The Fall of the House of Usher: Madness vs. Reality
Stories come in many way; some are easy to interpret others have more than one way of understanding the essence, such is the case of The Fall of the House of Usher. There are two obvious ways to interpret the story one is of the madness of the characters especially Roderick Usher. The other interpretation would be that the story is truly real and it has much of the supernatural. Many things point to both ideas. The argument for insanity comes from the idea that Roderick seems to be mentally ill, the possibility that Madeline is not real, and the narrator also not seeming to be competent mentally, at least within the mansion. As for this being a story of the supernatural various factors dictate that idea for example, Madeline super human strength, the mansion seeming to be its own person, and the demise of the Usher house and family. (Hustis 3-20)
Edgar Allen Poe is the author of The Fall of the House of Usher, he is known to write his tales in a vague manner, making it hard to interpret his stories the same each time. The Fall of the House of Usher fits in to this category perfectly. The story begins with a man going to visit and old friend after his friend, Roderick Usher, makes a cry of distress to him. When the reader is first introduced to Roderick we are told about his demeanor
“A
…show more content…
The story is delivered in a way to allow the reader to interpret it in their own way. Various interpreting are prevalent within the scholarly community. One of these interpretation is the idea of madness, meaning that the whole tale may all be a delusion that the characters are plagued by throughout the tale and their life. Another prominent interpretation is that the story is truly supernatural, allowing for the events taking place to be realistic in nature. No matter what side the readers takes this tale is one that intrigues many and entertains others. (Robinson
described it less violently than Poe."The Fall of the House of Usher" shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically feelings of fear, doom, and guilt These emotions center on Roderick Usher, who, like many Poe characters, suffers from an unnamed disease. Like the narrator in “The Tall Tale Heart, his disease inflames his hyperactive senses. The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state. He is sick, it is suggested, because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is, therefore, essentially a hypochromic. Then in the other story the author explains differently
In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. Poe tries to evoke suspence in the reader's mind by using several diffenent scenes. These elements include setting, characters, plot, and theme. Poe uses setting primarily in this work to create atmosphere. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder, strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed. He has a fearful apperance and his senses are acute. This adds curiosity and anxiety. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Because of this, the audience gets a sense that evil is lurking. Madeline is in a cataleptic state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Finally, when she dies, she is buried in a vault inside of the mansion. In this story, the plot consists of rising events, conflict, climax, and resolution. The rising events include the parts in the story when the narrator first arrives at the house, meets Roderick, and hears about Roderick's and Madeline's problems. Madeline's death and burial are part of the conflict. At this point, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are an omen that an evil action is about to occur. The climax is reached when Madeline comes back from the dead and she and her twin brother both die. Finally, the resolution comes when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall to the ground. The theme that Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convey is do not let fear take over your life because it could eventually destory you.
In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe presents the history of the end of an illustrious family. As with many of Poe’s stories, setting and mood contribute greatly to the overall tale. Poe’s descriptions of the house itself as well as the inhabitants thereof invoke in the reader a feeling of gloom and terror. This can best be seen first by considering Poe’s description of the house and then comparing it to his description of its inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe writes of psychic and supernatural occurrences that the narrator and both Madeline and Roderick experience. Poe writes these scenes with a fair amount of ambiguity and horror so that the true reason for the family’s dismay is unclear. Being the man that he is, a horror expert who invokes fear and new phenomenon in the mind of the reader, “The Fall of the House of Usher” does just that. The greatness of Poe is that he is able to raise an unearthly terror, which comes from a vague and unclear source. The couple has been secluded for an extended period of time with little visitors, which could drive anyone insane. Insanity is the first impression the reader interprets from reading the short
Fear is a prominently depicted theme in this short story. From the start of the short story, you are able to sense the fear through the words of the narrator. The words of the narrator convey that the setting as a fearful place, the House of Usher. When the narrator makes his way towards the House of Usher, the sense of mystery and fear takes over, intimately causing the narrator to shiver. The setting itself was not the only detail conveying fear, further in the story we encounter Roderick. Roderick is the excellent example of fear, as exemplified when he said: “I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved—in this pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the death of Madeline and Roderick Usher represents the ending of something, and in this specific case, the ending of a generation. Throughout the story, it is made very clear that Madeline and Roderick are the last living people of the Usher generation. Roderick Usher explicitly states on page four, “‘Her decease,’ he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, ‘would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.’” Therefore, when they both die at the end, it is clear that it is the end of a generation. The ending of their generation creates a depressing and serious feeling through this story due to the fact that the Usher’s will be no more.
Beside his illness and his sister dieing, Roderick believes his condition is being controlled by the house. He call on the narrator a boyhood friend to in a last ditch effort to cheer his life up and give him someone to communicate with. The narrator arrives to a house of gloom, darkness and decaying furniture. He immediately is afraid for his life and how his friend can live a house of darkness. Several days past and it is filled with art discussions, guitar playing, and literature reading, all to keep Roderick's mind busy from the reality that he is losing his mind. The narrator and Roderick prematurely enconffined Madeline in a vault in a hope to alleviate his metal condition. She is either dead, in a coma, or a vampire. You don't know but Poe allows the reader to make there own assumptions.
In the short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," by Edgar Allen Poe, setting is used extensively to do many things. The author uses it to convey ideas, effects, and images. It establishes a mood and foreshadows future events. Poe communicates truths about the character through setting.
In the short story, The Fall of The House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe chooses the setting as his main focus. This tale is one of many that focus on the character’s surroundings in order to truly emphasize and express the tone the author is trying to portray. The Fall of the House of Usher was included in Poe’s first literary collection from 1839 and is one of his most famous works. He was orphaned by the age of three, which in my opinion, would mean that he had a relatively dark childhood. A dark childhood that may or may not be the reason he allows for his stories to reveal a mysterious and dreary tone. Perhaps, setting is what truly affects the way your life plays out, and this is why the time and place has such a great affect in the world of literacy. In this essay, I would like to discuss how the setting sets the mood, affects your prejudices of the characters, and how it foreshadows where the story is headed.
Poe, Edgar A. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1839. The narrator of the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is an outside friend of the two main characters. The two main characters are Madeleine and Roderick. The narrator has been summoned by his childhood friend Roderick who is going through a period of emotional distress. The narrator discovers that Rodericks twin sister Madeleine is also sick. She takes a turn for the worse shortly after the narrator's arrival. The plot of Poe's tale essentially involves a woman who dies, is buried, and rises from the grave.
In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, diction is extensively used to create an air of suspense. Poe’s use of diction along with symbolism contributes to establishing a mood of despair. By using symbolic comparison between the Ushers and their house, the story’s suspense builds and the characteristics of the Ushers are portrayed. Poe’s cunning tactics are evident in the way he achieves a story of both suspense and horror.
The Fall Of The House of Usher is a terrifying tale of the demise of the Usher family, whose inevitable doom is mirrored in the diseased and evil aura of the house and grounds. Poe uses elements of the gothic tale to create an atmosphere of terror. The decaying house is a metaphor for Roderick Usher’s mind, as well as his family line. The dreary landscape also reflects his personality. Poe also uses play on words to engage the reader to make predictions, or provide information. Poe has also set the story up to be intentionally ambiguous so that the reader is continually suspended between the real and the fantastic.
The Fall of The House of Usher written by Edgar Allan Poe, a short story, is written as a gothic romance. Poe included creepier elements in The Fall of the House of Usher than the rest of his works. A reader could take this story in a literal sense, but others could argue that the story is a gathering of hallucinations induced by the mansion itself. All the residents that stayed in the house never broke away from the core of the family tree. Of all generations of the Usher family, only two survived; twins, and both are falling ill.