essays on the fall of the house of usher

A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is an 1839 short story by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a pioneer of the short story and a writer who arguably unleashed the full psychological potential of the Gothic horror genre. The story concerns the narrator’s visit to a strange mansion owned by his childhood friend, who is behaving increasingly oddly as he and his twin sister dwell within the ‘melancholy’ atmosphere of the house.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ has inspired a range of interpretations: it has been analysed as proto-Freudian and proto-Kafkaesque, among many other things. The best way to approach the story is perhaps to consider its plot alongside the accumulation of detail Poe provides. Before we come to an analysis, however, here’s a brief summary of the plot of the story.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: plot summary

The story is narrated by a childhood friend of Roderick Usher, the owner of the Usher mansion. This friend is riding to the house, having been summoned by Roderick Usher, having complained in his letter that he is suffering from some illness and expressing a hope that seeing his old friend will lift his spirits.

When he arrives, the narrator finds a gloomy and vaguely menacing atmosphere, and his friend, Usher, is much changed since he last saw him: overly sensitive to every sound and sight, and prone to dramatic mood swings. Meanwhile, Roderick’s twin sister Madeline is afflicted with a disease which, Roderick tells the narrator, means she will soon die. These twins are the last in the family line, the last descendants of the ‘house of Usher’.

Roderick Usher is a gifted poet and artist, whose talents the narrator praises before sharing a poem Usher wrote, titled ‘ The Haunted Palace ’. The ballad concerns a royal palace which was once filled with joy and song, until ‘evil things’ attacked the king’s palace and made it a desolate shadow of what it once was.

Several days later, Roderick tells the narrator that Madeline has died, and they lay her to rest in a vault. In the days that follow, the narrator starts to feel more uneasy in the house, and attributes his nervousness to the gloomy furniture in the room where he sleeps. The narrator begins to suspect that Roderick is harbouring some dark secret.

Roderick grows more erratic in his behaviour, and the narrator reads to his friend to try to soothe him. The plot of the romance (a fictional title invented by Poe himself, called ‘Mad Trist’) concerns a hero named Ethelred who enters the house of a hermit and slays a dragon.

In a shocking development, Madeline breaks out of her coffin and enters the room, and Roderick confesses that he buried her alive. Madeline attacks her brother and kills both him and herself in the struggle, and the narrator flees the house. It is a stormy night, and as he leaves he sees the house fall down, collapsing into the lake which reflects the house’s image.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: analysis

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ is probably Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous story, and in many ways it is a quintessential Gothic horror story. We have a mysterious secret afflicting the house and eating away at its owner, the Gothic ‘castle’ (here, refigured as a mansion), premature burial (about which Poe wrote a whole other story ), the mad owner of the house, and numerous other trappings of the Gothic novel. Poe condenses these into a short story and plays around with them, locating new psychological depths within these features.

How does he play around with them? First, Poe renders them ambiguous rather than clear-cut. Indeed, there are no overtly supernatural elements in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: just a general sense of something not being quite right. Many things in the story are, to use a term later popularised by Sigmund Freud, ‘ uncanny ’: simultaneously familiar yet unfamiliar; another key element of the uncanny is the secret which ‘out to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light’.

The secret that is buried and then comes to light (represented by Madeline) is never revealed. The symbol which represents the secret – Madeline herself – is hidden away by Roderick, but that symbol returns, coming to light at the end of the story and (in good Gothic fashion) destroying the family for good.

But Madeline is, if you like, a signifier without a signified: that is, she is a symbol with no code. She represents a secret, but what that secret is (an unseemly relationship between her and her brother, or some dark secret from the family’s past?) does remain hidden. The secret, as it were, remains a secret even when it is ‘revealed’.

Doubling is another aspect of the ‘uncanny’, because seeing our double is both a familiar and a strange experience. This person both is and is not me; this reflection of the house in the lake or ‘tarn’ looks exactly like the house and yet clearly is but an image of the house. And doubling is very important in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’, as it is in other Poe stories: witness his tale ‘ William Wilson ’, which plays around with this idea of the doppelganger or mysterious double.

And virtually everything seems doubled in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: the title itself has a double meaning (where the ‘house’, or family of Usher falls, but the literal bricks-and-mortar structure also collapses), the house is reflected or doubled in the lake, Roderick and Madeline are twins or ‘doubles’ of a sort, and the plot of the ‘Mad Trist’ mirrors or doubles Roderick’s own situation.

‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ can also be analysed as a deeply telling autobiographical portrait, in which Roderick Usher represents, or reflects, Poe himself. After all, Roderick Usher is a poet and artist, well-read (witness the assortment of books which he and the narrator read together), sensitive and indeed overly sensitive (to every sound, taste, sight, touch, and so on). Many critics have interpreted the story as, in part, an autobiographical portrait of Poe himself, although we should be wary, perhaps, of speculating too much about any parallels.

For instance, it has sometimes been suggested that Roderick’s relationship with Madeline echoes Poe’s own relationship with his young wife (who was also his cousin), Virginia, who fell ill, as Madeline has. But Virginia did not fall ill until after Poe had written ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’.

An interpretation which has more potential, then, is the idea that the ‘house of Usher’ is a symbol of the mind, and it is this analysis which has probably found the most favour with critics. Sigmund Freud would, over half a century after Poe was writing, do more than anyone else to delineate the structure of the conscious and unconscious mind, but he was not the first to suggest that our conscious minds might hide, or even repress, unconscious feelings, fears, neuroses, and desires.

Indeed, it was the German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling (1775-1854) who distinguished between the conscious and unconscious mind in his early work System of Transcendental Idealism (1800), labelling the latter Unbewusste (i.e. ‘unconscious’). The term ‘unconscious’ was then introduced into English by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). The notion that we might have both a ‘conscious’ and an ‘unconscious’ mind, then, was already in circulation when Poe was writing ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’.

Might we then interpret Roderick as a symbol of the conscious mind – struggling to conceal some dark ‘secret’ and make himself presentable to his friend, the narrator – and Madeline as a symbol of the unconscious? Note how Madeline is barely seen for much of the story, and the second time she appears she is literally buried (repressed?) within the vault.

However, Roderick cannot keep her hidden for long, and she bursts out again in a frenzy – much as Freud would later argue our unconscious drives and desires cannot be wholly repressed and will find some way of making themselves known to us (such as through dreams).

Note that such an analysis of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ complements the uncanny elements in the story: the secret which ought to have remain hidden but has come to light is something deep within the unconscious which has broken out.

But when our unconscious breaks out and communicates with us, it usually does so in ways which are coded: ways which reveal, without revealing, the precise nature of our desires and fears. (As the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan once quipped, ‘a neurosis is a secret that you don’t know you are keeping’.)

Dreams, for instance, are the way our unconscious mind communicates with our conscious mind, but in such a way which shrouds or veils their message in ambiguous symbolism and messages.

If the unconscious did communicate with us clearly and openly, it would overwhelm and destroy us. Perhaps that is what happens at the end of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: Roderick comes face-to-face with his darkest unconscious, and it destroys him.

And this explains why both Madeline and Roderick are destroyed: the mind, both conscious and unconscious, is killed at once. The house (the body which houses the mind?) cannot function without the mind, so it must also be destroyed.

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The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about the fall of the house of Usher, and the events that lead up to it. The story is narrated by an unnamed person who tells the story of his visit to the house of Usher, and the events that transpired there. The house of Usher is haunted by the ghost of Madeline Usher, who died under mysterious circumstances.

The narrator is interested in finding out what happened to Madeline, and he begins to suspect that her brother, Roderick Usher, may have had something to do with her death. The narrator eventually learns that Roderick has been cursed by Madeline’s ghost, and that the house will soon fall apart.

The house of Usher eventually falls apart, and Roderick dies in the process. The story is a classic example of Gothic fiction, and it has been praised for its chilling atmosphere and suspenseful plot. The Fall of the House of Usher is considered to be one of Poe’s best works, and it has been adapted into a number of films and television shows.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a classic example of Gothic fiction. The story is set in a dark and spooky house, and it is filled with suspenseful scenes and mysterious characters. The plot revolves around the fall of the house of Usher, and the events that lead up to it. The story is narrated by an unnamed person who tells the story of his visit to the house of Usher, and the events that transpired there. The house of Usher is haunted by the ghost of Madeline Usher, who died under mysterious circumstances.

The narrator is interested in finding out what happened to Madeline, and he begins to suspect that her brother, Roderick Usher, may have had something to do with her death. The narrator eventually learns that Roderick has been cursed by Madeline’s ghost, and that the house will soon fall apart. The house of Usher eventually falls apart, and Roderick dies in the process.

The House of Usher is a gloomy castle inside the city limits of Ravenswood, Illinois. The family has become sick with strange maladies that may be linked to their intermarriage.

The family estate, named Usher, is said to be haunted by the ghost of Madeline’s mother. The house itself seems to be alive and is in a state of decay. The story progresses with Roderick telling his friend, Philip, about the day that Madeline died. She was found in a pool of her own blood and there was a great gash on her forehead (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 463). The servants refused to go back into the house, so Roderick had to bury her himself.

Roderick fears that he will also die and leave Usher without an heir. He tells Philip that he has been studying the secrets of life and death and that he may have found a way to cheat death. Philip is apprehensive about this, but goes to stay at Usher anyhow. Roderick shows him around the house and leads him down into the crypt. There, they find a hidden door that leads them down into the bowels of the earth (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 465). They enter a dark and dreary chamber where Madeline’s body is entombed. The air is thick with moisture and it smells of death. The sound of dripping water can be heard from all directions.

Roderick tells Philip that he has been bringing Madeline back to life by giving her doses of a potion that he has made himself. He believes that he can bring her back completely by using an elixir that he has also made. Philip is horrified by all of this and tells Roderick that he needs to get out of the house. The next day, Madeline’s body is found in her bed and it appears that she has died in her sleep (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 466). The funeral is held and Roderick mourns his sister’s death.

Shortly after the funeral, strange things start happening at Usher. The walls seem to be closing in on Roderick and he complains about the oppressive atmosphere of the house. The windows are boarded up and there is no way for any light or air to enter (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 467).

Madness, the supernatural, and artistic purpose are all recurring themes in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The Usher family is known for its history of incest, which has resulted in recent generations including Roderick being afflicted with madness.

The supernatural: The house of Usher is said to be haunted and is full of secret passages and hidden rooms. The narrator is not sure whether the events that take place in the story are caused by the supernatural or by Roderick’s mental illness, but either way, the house exerts a powerful grip on the family. Artistic purpose: The story is written in such a way that it blurs the line between reality and fiction.

The reader is never quite sure what is really happening, which may be intentional on Poe’s part. Some critics have interpreted “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a commentary on the Romantic movement, which was at its peak when Poe wrote the story. Romanticism prized emotion over reason and emphasized individualism and creativity. The story may be seen as an attack on these values, or as a warning against their dangers.

A man discovers a savage family curse while visiting his fiancée’s family home, and he worries that his future brother-in-law has prematurely entombed his bride-to-be. Philip Winthrop contacts his girlfriend Madeline Usher at her home. Roderick, Madeline’s brother, is particularly irritated by Philip’s presence.

The siblings have a strange, but close, bond. Winthrop learns from Madeline that their family is cursed and that Roderick believes she died prematurely. The locals whisper about the house’s malignant influence. Winthrop tries to persuade Madeline to leave the house for her own safety, but she refuses.

Roderick tells Winthrop about an incident in which he and Madeline were swimming in a nearby river. Madeline saw a vision of her death and became so terrified that she drowned while trying to get back to shore. Roderick was able to save her, but since that day he has been convinced that she has an “evil eye.”

Winthrop soon realizes that Roderick has entombed Madeline alive in the family crypt.

Roderick finally agrees to release Madeline from her tomb, but only if Winthrop stays and watches over her. The morbid agreement gives Winthrop just enough time to realize that he is also cursed and that he will soon join Madeline and Roderick in death. The mansion’s oppressive atmosphere overwhelms him, and he dies screaming. The story concludes with a description of the Usher family home crumbling into ruins.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe: Critique

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe appeared in 1839 and tells the story of a young man, the narrator, who visits his friend Roderick Usher, a reclusive and eccentric aristocrat, in his decaying and isolated mansion.

Introduction: “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe: A Critique

Table of Contents

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe appeared in 1839 and tells the story of a young man, the narrator, who visits his friend Roderick Usher, a reclusive and eccentric aristocrat, in his decaying and isolated mansion. As the story unfolds, the reader learns of the Usher family’s dark and twisted history, and witnesses the mental and physical decay of both the house and its inhabitants. Through its eerie and haunting atmosphere, vivid imagery, and exploration of the themes of madness and the supernatural, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered one of Poe’s most celebrated and influential works of Gothic fiction.

Main Events in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

• Summoning: The narrator receives a letter from his childhood friend, Roderick Usher, pleading for his presence at the Usher estate.
• Arrival and observation: Upon arrival, the narrator notes an atmosphere of decay surrounding both the mansion and Roderick Usher himself.
• Roderick’s condition: Usher reveals a debilitating mental illness characterized by hypersensitivity, morbid dread, and a belief in the house’s sentience.
• Madeline’s illness: Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, suffers from a mysterious, wasting condition that eventually renders her catatonic.
• Premature entombment: Madeline is declared dead, and Roderick insists on placing her within a family vault beneath the mansion.
• Narrator’s unease: The narrator experiences a growing sense of dread and observes strange occurrences within the house, mirroring Usher’s deteriorating mental state.
• Heightened tension: During a tumultuous storm, Usher becomes increasingly unhinged, claiming to hear sounds emanating from Madeline’s tomb.
• Madeline’s escape: Madeline, alive but gravely weakened, reappears in the chamber, fulfilling Usher’s terrifying prophecies.
• Fatal collapse: Overcome by abject terror, Roderick dies. Madeline falls upon him and expires.
• Narrator’s flight: The narrator flees the disintegrating mansion, witnessing its structural failure.
• House collapses: A widening fissure in the facade causes the House of Usher to collapse entirely, sinking into the surrounding tarn.
• Symbolic annihilation: The destruction of the house represents the final demise of the Usher bloodline.

Literary Devices in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Characterization in “the fall of the house of usher” by edgar allan poe, roderick usher.

• Physical Decay: His appearance is strikingly deteriorated: “gray-white skin,” “eyes large and full of light,” “hair of great softness.” This reflects the decay of the Usher family and his own mental decline.
• Hypersensitivity: His senses are painfully heightened, leading him to be overwhelmed by light, sounds, and textures. This symbolizes his extreme psychological fragility.
• Mental Instability: Plagued by crippling anxiety and a “morbid acuteness of the senses,” Roderick experiences a world distorted by fear and paranoia. His art and music also reflect this instability.
• Obsession with the Supernatural: Roderick is fascinated by the idea of the house having sentience, believing it wields power over him. This suggests a blurring of reality and fantasy in his mind.
• Familial Connection: Roderick is consumed by the Usher lineage and fears the dwindling of his bloodline with Madeline’s illness. This obsession binds him to the house and its decay.
• Paralysis of Will: Despite being aware of his deteriorating state, Roderick is incapable of breaking free from his fears and seems resigned to his fate.

The Narrator

• Outsider Perspective: Serves as a relatively normal, rational observer, highlighting the strangeness of the situation and Roderick’s decline by contrast.
• Growing Unease: The narrator starts as a concerned friend but becomes increasingly infected by the house’s oppressive atmosphere and Roderick’s anxiety.
• Sympathetic yet Limited: While he tries to help Roderick, the narrator cannot comprehend the depth of his friend’s mental anguish. His descriptions also shape our perception of the events.

Madeline Usher

• Ethereal Presence: Madeline is characterized by her illness, “wasting away” and being described as a spectral figure. This creates a sense of mystery and impending doom.
• Symbol of Repression: Her premature burial can be read as a symbol of Roderick’s buried fears and subconscious anxieties.
• The Return of the Repressed: Madeline’s climactic escape from the vault represents the uncontrollable return of what Roderick tried to suppress, ultimately leading to his demise.
• Poe emphasizes Roderick’s mental state over his actions, creating a study in psychological horror.
• The ambiguity of the narrator’s reliability enhances the eerie atmosphere and invites multiple interpretations.
• The characters embody themes of decay, the power of fear, and the inescapable weight of the past.

Major Themes in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Theme 1: The Destructive Power of Fear

• Roderick Usher’s mental state is dominated by an all-consuming, formless fear. He states, “I shall die of this fool’s sickness. In this way, this way and no other way, I shall be lost. I fear what will happen in the future, not for what happens, but for the result of what happens.” His fear erodes his sanity and ultimately leads to his death.
• The oppressive atmosphere of the house itself seems to reflect and amplify Roderick’s fear, suggesting a link between the external environment and internal psychological states.
• The climactic return of Madeline, driven by her own fear of premature burial, reinforces the idea that fear can take on a destructive, uncontrollable power.

Theme 2: The Inevitability of Decay

• The House of Usher is in a state of advanced decay, both physically (the fissure in the facade) and metaphorically (the dwindling of the Usher bloodline). This symbolizes the inevitable decline of all things, both living and inanimate.
• Roderick’s physical and mental deterioration parallel the deterioration of the house. His hypersensitivity and mental instability mirror the fragility of his ancestral home.
• Madeline’s wasting illness further exemplifies physical decay, foreshadowing the ultimate collapse of both the Usher line and the family’s physical dwelling.

Theme 3: The Influence of Environment on the Psyche

• Roderick believes the House of Usher exerts a supernatural influence over him, shaping his thoughts and fears. He declares, “I feel that the time will soon arrive when I must lose my life, and my mind, and my soul, together, in some last battle with that horrible enemy: fear!”
• The narrator also becomes increasingly affected by the house’s oppressive atmosphere, his own anxiety mirroring Roderick’s. This suggests that environments can profoundly influence our mental and emotional states.
• The decaying mansion, with its gloomy atmosphere and lifeless surroundings, contributes to the characters’ sense of isolation and psychological deterioration.

Theme 4: The Blurring of Reality and the Supernatural

• Roderick’s belief in the house’s sentience and his obsession with the occult suggest an unstable grasp on reality. His perceptions are distorted by his fears and anxieties.
• The ambiguous nature of Madeline’s return from the vault leaves open the possibility of a supernatural event. Was it truly a resurrection, or is it a manifestation of Roderick’s guilt and fear brought to life?
• The story’s gothic atmosphere and unreliable narration create a sense of unease where the boundaries between the rational and supernatural world become blurred.

Writing Style in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Literary theories and interpretation of “the fall of the house of usher” by edgar allan poe, psychological/psychoanalytic criticism.

• Focuses on unconscious drives, repressed desires, and the impact of childhood experiences on behavior.
• Roderick Usher: His extreme anxiety and morbid fears could be interpreted as manifestations of repressed trauma or deep-seated psychological issues.
• The House: The house could symbolize Roderick’s troubled mind, with its dark corners and hidden spaces representing unconscious anxieties.
• Madeline: Madeline’s premature burial and spectral return might represent repressed fears or desires that cannot be fully contained.

Gothic Criticism

• Highlights themes of decay, death, the supernatural, and psychological terror. Explores the appeal of fear and the power of the irrational.
• The House: Classic Gothic setting – crumbling, isolated, shrouded in mystery.
• Roderick’s Madness: His mental breakdown, hypersensitivity, and morbid obsessions are classic Gothic tropes.
• Ambiguous Ending: The supernatural element (Madeline’s return) and the collapse of the house fit squarely within Gothic conventions.

Feminist Criticism

• Examines gender roles, power dynamics, and the representation of women in literature.
• Madeline: Confined, passive, and defined by her illness. Her primary role is as an object of fear and mystery.
• Female Entrapment: The motif of live burial could be seen as a metaphor for the restrictive roles imposed on women of the time.

Reader-Response Criticism

• Emphasizes the reader’s role in constructing meaning from the text. Acknowledges that different interpretations are possible.
• Ambiguity: The story’s open-ended elements (cause of Madeline’s return, the significance of the house’s collapse) invite multiple readings.
• Personal Resonance: Readers may have widely different emotional responses to the story based on their own fears and experiences.

Formalist/ New Criticism

• Focus on the structure, form, and literary devices within the text itself, independent of broader context.
• Symbolism: Analyzing the symbolic significance of the House, Roderick’s paintings, the poem “The Haunted Palace,” etc.
• Unreliable Narrator: Examining how the narrator’s limited perspective shapes our understanding of events.

Questions and Thesis Statements about “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Short question-answer s about “the fall of the house of usher” by edgar allan poe.

• What is the mood of “The Fall of the House of Usher” and how does Poe create it?
• The mood of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of gloom, despair, and unease. Poe creates this mood through his use of vivid and unsettling imagery, such as the dark and decaying setting, the grotesque descriptions of Roderick Usher, and the strange sounds and smells that permeate the mansion. The use of Gothic themes and supernatural elements further contribute to the unsettling mood of the story.
• What is the relationship between Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline in “The Fall of the House of Usher”?
• Roderick and Madeline Usher are twins and have a close, almost inseparable relationship. It is suggested that they share a telepathic connection, and when Madeline falls ill and seemingly dies, Roderick is consumed by grief and despair. However, it is later revealed that Madeline was buried alive, and when she rises from her tomb, it is clear that their relationship is not entirely normal or healthy.
• What is the significance of the narrator’s unnamed status in “The Fall of the House of Usher”?
• The narrator’s unnamed status in “The Fall of the House of Usher” adds to the sense of mystery and unease that permeates the story. It also serves to emphasize the isolation and detachment of the Usher family, as the narrator is an outsider who is only briefly allowed into their world. Finally, the narrator’s anonymity allows the reader to more easily identify with their experiences and emotions, making the story more immersive and unsettling.
• How does “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflect the broader themes and styles of Gothic literature?
• “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects many of the key themes and styles of Gothic literature, such as the use of dark and gloomy settings, supernatural elements, and vivid and unsettling imagery. The story also explores themes of madness, decay, and the destructive power of isolation and loneliness, which are common in Gothic literature. Additionally, the story’s emphasis on psychological horror and the exploration of the human psyche are hallmarks of the Gothic genre.

Literary Works Similar to “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Literary Works Featuring Similarities to “The Fall of the House of Usher”

• “The Tell-Tale Heart”: A chilling exploration of a guilt-ridden murderer’s unraveling psyche.
• “The Cask of Amontillado”: Delves into the dark themes of revenge and calculated entrapment.
• “The Raven”: A mournful poem fixated on themes of loss, despair, and hints of the supernatural.
• The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole): A seminal Gothic novel featuring a haunted castle, hidden family secrets, and supernatural occurrences.
• Frankenstein (Mary Shelley): Examines isolation, the dangers of scientific hubris, and the monstrous nature of unchecked creation.
• Dracula (Bram Stoker): A quintessential Gothic horror novel utilizing decaying settings, a powerful supernatural antagonist, and the pervasive fear of the unknown.
• “ The Yellow Wallpaper ” (Charlotte Perkins Gilman): A disturbing portrayal of a woman’s descent into madness, potentially instigated by confinement and repression.
• “The Turn of the Screw” (Henry James): Employs unreliable narration, a suspenseful atmosphere, and leaves the presence of supernatural forces open to interpretation.
• Works by William Faulkner (e.g., “ A Rose for Emily “): Focuses on crumbling settings, the enduring influence of the past, and characters marked by eccentricity or hidden darkness.
• Works by Flannery O’Connor (e.g., “A Good Man is Hard to Find”): Explores violence, moral ambiguity, and religious themes with a distinctly Southern sensibility.

Suggested Readings: “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Academic Sources:

• Dayan, Joan. “Poe, Persons, and Property.” American Literary History , vol. 13, no. 3, 2001, pp. 405-425. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/3568036. Explores the themes of personhood and possession through a legal framework in Poe’s works, including “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
• Kennedy, J. Gerald. “Poe, ‘Ligeia’, and the Problem of Dying Women.” New Essays on Poe’s Major Tales , edited by Kenneth Silverman, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 113-129. Focuses specifically on the role of female characters and the theme of death in Poe’s works, with analysis of “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
• Regan, Robert. “Hawthorne’s ‘Plagiarism’: Poe’s Duplicity.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction , vol. 25, no. 3, 1970, pp. 281-298. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/3044358. Examines the literary rivalry and cross-influences between Poe and Hawthorne, including accusations of plagiarism, which may shed light on Poe’s creative techniques.

Critical Essays and Websites:

• Provides a plot summary, analysis of key themes and symbols, and discussion questions.
• Offers detailed analysis, character breakdowns, and resources for deeper exploration.
• Includes a summary, themes, and character analyses with a focus on exam preparation.

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The Fall of the House of Usher Essay

Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story which makes the reader feel fear, depression and guilt from the very first page and up to the final scene.

Having read the story up to the end, it seems that Usher and his sister are the most depressive people in the house and a simple guest, Usher’s friend who arrived becomes deeply depressed too because of the general conditions and mood in the house.

However, looking at the situation from another angle, it is possible to see that depressed and gloomy atmosphere in the house is much exaggerated because of the pessimistic vision of life by the narrator personally.

Therefore, having read a story attentively, it is possible to doubt the events which took place there and try to consider the situation from another point of view.

The Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a story about Usher and his family. The house is depicted as the symbol of the atmosphere and relations in the family. From the very beginning the house is shown as the place that gives “a sense of insufferable gloom” and “natural images of the desolate or terrible” (Poe, 2000, p. 1264).

The narrator sees “the blank walls… with an utter depression of soul… after-dream of the reveler upon opium” (Poe, 2000, p. 1264).

Describing the house, the protagonist sees “iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart”, and “barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn” (Poe, 2000, p. 1265).

All these descriptions create the gloomy mood before the reader gets acquainted with those who live in the house. Therefore, seeing the health problems the inhabitants of the house have, the reader takes it for granted that the atmosphere in the house is depressive.

Reading of the books, listening to the music and even watching the paintings, in a word, everything the inhabitants of the house do puts the reader to consider the whole situation as depressive because of Usher and his sister.

However, if one takes a closer reading and considers the first lines of the story, everything may be changed.

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on” (Poe, 2000, p. 1264) is the first part from the Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher .

Have not seen the house, have not experienced the doom atmosphere there, the protagonist is already depressed. Therefore, this scene makes a reader doubt the events which took place in the story.

Hinzpeter (2012) makes an offer that “the first-person-narrator may have suffered from depression or some other sort of causeless melancholy from the very beginning and was therefore easily influenced by the gothic setting” (p. 10).

So, it may be concluded that the gothic setting makes the narrator discuss simple life of people who do not communicate with the outside world due to their diseases as a depressive and criminal. The events which happened in the story may be an imagination of the narrator.

However, one detail makes the reader doubt this statement, the “perceptible fissure” which is not too big at the beginning, and then the fissures are too big at the end and they cause the house fall.

Reference List

Hinzpeter, K. (2012). Unreliable Narration in Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ – The Narrative Creation of Horror . New York: GRIN Verlag.

Poe, E. (2000). The fall of the house of Usher. In R. Bausch & R.V. Cassill (Eds.), The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction (pp. 1264-1277). New York: W. W. Norton.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Fall of The House of Usher — Comparing “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over”

Comparing "The Fall of The House of Usher" and "House Taken Over"

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Atmosphere and mood, themes of isolation and decay, narrative techniques: first-person vs. third-person, symbolism and allegory, exploration of the unseen and supernatural, cultural and historical contexts, conclusion: reflecting on dual dimensions of fear and mystery.

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The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Writings: Poems, Tales, Essays, and Reviews (Penguin Classics) Paperback – April 29, 2003

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Edgar Allan Poe

About the author

Author, poet, and literary critic, Edgar Allan Poe is credited with pioneering the short story genre, inventing detective fiction, and contributing to the development of science fiction. However, Poe is best known for his works of the macabre, including such infamous titles as The Raven, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Lenore, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Part of the American Romantic Movement, Poe was one of the first writers to make his living exclusively through his writing, working for literary journals and becoming known as a literary critic. His works have been widely adapted in film. Edgar Allan Poe died of a mysterious illness in 1849 at the age of 40.

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• The Fall of the House of Usher

by Edgar Allan Poe

The fall of the house of usher essay questions.

Is "The Fall of the House of Usher" a sincere expression of horror, or is Poe simply mocking himself and the reader? To what extent can we read his tale as a parody?

Consider the role of the Narrator. At first he may seem the typical faceless, nameless chronicler of events, simply a window into the narrative through which the reader can examine the real man of the story, Usher himself. But he becomes a character in his own right, and the horror of the tale depends in part on our ability to see events through his experience. How does Poe lend the Narrator the qualities of a character like the others? To what extent is he reliable as a narrator?

Madeline only appears three times in "The Fall of the House of Usher." How do her appearances, explicit and implicit, develop the plot and symbolism of the narrative?

Poe wished to be remembered as a poet, but he is today more famous for his short fiction. Examine the poetic imagination and lyrical writing of the tale. Do more than simply identify the various poetic devices; examine the "poem within the story." How does Poe use the Gothic form to suggest or develop a new form of poetry?

How do words encode actions, and what is the power of words? Consider the fact that the "Mad Trist" narrative parallels the actual sounds in the house. Do the characters give themselves self-fulfilling prophecies?

Why does Poe preface his tale with an excerpt from a poem by de Beranger? What do the lines suggest, and how apt are they for the story?

How does Poe describe the Narrator's progressive understanding of Usher's condition? Does the tale offer insight about consciousness, or are we blocked from ever "knowing" any of the characters? Does Poe's story prefigure the novels of consciousness of the late nineteenth century? Consider the line, for example, "I fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne."

What exactly is meant by "sentience," and why is this idea important in the story?

Is "The Fall of the House of Usher" a love story, a comedy, or a tragedy?

How does it matter that Roderick and Madeline are brother and sister?

The Fall of the House of Usher Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Fall of the House of Usher is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

describe the room in which Roderick Usher is staying (267).

I would think a quote would be the best example for you. From there you can put these ideas into your own words. It's not hard, give it a try!

The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed,...

which details in Usher's appearance of suggest that he has been cut off from the outside world for many years?

"Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher!"

"A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a...

What forms of artistic expression does Usher share with thr narrator ?

Usher is a painter and he shares his art with the narrator. They also read poetry, stories, and share music.

Study Guide for The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher study guide contains a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Fall of the House of Usher Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.

• The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe's Predecessors on His Work
• Domains in 'The Fall of the House of Usher'
• Structural Purposes and Aesthetic Sensations of the Narrator's Language of "Fall of the House of Usher" within the Opening Paragraph
• Sonnet “X” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Uncertainty: Poe’s Means, Pynchon’s End

E-Text of The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fall of the House of Usher e-text contains the full text of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe.

Wikipedia Entries for The Fall of the House of Usher

• Introduction
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