Mahla Masjedi

English litreture
The title of the story is “The fall of the house of the usher”. Which contains two meaning and
foreshadows two of the main events that is about to take place at the end of the story you read,
the ending and death of the last of the usher bloodline and the destruction and fall of the house
itself.
The story begins with the unnamed and clueless narrator. Characteristically, he can be said that
he is as unaware as the reader about what’s going to happen. The narrators character can be taken
to be unreliable, since he is biased about the fact that everything that happens to him in this story,
could be explained by pure logic. In other words he does not believe in involvement of any
supernatural element in the events that he just went through. So we as the reader somehow can’t
take his words for it. It’s like how in one of other story of Poe, “the black cat” the narrator wants
to make himself believe that what he just experienced was not of a dream “or perhaps a
nightmare” or worse, the actual happening of what he fears the most: the unknown.
After the narrator arrives at the sight of “the house of the usher” he can’t help but notice the
decaying appearance of the mansion. As the story foreshadows the future of the house and its
inhabitants – it is decaying and is on the verge of death.
As the story goes, the narrator guides the reader in a journey of concerns slowly turning into
serious anxiety about the situation of his boy hood friend and the mysteries of the last two
remaining members of the Usher family. Just as he observes and retells what he sees and
understands, the reader can read between the lines of his description and excuses that something
is definitely wrong.
Personally, I don’t think that the character of the narrator has any more elements to be explored,
because he was kind of written that way, he was written to be someone who can be everyone –
just like the narrator in the most dangerous game- he is simply not the main character, he is just a
pawn in the horrifying game of psychological horror game that is about to take place.
As for Roderick, the owner and the last survivor of the ushers, and the protagonist(?) of this
story; he is not at his best when the story is taking place and we get to meet him. He is the person
who sets the rising action of the story, by sending a letter of summoning to his childhood friend.
After the first glimpse at Roderick in his house the narrator realizes that he is no longer the man
he used to be – or he might have, because the narrator was not in touch with him after their
childhood ended. All we know, that Roderick looks very ill having gained hyper senses. As the
narrator observes the symptoms of this mysterious disease, he can’t help but notice the fact that
his friend might have lost his mind as well as his health.
Unlike the narrator, Roderick seems to be obsessed with the idea of the house having sentience
and wielding evil power. And he thinks that those evil forced are the ones who made him and his
sister sick. So we can see the contrast of the characteristic between the two person that are in the
center of our story. One seems to not have any believe in the unknown and the other seems to
have too much of it. This suggestion of a blurred reality and fantasy is what keeps the suspense
in the story and keeps the reader wondering and questioning- even after the story ends- whether
there actually was an evil force in the story or everything was explainable, by a common human
logic.
the actual horror elements of the story, however, is connected to Madeline, Roderick’s twin
sister. The entire existence of this character is mysterious. Since even the narrator doesn’t seem
to have known her enough. The only information we get of this character and her being, is
through the words of his twin brother, Not herself. She is so lost in the shadow of her twin
brother that she doesn’t even get to determine her being alive or dead. And even the narrator,
despite seeing enough evidence of Madeline being still alive while buried, rather to just take
Roderick’s word for it. (The fact that the narrator actively participates in the action of
presumable murder be murder by just simply believing the person who is clearly out of his mind
–at least by his profound skepticism, sheds more light on the unreliable narrator theory.)
when it comes for the metaphor and symbols in this story, there are a lot of them but I elected a
few worth mentioning. The most important of which is the house itself. The detailed and
excellent descriptions of the house aligned with Roderick and the narrator’s opinions, makes the
house of the usher a character of its own in this story. Just as the title of the story- with having
two meaning just as I said in the beginning- suggests, the house is a metaphor of the usher
family. The main building, resembling the residents mental and emotional state in its decaying
and creepy atmosphere, mostly points to Roderick. And the image of the house in the water that
the narrator describes as he approaches the house of the usher in the beginning of the story,
foreshadows the presence of Madeline.
Which is in my opinion quite fascinating about this story. Writers, especially male classic artists
tend to write shallow shells of a character for women in their stories and they’d often do it
without having the intention to do so. In this story, the only female character does seem to have
no personality and characterization throughout the story be defined by her sickness and
role as an object of fear and mystery, but Poe subtly tells us that this element was
intentional and/or useful for the story. Just as I mentioned that the lack of information and
realism in this character is what makes her final act and the ending of the story, shocking.
just like the reflection of the house in the water is nothing but a picture of the actual house -on a
verge of destruction, but still standing, just like Fredrick’s mentality. Madeline’s character may
look the same as her twin and her illness, despite being one of the only things we know about her
entire being is not taken that seriously-even though her brother says that she is way more sick
than him, the narrator does not try to do her any acts of kindness just as he does for Fredrick-, but
her presence contains ominous elements for the entirety of her presence in the story. And
although making shallow and unrealistic female characters just for thickening the plot is never
acceptable, Poe does kind of repay her poor characterization by turning it into a metaphor.
As the underlying massage of Madeline live burial could be seen a metaphor for the
restrictive roles forced on women in that times, and in that times stories as well.
And also the final act of her breaking free oh her grave and putting an end the
person who was supposed to be the main personality of the ushers, could be
thought of as an act of protest to this matter.
As for other metaphors in this story, we can point out the poem. The poem in the story is a
complete allegory to the story as a whole. the first part talks about the glory of once perfect
image of the usher family, similar to the narrator’s descriptions of what the usher family once
was. and then, in the second, 3rd and 4th part, the poem slowly starts to reveal that the “haunted
house” is filled with dark mythical creatures and incidents that could be resembled with the
mental state of Roderick’s mind and the probable dark secrets of the usher family, and how the
great image of the mansion and the family is now “withered”. while the rest of the poem is again
a foreshadowing to the ending of the story and the fall and death of the ushers and their mansion.
One other element to be mentioned in this story is that the narrator reads just before the climax of
happens. Similar to the poem, the story contains similar vibe and atmosphere of the story. This is
also a very interesting part of the story- in my opinion. Because if we consider the story within
the story as a metaphor for it, we are left with the question of the nature and identity of the actual
evil in the story. Because when the reveal of the connection between what the narrator is reading
and what is about to happen is proven to the reader by the narration, the story brings Madeline
back from her grave. The story is left off where the hero finally escapes the evil that had
contained him and is headed to kill the villain once and for all. And what happens at the end is
not what we were promised. The writer gives most of the ominous and horror elements of the
story to Madeline just to make us wonder whether her brother was the one we should have been
worried about all along.
The ending of the story and the underlying massage of the story within it, makes the reader
question Fredrick’s intentions for inviting the narrator to their house or the narrator’s morals for
not suspecting anything while claiming that there were no supernatural elements involved and a
ton of other things that are worth exploring and discussed on, on their own pace.

The end