such as Vincent Price. However, there are vast differences between the short story and the film. Unlike the short story, Roderick Usher and Peter Winthrop, who does not have a name in the short story, are not friends in the film. In addition, the film features a love story between Peter Winthrop and Madeline Usher. Yet, the film does retain Poe’s original description of Roderick Usher. Nevertheless, both the short story and the film are great works of a frightening story.

The Fall of The House of Usher is a short story about an unnamed character who is invited to the House of Usher by the head of the house Roderick Usher. Edgar Allen Poe has given the narrator, many characteristics that make him his own character aside from a name and a face. To see what characteristics the narrator was given examination of the story is required.

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe’s stories that fits into Gothic Literature.The setting in gothic literature can be a variety of choices. Poe’s setting in this story takes place in a castle that has dark corners and takes place mid century. The House of Usher is gloomy and the inside it seems dead as well. Poe wanted to emphasize the structure of the house by giving it a gloomy feeling. The characters of the story is doppelgangers and the unreliable narrator which is the key element to gothic.The main character Roderick Usher and his twin sister, Madeline, have a romance that is dark. The narrator of the story is unreliable because he can’t describe how the house is after he sees it in person inside of the reflection of the water.In the story supernatural events happened such as the house falling apart little by little. This emphasize Usher’s own mind going crazy which is probably why the house is destroyed little by little.Usher and his sister have an illness such as Usher going crazy and his sister who has a sickness. The theme of this story is fear,dark,madness,and isolation.

Additionally, Usher is horrified by his sister’s wasting away and eventual demise, and he fears suffering the same fate since “sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them” (“Usher” 240). His preservation of Madeline in the crypt under the house is the “product of a refusal to confront death” (Kennedy 199), both hers and eventually his own. Usher suffers from “paralysis due to death anxiety” and it is the paralysis that keeps him teetering between madness and sanity (200). While it is sanity that will save Usher from the terrible fate of his ancestors, it is the final confrontation with the image of Madeline’s corpse that pushes him over the brink into the abyss. It is here that Usher’s madness is beyond question. In spite of his attempts to avoid death and its inevitability, the “House of Usher” collapses along

The Fall of the House of Usher is being told by a narrator whose name is unknown. This small little detail adds to the effect of the story being gothic. The narrator was visiting an old friend whose name was Roderick Usher. He had not seen Roderick in many years so it is odd that he followed through with the invitation that he received.

Many friends try to help one another out. But tough decisions may arise up along the way causing an individual to abandon what they believe and try to reason with the sinister nightmare of madness. In the short story by Edgar Allan Poe named The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator is trying to help his well known friend Roderick Usher with his disease that causes him fear and madness. Even though it has taken total control of Roderick's life. There are two main characters in this short story the first being the narrator who is an unnamed man, that has a long term friendship with Roderick Usher. The second character is Roderick Usher who has a disease that causes him constant fear and madness. The story begins at a rotting mansion that creates an gothic atmosphere of evil and madness. The reader ends up figuring out why Roderick has a great amount of fear and madness. But the story ends short with the tragic death of Roderick Usher and many questions left unanswered for the rest of the narrator's life. Overall the short story ,The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe uses the literary elements of symbolism and situational irony . To portray the main theme of the story of madness and fear. So the story has many lit devices used but the ones that starts a spark for the story is symbolism and situational irony.

Poe’s effective use of personification, foreshadowing, symbolism, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, the fall of (the house of) Usher and its what ultimately set the tone for gothic elements in the story. Roderick and Madeline are both suffering from the alluring stranger illnesses and effects that the house exhibits and illuminates. Roderick pragmatically suffers from the morbid acuteness of the sense, because he believes that the

Being scared, he leaves the house to retrieve his horse and as he rides away, he witnesses the “Fall of the House of Usher” This story was difficult to read, there is so much turmoil from start to finish. I throughout the story I was looking a for a little bit of hope that the siblings would return to good health. I enjoyed the descriptions of the house and how he Roderick is so tormented by fear and fear alone.

Stories are always playing a major role in our society. From how one is viewed, to what is the next trend, stories and literature are sure to play a significant role. In fact, rather than a story consisting of just words, there is greater importance as to how the story is being delivered. The tone, and how the words are being used in the story, giving readers a sense of direction on where the narrator or writer wants to take them. Stories are used to give factual content, as well as non-factual. Edgar Allen Poe was a writer with a gift to use his words eloquently, yet took his readers on a dark journey. This is exactly what took place in the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In order to understand the literary elements of this story. One must further examine, theme, setting, tone, character, and conflict. As a result, one will understand the author's intentions throughout this piece of literature, and how it has impacted modern society.

Firstly, the characters in “The Fall of the House of Usher” are immensely important because they portray different levels of sanity. The first character that the reader is introduced to is the narrator and is not named. “Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood…” Here, the reader knows that the narrator is there as a friend of the household. He comes in only slightly aware of his friend’s situation and thus starts the reader off with a clean slate. He comes in sane, but uneasy. The next character the reader meets is Roderick Usher and he is in the middle of madness as he sends a letter to the narrator seeking help and company for his malady. “The MS. Gave evident of nervous agitation. The write spoke of acute bodily illness –of a mental disorder which oppressed him –and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady.” The third and last character of this story is Madeline of

Roderick Usher is our main character in the Edgar Allen Poe’s horror story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, who is described in the story as gloomy and mysterious. In the poem being bother by his hyper senses, Roderick are seemed with less energy and pallor of the skin than the narrator found him. (Poe, 17) Although the narrator puts a lot of effort to uplift his mood, he still seemed very depressed and nervous.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a dark story where it feels like it is almost trapped by his surroundings. Roderick and Madeline Usher both lived in the house; they are twins who, in many ways, are almost identical. The narrator describes Roderick’s house, “in the greenest of our valleys, by good angels tenanted, once a fair and stately palace; Radiant palace reared its head.” He continues by saying, “but evil things, in robed of sorrow, assailed the monarch’s high estate”. He described that it went from a once happy and joyous to a dark and gloomy place. This could be because of his own mental condition. He feels trapped by the house remembering the times when the house was filled will happiness and joy but now it is a mere darkened

In the beginning of this upbeat tale, it is revealed that Roderick Usher has fallen sick and is soon expected to die; however, during his final moments, he wishes to be kept company by his boyhood companion, the nameless narrator. Also, the Usher family tree does not branch off, but instead keeps a single line of lineage. When the narrator first arrives, he is portrayed as an intelligent man with a keen eye for detail, as his thoughts are expressed in great detail by just what he catches at first glance. In short the narrator describes the Usher estate as “In a state of extraordinary dilapidation” (Price, 24). Additionally, with a “Perceptible fissure extending from roof, to wall, to ground” (24). This is only the beginning of the problems that lie within the house.

In “Fall Of House Of Usher” a gothic story in which an unnamed narrator goes to his old friend’s house named Roderick usher who is ill physically and psychologically just like his twin sister Madeline and feel like his house has some type of supernatural power. In this story transformation in the house, in the characters, and in the atmosphere made me feel uneasy and created emotions such as awe and terror. After Usher and the narrator have entombed Madeline alive because they thought she was dead big transformation takes place in Usher ” His ordinary manner had vanished…. occupations were

An expert in grotesque and arabesque writing, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his great contributions to the Gothic style of writing literature. Poe has a very unique and dark way of writing. His mysterious style of writing appeals to many readers because of it is unlike many other writers. Many of his stories tend to have the same recurring theme of either death or lost love. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, however, we see both death and lost love as the major theme. In this short story, Roderick faces mental illness and the loss of his precious sister, Lady Madeline. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe includes other narratives and poems within the story. One of the poems he includes is “The Haunted Palace.”