Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher
Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a story about two twin siblings whose lives are dwindling down due to mental and physical illnesses. Roderick and Madeline Usher, who live alone together in their family mansion, suffer from two different illnesses. Roderick deals with “acuteness of the senses” that causes him to be extremely sensitive to light, sound, taste, and touch. Madeline has more of physical illnesses that lead to pain in her body. Roderick writes a letter to the narrator seeing if he would come to the mansion to be a helping hand. The narrator arrives at the house and is surprised at how creepy looking the house is but goes inside to see his childhood friend. Taking a glance at Roderick and his sister, the narrator can tell the two have been sick and are close to the end.
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Roderick explains to his friend their illnesses and how he believes the house is part of the reason he is dying.
Days go by and Madeline does indeed pass away like Roderick had predicted. The narrator and Roderick would put her in a temporary vault underneath the mansion. A few days later, the two friends couldn’t sleep one night and started hearing noises that sounded as if they were coming from under the mansion. Roderick assumes they buried his sister alive and moments later, the door swings open with Madeline standing there. The bloody sister makes her way to Roderick and throws herself on him, who fell to the ground and would die with his twin. The fearful narrator would run outside and watch as the Usher’s house crumbled into nothing. Poe centered the story’s theme on the decaying of life. The life of the house and its residents were in a state of decay throughout the entire story. The narrator realized the house was already old and worn when he first arrived, then personally witnessed the death of both Roderick and Madeline as well as the house
disintegrating. Poe constructed his descriptive sentences very clear and to the point. He worded each description carefully and made it clear to the reader what he was seeing. “A complete sadness of soul which was no healthy, earthly feeling” (Poe 22). Poe showed what he saw and made it easy to understand his feelings towards it. He mentioned the not healthy feeling he got when looking at the house which supports his theme of decaying life. When Poe described the air the area had, he said, “it rose from the dead” to not only help build the central theme of the story but also to assist the readers understanding of the sickening air (Poe 23). Poe was clear and straight to the point by keeping the descriptions short. Poe’s use of similes in his story played a great factor his descriptions. Roderick told the narrator he thought the house was in control of his life, almost as if the house had a mind of its own. When the narrator first saw the house, he described the windows as “eye-like” (Poe 22). Yes, the narrator could have said it to describe the round shape of the window but could also have said it to aid Roderick’s later claim. Poe used the house as a metaphor for the family as well. Poe says, “they included both the family and the family home” (Poe 23). Poe uses the house as a metaphor for the siblings and made it to where whatever the house went through, the twins went through as well and vice versa. Both, the house and the siblings, were nearing the end of their stages in the story. At the end when Roderick and Madeline died together, the narrator ran out and watched as the house broke into pieces and was gone. Helping with his theme, when one started getting closer to its end, Poe made it to where the other did the same. Coordinating conjunctions were used in the story to show the contrast between two things and to add onto other ideas. Poe wrote, “have I heard it --- but I did not dare to speak!” (Poe 33) to show that although the narrator heard the voice, he did not try and talk after it. Poe used the word “and” to connect two describing sentences. When describing the outside of the house, Poe says “of the dead trees, and of the house and its empty eye-like windows” (Poe 22). Placing the word “and” in between the two clauses connects them into one longer descriptive sentence about the decaying house and its surroundings. The theme of the story is the decaying of life in everything which is a dark and gloomy topic. Poe did a great job in developing a dark/fearful tone that went along with the story’s overall theme. From the first paragraph, when describing the house, Poe made a connection between the dying/lifeless house and gave it creepy and scary characteristics. Poe was able to improve the theme by giving emphasis with his detailed descriptions that helped the readers build mental images while reading. His use of similes, deliberate word choice, and compelling sentence arrangements helped create and retain this particular tone and theme.
Roderick explains to his friend their illnesses and how he believes the house is part of the reason he is dying.
Days go by and Madeline does indeed pass away like Roderick had predicted. The narrator and Roderick would put her in a temporary vault underneath the mansion. A few days later, the two friends couldn’t sleep one night and started hearing noises that sounded as if they were coming from under the mansion. Roderick assumes they buried his sister alive and moments later, the door swings open with Madeline standing there. The bloody sister makes her way to Roderick and throws herself on him, who fell to the ground and would die with his twin. The fearful narrator would run outside and watch as the Usher’s house crumbled into nothing. Poe centered the story’s theme on the decaying of life. The life of the house and its residents were in a state of decay throughout the entire story. The narrator realized the house was already old and worn when he first arrived, then personally witnessed the death of both Roderick and Madeline as well as the house
disintegrating. Poe constructed his descriptive sentences very clear and to the point. He worded each description carefully and made it clear to the reader what he was seeing. “A complete sadness of soul which was no healthy, earthly feeling” (Poe 22). Poe showed what he saw and made it easy to understand his feelings towards it. He mentioned the not healthy feeling he got when looking at the house which supports his theme of decaying life. When Poe described the air the area had, he said, “it rose from the dead” to not only help build the central theme of the story but also to assist the readers understanding of the sickening air (Poe 23). Poe was clear and straight to the point by keeping the descriptions short. Poe’s use of similes in his story played a great factor his descriptions. Roderick told the narrator he thought the house was in control of his life, almost as if the house had a mind of its own. When the narrator first saw the house, he described the windows as “eye-like” (Poe 22). Yes, the narrator could have said it to describe the round shape of the window but could also have said it to aid Roderick’s later claim. Poe used the house as a metaphor for the family as well. Poe says, “they included both the family and the family home” (Poe 23). Poe uses the house as a metaphor for the siblings and made it to where whatever the house went through, the twins went through as well and vice versa. Both, the house and the siblings, were nearing the end of their stages in the story. At the end when Roderick and Madeline died together, the narrator ran out and watched as the house broke into pieces and was gone. Helping with his theme, when one started getting closer to its end, Poe made it to where the other did the same. Coordinating conjunctions were used in the story to show the contrast between two things and to add onto other ideas. Poe wrote, “have I heard it --- but I did not dare to speak!” (Poe 33) to show that although the narrator heard the voice, he did not try and talk after it. Poe used the word “and” to connect two describing sentences. When describing the outside of the house, Poe says “of the dead trees, and of the house and its empty eye-like windows” (Poe 22). Placing the word “and” in between the two clauses connects them into one longer descriptive sentence about the decaying house and its surroundings. The theme of the story is the decaying of life in everything which is a dark and gloomy topic. Poe did a great job in developing a dark/fearful tone that went along with the story’s overall theme. From the first paragraph, when describing the house, Poe made a connection between the dying/lifeless house and gave it creepy and scary characteristics. Poe was able to improve the theme by giving emphasis with his detailed descriptions that helped the readers build mental images while reading. His use of similes, deliberate word choice, and compelling sentence arrangements helped create and retain this particular tone and theme.