The Fall Of The House Of Usher By Edgar Allan Poe

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator is perpetually conscious of his physical location within the House of Usher, and describes the story’s actions in terms of their setting and location. Moreover, the narrator is particularly attentive to the characters’ movements, and the ways in which Roderick, Madeline, and he move from one space to another. However, this movement ultimately occurs in one direction, as the characters move deeper into the labyrinthine mansion until they reach Madeline’s tomb. However, as the setting becomes increasingly interiorized, outside spaces nonetheless attempt to disrupt this interiority. Likewise, those on the inside display an equal desire to force their way out, and
Language thus correlates with the narrator’s movement, as the narrator’s descriptions become increasingly menacing and ethereal as he moves closer to the mansion. For example, while the narrator is on route to the mansion, he states, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day […] I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country” (Poe 675). While the narrator establishes the gloomy atmosphere that will pervade the entire story, his description as vague and abstract, as the story begins in the absence of setting, or rather, with the potential for setting. However, the story’s somber atmosphere heightens once the narrator comes within view of mansion, as “with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded [his] spirit” (675). This perceptible shift in language establishes a distinct boundary between the house and its surrounding environment; while dreary weather and landscape induces a feeling of melancholy in the narrator, the House of Usher engenders a much more menacing foreboding and fear. Moreover, the house produces a sense of the sublime– an obscure, yet familiar, terror that inhibits the mind’s faculties of reason and is often associated with the gothic or supernatural. (Burke 53) The mansion thus carries
Unlike the narrator, who is surprised and horrified to see Madeline, Roderick is expectant of Madeline’s return, claiming, “I hear it, and have heard it. Long– long– long– many minutes, many hours, many days” (Poe 687). However, the reader soon learns why Roderick is expectant of his sister’s return; unlike the narrator, who likely believes Madeline to be a ghost or figment of his imagination, Roderick believes her to be alive, as he states, “We have put her living in the tomb!” (687). However, whether Madeline is alive or returns as a ghost has been debated among Poe scholars. For example, while the majority of critics agree with Roderick and believe that Madeline managed to survive and escape her entombment, some, such as John S. Hill, “believe it is what Roderick in his madness thinks he has done” (Hill 59). That said, whether Madeline is alive or not is irrelevant, as Roderick believes– and in some ways wills– her to be alive nonetheless. In doing so, Roderick further demonstrates his desire to escape the interiority of his madness and maintain his faculties of reason. While it is unlikely that Madeline would have survived for over a week in her tomb, it is in many regards more reasonable than her returning as an apparition. Roderick, in his desire to escape madness, therefore makes the more reasonable and realistic choice.