The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe

Nishu Parikh

About the Author

• Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, critic, short story writer, and an explorer of the spritual and dark side of the human mind.

• Poe is acknowledged as the inventor of modern detective stories and innovating science fiction.

• Poe's early childhood was tragic, and in three years of his birth, both of his parents had died. He was taken in by a wealthy tobacco merchant by the name of John Allan.

About the Author (cont.)

Although encouraged by his father to be a businessman, Poe's true ambition was to be a writer like his idol, the British poet Lord Byron.

Poe had numerous problems with his father, and struggled through college without any considerable help. After graduating and going back home, he found that his fiancee had married another man.

After his fathers death and remarraige, Poe began publishing his short stories, and gained an editorial position at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond.

His sensational stories made the magazine extremely famous, and Poe began to create his reputation as a critic, poet, and writer.

Poe moved on to publish in several other magazines but could not avoid poverty. In 1842, his wife had contracted tuberculosis. This was yet another dark time in his life.

The publication of "The Raven" is best known for making Poe famous, but many people acknowledge "The Fall of the House of Usher" as his best short story.

Poe died on October 7, 1849, and his cause of death is still a mystery up to this day. The believed cause is alcoholism.

Gothic Literature

"The Fall of the House of Usher" was published 1839 in Burton's Magazine. This was a time when Gothic Literature was popular and flourishing.Edgar Allan Poe is considered by many to be a master of Gothic Literature. His short stories are a reflection of his own dark life experiences, and he manifests his feelings into these stories.

Gothic Literature, or Gothic Fiction/Horror, is a genre of literature that combines several elements of romance and horror, however Edgar Allan Poe began to explore into the different psycholgigal aspects of the human mind by using elements of terror, murder, crypts, etc.

Gothic Literature really began in 1764 with Horace Walpole, but flourished in the 19th century.

An unnamed narrator (first person perspective) arrives at the House of Usher mansion at the request of his very ill friend, Roderick Usher. Before this, the first half of the story is an extremely descriptive passage of the setting and the evil atmoshpere enveloping the mansion, which is supposedly haunted.

Roderick Usher and the narrator share many of their life experiences (they were intimate friends in their youth) and the narrator finds that the Usher family has never flourished, and that only one member of his family has survived generation to generation, thereby forming a line of descent without any outside branches.

The narrator finds the inside of the house just as spooky as the outside. Usher believes that is illness is because of his haunted house, he has never left the house for many years, and believes that the house is sentient (having the power to perceive things). For many days, the narrator and Usher paint, read, draw, and play instruments together, but Usher's condition is deteriorating.

One reason why he explains he is gloomy is because of his sister, Madeline, who is also severely ill, for unknown reasons, but she is gradually wasting away and suffers from catalepsy, where her limbs remain in a fixed, rigid position, and place her in close-to-death situations.

Madeline, Roderick's sister, soon passes away and Roderick decided to bury her in the tombs underneath the house. (He fears that the doctors might have experiments on her sister's body, so he chooses this option)

The narrator helps Roderick bury her, and notices a peculiar observation, that Roderick and Madeline were in fact twins. Over the next few days, Roderick becames very uneasy and becames very pale.

One night, both the narrator and Roderick are unable to sleep. The climate outside is extremely chaotic, with a fierce whirlwind blowing everything in its sight, and a bright-gas in the atmoshpere ( a natural phenomenon). Lightning shrieks as it soars across the sky, and the night is just insane.

Roderick enters the narrator's room because both gentleman cannot sleep. They decide to "read the night away."

The narrator begins to read "Mad Trist" of Sir Launcelot Canning. In the story, several different noises are made, and the narrator hears these exact noises in reality as well. Below are exact quotations of the noises in the story:

"...made quickly room in the plankings of the door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling there-with sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and hollow-sounding wood alarumed and reverberated throughout the forest. - This "cracking and ripping" noises were heard, but muffled.

"...And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred had fain to close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before heard." - Again, these shrieks were heard, so horrifying, yet muffled.

Several more noises in the story were heard in reality, and finally, the narrator could not resist telling Usher about it. Roderick Usher admitted that these noises have been going on for the past few days...and they are all muffled.. they must be the noises of Madeline! They buried her alive, and now she must be struggling to escape.

Roderick now says that she will be coming any minute now, to seek revenge, and with no suprise, the doors behind the gentleman burst open. There stood Madeline... covered in blood, breathless from the struggle to get out of the ground. She immediately shrieks towards Usher, ending the life of her and him together. The narrator makes an escape into the insane storm, and behind him, sees the House of Usher crumble to the ground. The moonlight shines through that one small crack... as it widens, and everything is destroyed.

The narrator: This narrator serves as the "eyes" of the story and everything is expressed in his perspective. Little is known about the narrator, his background, his name, etc. All we know is that he was an intimate friend of Roderick Usher in childhood, though much time has lapsed since their last meeting.

The Split personality of Roderick and Madeline: The fact that these two characters are twins are a representations of Poe's exploration into the human mind and body. Roderick is intellecual, (the mind) whereas Madeline is ill and shows interest in her own body (the body).

The seperation of Roderick and Madeline show this split identity and what would happen, but, the mind and body are dependant on one another for survival. Madeline's physical collapse can directly be linked with Roderick's sanity collapsing.

Themes

Madness - This is a story of a sick man (Roderick Usher) who fears for his life because of his own, supposedly sentient, house. His madness could be real - his house may really be haunted, and his sister may really be back from the dead - or it could all be imaginary.

Fear - Fear is a key factor for Roderick Usher, who is so scared of his own house and fear itself, that he believes it is what will kill him. His fear manifests itself into reality, bringing about his own death.

Identity - Some people view this story as a tale about a split-personality disorder. Poe explores identity as he seperates Roderick and Madeline into the mind and body and explores different psychological aspects.

Literary Terms And Favorite Quotations

Several Cultural References and Allusions are made:

" We pored together over such works as the Ververt et Chartreuse of Gresset; the Belphegor of Machiavelli; the Heaven and Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of Jean D'Indagine, and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of Tieck; and the City of the Sun of Campanella. One favourite volume was a small octavo edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum"

Personification:The entire house is believed to be haunted and sentient (the ability to perceive things).

"Its evidence --the evidence of the sentience --was to be seen, he said, (and I here started as he spoke,) in the gradual yet certain condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the walls."

The fall of the house of usher can be used as a metaphor for the fall of Roderick and Madeline.

Throughout the story, Roderick drew several paintings and sung different ballads. His creations have a definite connection with his house - He draws an underground catacomb, Madeline is entombed in one. He sings about the decline of his house, his house falls.

Edgar Allan Poe - Style of Writing

Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is a key factor for his popularity as an author, poet, etc.

His writing style includes mostly tales of horror, murder, symbols of death (The Raven), premature burial, dark romanticism, and explorations into the spiritual side of the mind.

Poe's use of intricate vocabulary envelope the reader into the story and give a sensational thrill when reading. The vocabulary and complex descriptions make the content come to life.

Poe's descriptiveness is a key factor to many of his stories. For example, the setting of the mansion and the atmosphere, the feelings of characters, the tense dialogue and events, was more than half of the story. His descriptions are truly sensational and thrilling. Example:

I looked upon the scene before me --upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain --upon the bleak walls --upon the vacant eye-like windows --upon a few rank sedges --and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees --with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium --the bitter lapse into everyday life --the hideous dropping off of the veil.

The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling.

I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.

Along with these, the feelings of characters were explained to such a degree to feel as if you are the character. This uniqueness of Poe makes him an extraordinary author.

Gothic Art

Catacombs (of Paris) are traditional sites in several gothic stories where premature burials, murder, etc. take place.

This painting by Toni Grote shows severe and inclimate weather. The weather in many gothic stories is a key element that symbolises danger, destruction, a chaotic atmosphere, and sinister motivation.

Thank You!

Summary

The Fall of the

House of Usher

About the Author (cont.)

Character Analysis

Metaphor:

Metaphor (connecting art and reality)