Analysis Of The Vampire Motif In 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher'

In Lyle H. Kendall’s writing of “The Vampire Motif in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’” he relates vampirism to Poe’s story through the Roderick Usher’s letter, the Usher family itself, and the ending of the story. Roderick Usher, main character and the brother of Madeline Usher, writes a letter to the narrator where he tells of “bodily as well as mental disorder” within the family and urges him to visit soon. His interpretation of that is the family’s bodily disorder being the vampirism that affects his sister Madeline Usher and the mental disorder being the loss of his sanity. Poe also writes that a “peculiar sense of temperament” has been “displaying itself through long ages”, to which Kendall uses as evidence. He uses this by showing that