Vampires In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Vampires have been an idea or culture used in books, movies, and various other medias for centuries. As humans, we constantly create paranormal explanations to aspects of existence we cannot comprehend or give reasons for. In many of Poe’s short stories, you are left with a strange feeling of uncertainty after finishing. Many scholars have started debating about the endings of some of Poe's stories. Although many theories have been stated, the most logical explanation would be vampires were the cause of the “hauntings” in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe.
A clear piece of evidence of vampires present in “The Fall of the House of Usher would be Roderick’s appearance. His “wasting disease”, as the narrator described, turned
his skin pale, his hair long and weblike, his eyes glossy, and his body skeletal, as this excerpt shows:
The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me.
The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. (Poe 25-26)
The vampiric nature of Roderick’s body is evident just in the shape itself. Vampires in our culture have been known to possess long, thin, stringy hair, along with pale bodies and glossy textured eyes in their appearance. However it is not just the appearance of Roderick Usher that dictates his vampiric nature. These monsters have been noted to experience bipolar mood swings throughout the day, and heightened senses such as smell, taste, touch and sight, similar to Roderick in this quote:
He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could only wear garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror. (Poe
26).
This shows that Roderick’s diet consists of only bland foods as to prevent him from feeling discomfort, such as a vampire would only suck blood and not eat normal food. The smell of flowers and the outside light incapacitate him, which would be logical considering vampires hate well lit areas. Roderick’s hearing was also sharpened to the point where only stringed instruments could soothe him. In addition to the evidence in Roderick’s behavior and appearance, vampires cannot reproduce, and neither can Roderick and Madeline.
Roderick describes the family as being “ancient”. The Ushers have been using incest to secure the family line up until Madeline and Roderick. However, they cannot reproduce in the condition they are in. Madeline has a vampiric appearance similar to Roderick and doctors haven’t been able to diagnose her “wasting disease”, shown in this quote:
The disease if the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis. (Poe 28)
This shows the similarity between Roderick’s disease and Madeline’s. Since they are the last of the family of Usher, they have to reproduce to continue the family line. However, they are physically unable to because of the vampiric nature of their bodies. According to folklore, vampires cannot reproduce under any circumstances, which would be sensible if Madeline and Roderick were vampires. When Roderick becomes upset as Madeline walks past him, he faces the fact that he won’t be able to continue his family’s
heritage. As a result of not being able to procreate, Madeline “dies” and the family line is gone. However vampires are already dead so Madeline “resurrects” from the grave, explained in this quote:
It was the work of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. (Poe 40)
The quote points out that Madeleine wore blood on her white robe. That would make sense because vampires are widely known for sucking blood. The deafening scream in the story the narrator read to Roderick could have been Madeline eating one of the servants. That would explain why they are nervous when escorting the narrator into the Usher home. with a moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe 40)
This shows that Madeline could have eaten Roderick as payback for burying her alive in the vault.