Confusion And Delusions In The Story Of Roderick Usher

Roderick Usher is frequently subject to both confusion and delusion alike throughout the story. Both are indicitave of the genetic disorder schizophrenia. Usher frequently references his belief that the house is alive and has a will of it's own. Those who suffer from schizophrenia have a tendency to be abnormally superstitious about everyday objects. Known by the medical community as delusions, these beliefs "result from the patient's inability to separate real from unreal events." (Ford-Martin, Odle, Costello 5) While reality may dictate that houses do not have a concious, Usher's mental disorder blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. "In other words," Jonathan A. Cook argues, "the whole physical world, both animate and inanimate,"

is "mysteriously alive." (Cook 11). Usher also expresses with hysteria, "And have you not seen it?," in reference to the mist that surrounds the household (Poe 20). He believes that the pulsating lights of the mist are evidence of the house's sentience, despite the narrator's insistence that the lights are only an "electrical phenomena" (Poe 20). Hallucinations, "disturbances of sense perception", such as these are common in schizophrenic patients (Ford-Martin, Odle, Costello). While delusions pertain to processing of events, hallucinations directly affect the physical senses such as sight and touch.