The Fall of the House of Usher

Research Paper: The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe was a unique author who had a peculiar writing style. Similar to the eerie mood portrayed in the infamous story, “The Raven,” and the dark themes in “The Cask of Amontillado,” Poe did a fantastic job in channeling yet another ominous work, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” All of these stories have the same underlying elements of vivid imagery and mood. The mood is set in the beginning of the story with the reader picturing the bleak walls and desolate grounds of the mansion. As a result of focusing on several themes throughout his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” including human deception, interactions between characters and the house, and the psychological state of each character and their perception of reality, Poe allows himself to bring life to his works, as well as captivate his readers with his extremely mesmerizing fictional literature.
In the beginning of the story, the unnamed narrator is traveling to visit an old friend, Roderick Usher, whom he claims he has known for a long time. Usher, who has fallen increasingly ill, wrote the narrator a letter asking him to come visit in his time of need. Although the narrator admits to not knowing Usher that well, he still feels obligated to go, almost as if he feels obligated to appease his friend. As he approaches the house, he notices the lethargic condition of the property. Everything, from trees to the lake, seemed to have caught the same disease that was causing everything to slowly decay. When the narrator reunited with Usher, his feeling was no different. Roderick Usher, a once lively and effervescent boy, was now a “ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity” (Poe). The narrator, who has previously heard that there is a connection between the Usher family and the house, now draws the connection for himself. “Poe also stresses the organic relationship between Usher and the House. Usher, in fact, argues that the House itself is sentient because of the method of collocation of it’s stone” (Olsen 557). He sees the house deteriorating around him, as well as his friend deteriorating beside him; both with the same condition of discomposure and decay. Throughout the entire short story, Poe constantly dances around the theme of decay by making a connection between the crumbling house of Usher, and the family itself.
One of the most commonly utilized themes in Poe’s writing is his use of deception and trickery. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe further develops this idea with the introduction of Roderick Usher’s twin sister, Madeline. Much like Roderick, Madeline has also fallen ill. Roderick Usher is known to never reveal his innermost thoughts and intimate family details, but the narrator is shocked to have not heard about such an important figure in his friend’s life. Throughout the story, a series of events that occur makes the reader question the actual existence of Madeline. Although she is described vividly as an actual character, many of her actions are too supernatural for her to be a living human being. One of the most reveling moments in the story is when the narrator is reading Mad Trist to Roderick Usher when he cannot sleep during a storm. During this time, a previously buried Madeline comes back to life, escapes from her tomb, and climbs out of the basement to the second floor to greet her brother face to face. Another aspect of farce appears when Usher dies from pure fear alone as Madeline confronts him. The narrator, in both shock and disbelief, runs away from the house as it crumbles, along with any hope of furthering the Usher family tree.