The Fall of the House of Usher

“The Fall of the House of Usher” and many of Edgar Allan Poe’s writings have many similar distinguishing characteristics. There are always aspects of evil, death, miracles and mirror representation. In this particular work, different art in the form of a poem, a painting and a novel are introduced because their central idea runs parallel to that of “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edger Allan Poe introduces three characters, each being a unique person with a distinct personality, yet tied together by the same type of mental disorder. All of them suffer from insanity, yet each responds differently. Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane and continues her life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears to realize his mental state and struggles very hard to hold on to his sanity. The narrator, whose name is never given, slowly contracts the disorder, and so wants to deny what he sees, hears, and senses. He, in the end, escapes from the illness because he flees from the house.

Throughout the story, Poe uses life-like characteristics to give the “decaying house” a supernatural power. The windows appear to be vacant and eye-like. The absence of air is used to portray the absence of God in and around the house. The house is reflected into a “black and lurid tarn.” These powers eventually help the house treat its inhabitants.

The narrator, primarily, come to the house to help Usher ease his suffering. Instead his actions only reinforce the situation, Usher was so desperately trying to escape from. Everything in the house seems to remind Usher of his past, present, and possibly his future. Usher is slowly losing himself and this is probably why he cannot sleep. He sees his life as a nightmare, one that he wants to escape. Therefore, in this story, death is not perceived as a bad act, especially in Usher’s case. Death can for fill his desire to escape, it can award him with freedom. Madeline fails to realize this and frees Usher from restraints.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, fear is “a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.” Fear can be beneficial by restraining us from actions that lead to danger. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" revolves around fear, and portrays the importance of facing and overcoming our fears. "I feel that I must inevitably abandon life and reason together in my struggles with some fatal demon of fear." Roderick is overwhelmed by the presence of fear, and this constant presence caused his illness. His failure to overcome his fears makes him sick, which in terms kills him.

The different forms of art introduced in the story reflect the Ushers themselves along with their inseparable relationship with the house. A wise-man once said that “behavior is taught.” Societies exist only because one can perceive what is known as a society. In other words, humans are all combinations of their peers. One’s existence is a piece, added with many other pieces, the sum creating a human. In “The Fall of the House of Usher," the house (house of Usher) crumbles indicating that neither, Roderick or Madeline, can live without the other.