The Fall Of The House Of The Usher

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,

“‘Her decease,’ he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, “ would leave him the last of the ancient race of the Ushers”’(Poe). The narrator's exaggeration stretches the differences between the Usher’s and standard families. Roderick Usher’s desperation affects him in a negative way as he only has one relationship in his life for the many years that he has been isolated for. His dependence on Madeline allows any influence by her to affect him negatively without any interference. The narrator notes the “striking similitude” between the two Usher siblings, as siblings it is surmised that they resemble each other, but the author draws attention to this detail, as if proposing another more complicated factor about their relationship on account of an† alliteration (Poe). This observation advocates an even closer relationship between the two siblings. Which can provide a better explanation for why she had to come back from the vault to kill Roderick, as they were twins, which were born together and must die together. Finally, Stein postulates that Roderick Usher’s mental state “cannot be clearly understood unless it is directly related to the illness of his twin sister.” Stein conveys that Roderick’s mental illness is a consequence of his relationship with Madeline. As twins they share the same mind through a certain supernatural way allowing her unnamed problem to directly affect him. The relationship between Madeline and Roderick expresses the twin relationship intrudes Roderick’s mind and his dependence on Madeline allows for negative influence on him to be

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.

In comparison to the family, when he first witnesses Roderick, Poe portrays Roderick to be seemingly normal, vivacious and genuine. But, it is only until the narrator takes a closer look, that Roderick is obviously crumbling internally. Madeline, Roderick’s sister, is also crumbling physically by her unknown sickness and being physically weak. After her supposed death later in the novel, Roderick had a look of wanness. For example, Poe wrote, “No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones” (Poe 113). What I took from this quote is; the individual stones may likely be a representation of each member of the Usher family. When Poe decided to include this as a part of the story; the stones, that are crumbling could be a reference to the family dying. But, Poe mentions a key indication that the masonry has not yet fallen (113), this is due to the fact that the two remaining Usher’s; Roderick and Madeline, have not died.

Filled with a sense of dread by the sight of the house itself, the Narrator reunites with his old companion, who is suffering from a strange mental illness and whose sister, Madeline, is near to death due to a mysterious disease. The Narrator provides company to Usher while he paints and plays guitar, spending all his days inside, avoiding the sunlight and obsessing over the sentience of the non-living. When Madeline dies, Usher decides to bury her temporarily in one of his house's large vaults. A few days later, however, she emerges from her provisional tomb, killing her brother while the Narrator flees for his life. The House of Usher splits apart and collapses, wiping away the last remnants of the ancient family. Edgar’s inspiration for this story might have come from true events of the Usher House, located on Boston's Lewis Wharf. As that story goes, a sailor and the young wife of the older owner were caught and entombed in their trysting spot by her husband. When the Usher House was torn down in 1800, two bodies were found embraced in a cavity in the cellar (Neilson).

Poe’s use of play on words contributes to the sense of confusion and disarray. For example, Usher, is not only the family name, but it could also be interpreted as the exact definition of usher, which means to show or guide someone to a certain place. This is what Roderick did when he invited the narrator to the house. Roderick “ushered” him into a whole new world of darkness and deception. This may explain the reason of the house’s downfall. There was a compassionate man that entered the house, which led to an imbalance. The house, almost like a person, could not handle the change within and it crumbled into the ground.

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

Everybody can relate to the death of a loved one. Even if it hasn’t happened in someone’s life, they can still think about what it would feel like. Edgar Allan Poe can definitely relate to this feeling and it could be why he wrote the story. He did, in fact, lose a sibling to sickness as well. The fact that the death doesn't just end with Madeline, but Roderick dies as well, is symbolic of the fact that death affects everybody. The tone the narrator uses in this story also helps readers to develop emotion. The tale is told in retrospect by the narrator, so it is lacking the tone of frantic emotion and stress that we could expect from someone in his situation. This helps the reader to develop their own emotions, and being that we can obviously relate to our own emotions better than those of others makes them more powerful than any feeling the author could have pushed on

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 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