Symbolism In The House Of Usher

The symbolism in “The House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe creates a connection between the house and the Usher family. When the narrator is examining the outside of the mansion he notes “a 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” (3). Then at the end when Madeline is revealed to be alive, she “fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother” and attacks him (15). So the crack in the mansion symbolized the division of Madeline and her brother, and right after she attacks him, the “ fissure rapidly widened” (15), which represents the increased separation of Madeline and Usher. Madeline then dies and kills Usher while the narrator flees from the mansion. He looks back and the “mighty walls rushing asunder—there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters—and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly” (15). The House of Usher was absorbed into the moat leaving no trace like when the two remaining Ushers die and
Soon after arriving the narrator notes “the lady Madeline passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared” (6). It’s like Madeline is an apparition passing by, and only the narrator could see her. Through her ghost like description, it unsettles the reader, and places them in the mindset that something unnatural is going on. Then, during the storm that night, “all terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation” (12). The glowing gas further accentuates the eerie and bizarre atmosphere. By having both occurrences be possible, Poe portrayed the house as supernatural but not not quite