Characterization:

Roderick Usher
In many ways, Roderick Usher is the House of Usher: with his sister, Madeline,
dying, Roderick is all that remains of this ancient house. And both local custom
and his own beliefs link Roderick the man with the physical house in which the
Usher family has long lived, as if they were one and the same. Roderick is an
educated man and an intellectual. He reads widely and plays music. However,
almost the whole of his existence is consumed by his sorrow over his sister's
illness, his own illness, and his resulting mental condition and pervasive fear.
His visiting friend (the narrator) finds Roderick tremendously changed by
what he has gone through. He's very pale, and his eyes shine brightly. He's
very thin, and his hair is wild. Because of his condition, Roderick is extremely
sensitive to external stimuli, which limits what he can eat, hear, see, and smell
without pain. Though Roderick is "onstage" throughout the story and
Madeline largely isn't, Roderick as a character is bound to Madeline. As twins,
they were born together. As adult siblings, they live together. As people who
are functionally two parts of a single whole self, they also sicken and
ultimately die together.

Narrator
The narrator says little directly about himself or his character. He doesn't
share where he came from, what his own family life was like, or even his name.
However, his thoughts, his conversation, and his actions tell readers a great
deal about him. He and Roderick were friends when they were boys but haven't
been close since. Despite this distance, he cares enough to travel to visit
Roderick at his family home. He is at ease with a wide range of books and
music. He also experiences the world through an abstracted lens. This can be
seen in the story's opening paragraphs, when he tries to see the landscape
around the house of Usher in terms of the sublime. The narrator's concern for
Roderick is evident throughout the story, from the fact that he visits, to how he
takes on some of Roderick's nervous condition, and how he tries to care for
Roderick as his condition worsens.
Madeline Usher
Madeline barely exists in the story except in two ways: as Roderick's sister and
double, and as the embodiment of illness. Her doctors don't know what is
wrong with her, only that she is wasting away and is subject to fits of
catalepsy, when she becomes completely rigid and doesn't respond to the
outside world at all. At those moments it is like she is already dead. When she
isn't suffering one of these spells, Madeline is barely more life-like: she drifts
from place to place without speaking to people or seeming to see them, as if
she were a ghost. Madeline's major appearance in the story occurs after she
seems to have died. She is buried alive and then comes back covered with
blood, having clawed her way out of her tomb. She embraces her brother, and
they die together as the house collapses

Literary Elements

Setting
On a dark autumn day at an unnamed time in the past, the narrator rides
toward the House of Usher. At first glimpse he finds the decaying house
disturbing, but he can't explain exactly why. Despite the gloom this sight
inspires in him, the narrator rides on to visit his boyhood friend Roderick
Usher. Roderick had written him a letter asking him to visit. Roderick's letter
has described his suffering from both mental and physical illnesses. The
narrator plans to stay for several weeks.

The narrator and Roderick had been friends when they were boys, but the
narrator doesn't really know Roderick well because his friend had always been
reserved. He does know the Usher family is an ancient one with a reputation for
charity and good taste in art, especially music. However Roderick has no direct
heir or cousins. This family has always had just one direct line of descent.
Because there was just one Usher heir at any given time, local lore had fused
the heir and the Usher family itself with the family's mansion, until it seemed
like they were one and the same.

When the narrator looks up at the house again, he feels a dark and pestilent
atmosphere surrounding the house, seeping out from the house's walls and
from the small lake and rotting trees nearby. After a moment, he tries to
convince himself this impression was a dream and looks at the house again. It
seems very old and strange. As a whole it is intact, and no part of it has
collapsed or crumbled. However, the individual sections are crumbling and
covered with fungus and spider webs. He thinks he can see a jagged crack
running from the roof down the wall and into the lake.

Plot

The story begins with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his
childhood friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a
distant part of the country, complaining of an illness and asking for his help.
As he arrives, the narrator notices a thin crack extending from the roof, down
the front of the house and into the adjacent tarn, or lake.

It is revealed that Roderick's sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into
cataleptic, deathlike trances. Roderick and Madeline are the only remaining
members of the Usher family

The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings and attempts to cheer him
by reading with him and listening to his improvised musical compositions on
the guitar. Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that
he believes the house he lives in to be alive, and that this sentience arises from
the arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it. Further,
Roderick believes that his fate is connected to the family mansion.

Roderick later informs the narrator that Madeline has died. Fearing that her
body will be exhumed for medical study, Roderick insists that she be entombed
for two weeks in the family tomb located in the house before being
permanently buried. The narrator helps Roderick put Madeline's body in the
tomb, whereupon the narrator realizes that Madeline and Roderick are twins.
The narrator also notes that Madeline's body has rosy cheeks, which
sometimes happens after death. Over the next week, both Roderick and the
narrator find themselves increasingly agitated.

A storm begins, and Roderick comes to the narrator's bedroom (which is

situated directly above the house's vault) in an almost hysterical state.
Throwing the windows open to the storm, Roderick points out that the lake
surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark, just as Roderick depicted in
his paintings, but there is no lightning or other explainable source of the glow.

The narrator attempts to calm Roderick by reading aloud from a medieval

romance entitled The Mad Trist, a novel involving a knight named Ethelred
who breaks into a hermit's dwelling in an attempt to escape an approaching
storm, only to find a palace of gold guarded by a dragon. Ethelred also finds a
shining brass shield hanging on a wall. Upon the shield is inscribed:

Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;

Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;[1]

Ethelred swings his mace at the dragon, which dies with a piercing shriek.
When he attempts to take the shield from the wall, it falls to the floor with an
unnerving clatter.

As the narrator reads of the knight's forcible entry into the dwelling, he and
Roderick hear cracking and ripping sounds from somewhere in the house.
When the dragon's death cries are described, a real shriek is heard, again
within the house. As he relates the shield falling from off the wall, a hollow
metallic reverberation can be heard throughout the house. At first, the narrator
ignores the noises, but Roderick becomes increasingly hysterical. Roderick
eventually declares that he has been hearing these sounds for days, and that
they are being made by his sister, who was in fact alive when she was
entombed.

The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline, bloodied from her
arduous escape from the tomb. In a final fit of rage, she attacks her brother,
scaring him to death as she herself expires. The narrator then runs from the
house, and, as he does, he notices a flash of moonlight behind him. He turns
back in time to see the Moon shining through the suddenly widened crack in
the house. As he watches, the House of Usher splits in two and the fragments
sink away into the lake.
Characters:

Roderick Usher

In many ways, Roderick Usher is the House of Usher: with his sister, Madeline,
dying, Roderick is all that remains of this ancient house. And both local custom
and his own beliefs link Roderick the man with the physical house in which the
Usher family has long lived, as if they were one and the same. Roderick is an
educated man and an intellectual. He reads widely and plays music. However,
almost the whole of his existence is consumed by his sorrow over his sister's
illness, his own illness, and his resulting mental condition and pervasive fear.
His visiting friend (the narrator) finds Roderick tremendously changed by
what he has gone through. He's very pale, and his eyes shine brightly. He's
very thin, and his hair is wild. Because of his condition, Roderick is extremely
sensitive to external stimuli, which limits what he can eat, hear, see, and smell
without pain. Though Roderick is "onstage" throughout the story and
Madeline largely isn't, Roderick as a character is bound to Madeline. As twins,
they were born together. As adult siblings, they live together. As people who
are functionally two parts of a single whole self, they also sicken and
ultimately die together.

Narrator

The narrator says little directly about himself or his character. He doesn't
share where he came from, what his own family life was like, or even his name.
However, his thoughts, his conversation, and his actions tell readers a great
deal about him. He and Roderick were friends when they were boys but haven't
been close since. Despite this distance, he cares enough to travel to visit
Roderick at his family home. He is at ease with a wide range of books and
music. He also experiences the world through an abstracted lens. This can be
seen in the story's opening paragraphs, when he tries to see the landscape
around the house of Usher in terms of the sublime. The narrator's concern for
Roderick is evident throughout the story, from the fact that he visits, to how he
takes on some of Roderick's nervous condition, and how he tries to care for
Roderick as his condition worsens.
Madeline Usher

Madeline barely exists in the story except in two ways: as Roderick's sister and
double, and as the embodiment of illness. Her doctors don't know what is
wrong with her, only that she is wasting away and is subject to fits of
catalepsy, when she becomes completely rigid and doesn't respond to the
outside world at all. At those moments it is like she is already dead. When she
isn't suffering one of these spells, Madeline is barely more life-like: she drifts
from place to place without speaking to people or seeming to see them, as if
she were a ghost. Madeline's major appearance in the story occurs after she
seems to have died. She is buried alive and then comes back covered with
blood, having clawed her way out of her tomb. She embraces her brother, and
they die together as the house collapses.

Themes
Sanity versus Insanity
Poe guides readers to speculate about how the characters' minds work (or
don't work). This narrative pressure starts with the narrator's becoming aware
of how the landscape and the House of Usher shape his mood: "with the first
glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit." It
has more power over him than it should. This concern over sanity starts before
he enters this landscape, though, as he reports that Roderick's letter asking
him to visit communicated "nervous agitation." This concern for Roderick's
sanity deepens once he sees his old friend again, as Roderick changes from one
mood to another very quickly and reports some disturbing ideas, such as his
belief about how his family house is shaping his mind.

The narrator questions the sanity of Roderick and Madeline as they slip further
from reality, and he begins to worry about his own mental health. He has
reason to worry. From the moment he enters the area around the house, the
narrator feels it affect his spirit inexplicably. The longer the narrator stays in
the house, the more his own mental state is affected. While the narrator tries to
distract Roderick after Madeline's apparent death, Roderick even calls him a
madman for not recognizing what is going on. Since Roderick may be correct in
this moment, the question of who is crazy and who isn't shifts: maybe
Roderick's senses truly are heightened and the things he hears are real.
Deterioration
Both the literal, physical house of Usher and the dynastic House of Usher are
falling apart. The house's physical condition seems tied to the surrounding
landscape, as if it is covered with fungus and cobwebs, in part because that's
what the setting demands. The house's physical decay is mirrored in the state
of Roderick and Madeline. Both twins are suffering from strange illnesses that
parallel the house's condition. As the house is crumbling away, so Madeline
seems to be wasting away. As the house is discontinuous and contradictory
(according to the narrator's reports in the story's first chapters), so is Roderick
warm and friendly, yet pale as a corpse.

Both Roderick and the house itself fall apart after Madeline's death. Roderick
increasingly loses control of his emotional and mental faculties, growing more
sensitive and nervous. He later dies when Madeline reappears and collapses on
him. The house, in turn, then collapses, falling into the lake.

Fantasy versus Reality

Like the narrator's concern over how the landscape affects his mood, the
question of what is real and what is fantasy emerges early in the story and
continues throughout. The narrator compares his early impressions to the
dreams of an opium smoker. There are multiple moments in the story when
the blurry and confusing question of reality versus fantasy is especially driven
home. For example, early in the story the narrator looks at the literal house of
Usher in its reflection in the lake, rather than looking at it directly, which
results in odd impressions of the house. The narrator's description of the
Usher family home seems impossible. How can a house be everywhere decayed,
but still intact?

Reality seems to blur and shift in several directions, and there are multiple
forces at play in shaping the characters' reality or encouraging escape into
fantasy. Any death in a family can produce extreme emotion. The death of a
sibling and one's last living relative is likely to be even more disturbing.
Furthermore, people can entertain fantasies anywhere, but put them in an
isolated and ancient location like the House of Usher, and they are perhaps
more likely to indulge in fantasy.
The real and imaginary become indistinguishable as Roderick's ballad comes
true and the story of Ethelred mingles with the sounds of Madeline's escape
from the tomb. Though the narrator says he chose the book he's reading
essentially at random—it was the only one at hand—the sounds described in
its pages synchronize with the events completely. The sound effects for the
knight's battle work as the noises Madeline makes when she's fighting her way
out of her vault.

However, given that Madeline has been extremely ill and the vault is sealed
deep underground, the idea that Madeline could have escaped unaided is
probably a fantasy of its own. If the reader understands the story in Jungian,
psychological terms, then there is no "reality" to Madeline's "escape." In this
reading, the story is a Jungian parable, a psychological analysis of Roderick's
mind or perhaps the mind of the narrator, depending upon the identity of the
true "madman" of the story.

CONFLICT

In "The Fall of the House of Usher," the main conflict is focused on Roderick
Usher's fear. Usher lives in a state of anxious paranoia, afraid he will die
because of fear. His friend, the unnamed narrator, is drawn into this fear as he
visits to try to help Usher recover from his mental malady. The narrator is
drawn into Usher's wild fantasies about himself, his home, and his sister,
culminating in Usher's death after the two men apparently bury Usher's sister
alive

Questions to Ponder

1. What feelings does the narrator have when he looks at the House of Usher?
Can he explain what causes these feelings?

2. What is unusual about the history of the Usher family?

3. What are the qualities of Roderick's paintings? What example does the
narrator describe? What do you think it means?
4. In Roderick's song "The Haunted Palace" the narrator says he first perceived
Roderick's awareness of "the tottering of his lofty reason upon her throne."
What does the narrator mean? What story does the song tell? ​ What is the
meaning of this story and what does it suggest about Roderick's mental state?

5. What correspondences take place between the plot of the story the narrator
reads and sounds in Usher's house? What are the causes of these sounds?

Literary and Language Devices

Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is one of the most important literary devices in the novella,
leading readers to a tragic ending from the beginning. An unexpected letter
from a childhood friend whom he has not seen for many years alarms the
narrator, and the whole story seems strange and incomprehensible,
portending something unusual and possibly dangerous.
The narrator's feelings at the sight of the building and the surrounding area
foreshadow frightening events. The dilapidated house, covered with mold and
cobwebs, hints that the Usher family, inseparable from the house itself, is also
coming to an end. The narrator notices a crack in the house that runs from the
roof down, hinting that the aristocratic Usher family will inevitably fall. The
gloomy lake next to the house and the inverted reflection of the house in it
foreshadow the future fall of both the house and the Usher family.
The condition and appearance of the last Ushers also hint at their imminent
demise and the end of the bloodline. Both Ushers are deathly pale and thin,
barely keeping themselves alive. Usher's excessive anxiety and mood swings
suggest a possible psychological disorder, questioning his judgments and
actions and hinting at his spirit's and later his body's decline. Roderick's
well-being shows his fragility and foreshadows his impending death.
Additionally, his words that after his sister's death, he will also be ready to die
predict that both Ushers will soon part with their lives.
Madeline's appearance and the inexplicable fear and anxiety she provokes in
the narrator hint at future terrifying events involving her. Roderick's words
about his sister's deteriorating condition and her ghostly appearance
foreshadow her imminent death and subsequent return to the living world. The
narrator's observation, "I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her
person would thus probably be the last I should obtain—that the lady, at least
while living, would be seen by me no more," hints at future events.
The thunderstorm that erupts after Madeline's burial foreshadows terrifying
events, such as her bloodied appearance in the room with the narrator and
Roderick and the house's collapse. The deteriorating weather serves as a
backdrop for gloomy events and a harbinger of them. During the storm,
Madeline, who has already been buried, appears like a ghost, and Roderick also
dies.

Symbolism
In his prose, Edgar Allan Poe often uses images, sounds, voices, shadows,
objects, and parts of the human body as symbols. Every detail in his novels is
important and can be key to understanding the plot. "The Fall of the House of
Usher" is a prime example where all these elements are present. The story
features a dark setting, mysterious details, and characters tormented by
mysterious illnesses.
The house is not just a physical structure but also has deep symbolism,
reflecting the tragic disharmony of the main characters' lives. It is not an
ordinary, cozy space but a reflection of the inhabitants' state of mind. There is
no joy, light, or comfort here; instead, it evokes feelings of longing and
despair. The house's symbolism is connected to its owners' personalities. The
description of the house serves as a metaphor for Roderick Usher's mental
state. The crack on the facade, noticeable only on closer inspection, symbolizes
Roderick's mental anguish. Thus, the house in the novel is not just a backdrop
for events but a silent witness to the Usher family's extinction.
The mysterious pond is perhaps the most sinister symbol. Described at the
beginning as black and gloomy, it is motionless before the house. But in the
end, it roars like a thousand stormy streams and swallows the wreckage of the
Usher's house. The treachery and unpredictability of water are key features of
this symbolism in psychological drama and art.
The twins are also prominent symbols in the story. The narrator's initial
failure to notice they are twins underscores the ambiguity and uncertainty that
permeate the narrative. The Usher twins symbolize ambiguity and doubt
throughout the story. They also represent contrasting perceptions of the
world: Roderick is overly sensitive, while Madeline is indifferent to her
surroundings. This mirrors the ambiguous history of the Usher bloodline and
the events in the story.
Twins can also symbolize two sides of the same personality, representing the
physical and psychological states of one person. Their status as twins is crucial
to the narrative, as they embody the last member of the Usher family in
different forms. Madeline symbolizes the family's physical decline, while
Roderick represents psychological decline. Their tight bond suggests that the
psychological and physical conditions of a person are intertwined, with the
decline of one leading to the inevitable decline of the other.
Poe also uses artistic details as symbols. The story's atmosphere is created not
only through a gloomy interior but also by combining two colors—red and
black. Black characterizes the gloom and neglect inside the building, with dim
lighting. Red is usually associated with blood. The blood-red moon in the story
indicates the characters' deaths and adds a fantastical element to the novella.
The black and red color scheme of the interior contrasts with Roderick Usher's
deathly pallor. Black symbolizes night, darkness, horror, and death; red
symbolizes madness, tragedy, blood, and a feverishly burning life; white
symbolizes death, illness, suffering, and emptiness. The combination of black
and red suggests a funeral.
All these colors have strong energy potential, and their combination within
one artistic space indicates internal energy overstrain. This is inherent in
Roderick Usher, who sings funeral songs, paints gloomy pictures, and
considers himself one with his surroundings. His white skin symbolizes his
impending death and the emptiness that will follow the last Usher's demise.
At the end of the story, the appearance of a crimson-red full moon, a ferocious
gust of a hurricane, and the sinking of the wreckage into a black lake might
suggest that all this seemed real to the frightened narrator, whose mind could
not withstand the daily stress and succumbed to the horror.

Imagery
Poe relies heavily on visual imagery to create a frightening and oppressive
impression on the reader. The image of the house and its surroundings is full
of gloomy details that the narrator sees as he approaches the Usher estate. Poe
describes "a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn" to immerse readers
in a gloomy and oppressive atmosphere from the story's beginning. The image
becomes more sinister as the author adds details about the house and the lake
next to it. The narrator sees "bleak walls," "vacant eye-like windows," and
"decayed trees," which make him feel "a sense of insufferable gloom." He
describes in detail the lichen, mold, and cobwebs covering the house, creating
a vivid picture of a decaying and near-collapsed house.
Poe uses the same vivid epithets and details to depict the main characters,
particularly Roderick Usher. Describing him, he writes of "a cadaverousness of
complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison"; and "the
now ghastly pallor of the skin." These descriptions create an image of
inevitable decline and death. The ancient house is in a dilapidated state, with
its pale walls paralleling its owner, Roderick, who looks more like a shadow or
ghost than a living human being. The author uses different colors to convey
symbolism, set the mood, and create frightening images. The pale Roderick,
the black decoration of the house, and the red moon create contrasting images
in the reader's mind.
The author also uses auditory imagery to impact the reader and evoke the
narrator's fear and horror. For example, he describes Roderick Usher's voice
and speaking manner to convey his anxious and even manic state. Poe writes,
"His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the animal spirits
seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic concision." This shows
that Usher's psychological state is unstable and ambiguous, causing the
narrator growing uneasiness. Poe compares the impression of Roderick's
speech to that of a person addicted to alcohol or opium, creating an image of
an obsessive person.
Describing the burial, Poe writes, "Its immense weight caused an unusually
sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges." Mentioning the iron door's
weight creates an image of a crypt imprisoning the deceased Madeline once
and for all. As the story gains momentum, and the narrator tries to calm
Roderick by reading to him, he suddenly hears "the echo (but a stifled and dull
one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound." The narrator's paranoia
and anxiety grow, and this sound throws him off balance, foreshadowing
something terrifying. The sound of an intensifying storm, coupled with
distant, frightening noises, creates a sense of increasing fear and horror
experienced by the narrator in the House of Usher. The climax of this scene is a
"low and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual
screaming or grating sound" followed by "a distinct, hollow, metallic, and
clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation" reaching the narrator's
ears, leading to Madeline's appearance. The shrill sound preceding her
appearance evokes chilling horror in the reader.
 Unreliable Narrator
In the story, the narrator's name and any information about him are not
disclosed. The reader also does not know where the narrator comes from or
where exactly his friend lives, as he does not reveal these details. The narrator
selectively reports on Roderick, providing only his subjective opinion about the
house's appearance and Roderick and Madeline's looks. Besides his initial
subjectivity, the narrator is also influenced by the house's atmosphere the
longer he stays there.
The house's decoration, colors, dim lighting, and smells—all put pressure on
the narrator, causing claustrophobia and even paranoia, aggravated by his
interactions with the anxious and melancholic Roderick Usher. Increasing
paranoia and anxiety affect how the narrator perceives events and characters,
describing various mysterious sounds and phenomena around him, similar to
the supernatural. Using an unreliable narrator allows Poe to develop a sense of
uncertainty, mystery, and anxiety, forcing readers to question the reality of the
events described.

Personification
Poe uses personification through various elements in the story to make them
direct participants and enhance the oppressive horror felt by the narrator.
Besides elements of nature, Poe pays great attention to the house itself, which
appears in the novella's title. The house is presented not only as a symbol of
the Usher family, inseparable from its inhabitants, but also as a separate
character.
The building has "eye-like windows," and its first appearance already scares
the narrator, causing anxiety and melancholy. Usher talks about the house's
special power and personifies it, saying it seems to breathe and live its own life.
He also mentions the mansion's ability to influence its inhabitants, isolating
the structure and making it a creature of its own will. Descriptions of rooms,
objects, and the Usher mansion's interior create the feeling that the house
seems to live and breathe by itself, like a living being.
Symbolism
Eyes

In Western culture, the eyes are the most symbolic sense organ, and sight the
most symbolic sense. An old saying claims the eyes are the window to the soul,
and in many ways, contemporary psychology confirms this. The eyes
communicate a person's emotional state, and changes in perceived
illumination relate to changes in mood, as in the idea of being bright-eyed.
When the light goes out of someone's eyes, they become sad, depressed, or, in
the end, they die.

In this story, the first times the narrator mentions eyes, it is the House of
Usher's "eye-like windows." These two mentions in the first page personify
the house: before Roderick suggests the house has an intelligence, the narrator
has already done so using images. The narrator notes these eyes are "vacant,"
which suggests this intelligence is disturbed in some way.

The narrator comments explicitly and repeatedly on Roderick's eyes. When he

first arrives at the house, the narrator finds Roderick's eyes particularly
luminous, indicating a strong or special spirit. However, once Madeline dies,
the light goes out of Roderick's eyes. At the very least this symbolizes a blow to
his spirit, and may be a kind of spiritual death foreshadowing his actual bodily
death.
House of Usher

The narrator explicitly tells readers that the peasants who live around the
House of Usher have fused the physical house, the single line of inheritance,
and the family into a unified whole. The living Ushers are the house of Usher,
and the House of Usher is the house of Usher. They are one and the same.

Descriptions of the physical house, which start in the first paragraph, are also
descriptions of the House of Usher: like their house, the family is isolated and
melancholy and may exist beyond the reach of reason.

Writing on archetypal symbolism in this story, or the inclusion of universal

characters, symbols, themes, or settings such as the hero or good versus evil,
for example, psychology professor Colin Martindale also suggests a second
symbolic meaning for the house (and notes that Poe makes this one explicit in
the story as well, through his use of "The Haunted Palace"): the house stands
for Roderick's mind or personality. In this reading, the narrator is trying to
help Roderick come to peace with the content of his mind, which includes his
twin sister, who is an example of the anima, or the unconscious. The decay and
eventual collapse of the house then become the decay and eventual collapse of
Roderick's mind.

Weather

From the start of this story to the end, weather plays a major role. The narrator
mentions the weather in the opening line, commenting on how low and
oppressive the clouds are. They limit vision, and so limit his understanding of
the house and situation. When the narrator wakes up in the night after
Madeline's death, Roderick opens the window to reveal a strange storm that is
almost physically impossible. At the same time, there is a whirlwind blowing
intensely and clouds so low they touch the house's towers. Poe here taps into
the longstanding symbolic association between the sky and the spiritual realm:
the term "heaven" or "heavens" is used for both. The weather seems to reflect
the spiritual turmoil of the characters.
Throughout the story, but especially once Madeline dies and Roderick enters
an agitated state, the weather outside the house mirrors rising chaos inside the
house. The distinction between the two fades, and the external weather
becomes interwoven with the emotional reality within the house. When the
narrator wakes in the night, he listens for sounds during pauses in the storm.
When Madeline finally returns from the vault, the house breaks apart and the
weather enters (and destroys) the house. These powerful emotions are no
longer at bay: they completely overwhelm Roderick, until he collapses and only
the storm is left.

Plot Diagram

Exposition

The narrator arrives by horseback at the House of Usher. Roderick Usher

wrote a letter to the narrator to come and visit him for a short time to help
him overcome an agitation of his soul that he has been experiencing. The
narrator observes that house seems sickly, and Usher himself is pale and
sickly. The state of the house seems to be coinciding with the state of
Roderick Usher.

Conflict

Usher reveals that his twin sister Madeline is dying. She passes a few
weeks later, and Usher decides to keep her body in a vault in one of the
walls while he makes plans for her burial. He also wants to protect her from
being studied by the doctors. The narrator notices that Madeline’s cheeks
and chest are still flushed. Usher’s appearance and demeanor worsen after
Madeline’s death.
Rising Action

Shortly after Madeline was placed in the vault, the narrator begins to hear
strange noises in the house. One night, in the middle of a terrible storm,
Usher comes to the narrator’s bed chamber and they open the window to a
terrifying atmosphere with low-hanging clouds and fog that surround the
house. The narrator begins to read to Usher to calm him down.

Climax

As the narrator reads through the story, the sounds he describes in the story
begin to echo in the house. When he reaches the point where Ethelred, the
hero, slays the dragon, there is a scream in the house. Usher tips over his
chair and begins rocking back and forth. Usher whispers that he’s been
hearing sounds from his sister’s coffin and he fears he might have buried
her alive. The door flies open, and Madeline is standing there, covered in

blood.

Falling Action

Madeline leaps upon Roderick and dies. Roderick also dies, likely from
shock and fear. The narrator flees the house.

Resolution

As the narrator watches, he sees the house collapse and disappear into the
ethereal fog and waters. Eventually, the house is completely gone.
The Author

Edgar Allan Poe (né Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an
American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his
poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the
macabre. He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism
and Gothic fiction in the United States and of early American literature. Poe
was one of the country's first successful practitioners of the short story, and is
generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. In
addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of
science fiction. He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living by
writing alone, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career.
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