Setting

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The story begins at dusk on an autumn day in an earlier time, probably the 19th Century. The place is a forbidding mansion in a forlorn countryside. The mansion, covered by a fungus, is encircled by a small lake, called a tarn, that resembles a moat. A bridge across the tarn provides access to the mansion.

Characters
Narrator, a friend of the master of the House of Usher. When he visits his friend, he witnesses terrifying events. Roderick Usher, the master of the house. He suffers from a depressing malaise characterized by strange behavior. Madeline Usher, twin sister of Roderick. She also suffers from a strange illness. After apparently dying, she rises from her coffin. Servant, domestic in the Usher household. He attends to the narrator's horse. Valet, domestic in the Usher household who conducts the narrator to Roderick Usher's room. Physician, one of several doctors who treat Madeline Usher.

Type of Work
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story of Gothic horror written in first-person point of view. It was first published in September 1839 in Burtons Gentlemans Magazine. In 1840 and 1845, Poe published it with other stories in Tales of the Grotesque and of the Arabesque.

Style and Imagery

Word Choice Poe carefully makes every word, every phrase, every sentence in the story contribute to the overall effect, horror, accompanied by oppressing morbidity and anxious anticipation of terrifying events. Notice, for example, the tenor of the words in the opening sentence of the story. I have underlined those that help establish the mood and atmosphere. During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. Rhythm But besides painting a gloomy picture, the words in the paragraph also beat out a funereal rhythmat first through the alliteration of during, dull, dark, and day, and then through the rhyming suffixes of oppressively, singularly, and melancholy. Alliteration Alliteration occurs frequently in the rest of the story, in such phrases as the following: iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart cadaverousness of complexion feeble and futile struggles

certain superstitious impressions [the s in impressions does not alliterate because it has a z sound] sensation of stupor partially cataleptical character wild air of the last waltz fervid facility of his impromptus impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the "House of Usher." Anaphora As in his other short stories, Poe frequently uses anaphora in "The Fall of the House of Usher." Anaphora is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of a clause or another group of words. Anaphora imparts emphasis and balance. Here are boldfaced examples from "The Fall of the House of Usher": I looked upon the scene before meupon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domainupon the bleak wallsupon the vacant eye-like windowsupon a few rank sedges and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees While the objects around mewhile the carvings of the ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my infancywhile I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. Many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it

Main Theme
The central theme of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is terror that arises from the complexity and multiplicity of forces that shape human destiny. Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances. In Poes story, the House of Usher falls to ruin for the reasons listed under "Other Themes" (below).

Other Themes
Evil Evil has been at work in the House of Usher for generations, befouling the residents of the mansion. Roderick Usher's illness is "a constitutional and family evil . . . one for which he despaired to find a remedy," the narrator reports. Usher himself later refers to this evil in Stanza V of "The Haunted Palace," a ballad he sings to the accompaniment of his guitar music. The palace in the ballad represents the House of Usher. The first two lines of Stanza V are as follows: But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate. Neither of these references identifies the exact nature of the evil. However, clues in the story suggest that the evil infecting the House of Usher is incest. Early in the story, the narrator implies there has been marriage between relatives:

I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. Later, the narrator describes Madeline Usher as her brothers tenderly beloved sisterhis sole companion for long years. He also notes that Roderick Usher's illness "displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations." Isolation Roderick and Madeline Usher seal themselves inside their mansion, cutting themselves off from friends, ideas, progress. They have become musty and mildewed, sick unto their souls for lack of contact with the outside world. Failure to Adapt The Usher family has become obsolete because it failed to throw off the vestiges of outmoded tradition, a failing reflected by the mansion itself, a symbol of the family. The interior continues to display coats-ofarms and other paraphernalia from the age of kings and castles. As to the outside, Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves." Madness Roger and Madeline suffer from mental illness characterized by anxiety, depression, and other symptoms. Catalepsy, a symptom of Madelines illness, is a condition that causes muscle rigidity and temporary loss of consciousness and feeling for several minutes, several hours, and, in some cases, more than a day. Generally, it is not an illness in itself but a symptom of an illness, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, hysteria, alcoholism or a brain tumor. Certain drugs, too, can trigger a cataleptic episode. The victim does not respond to external stimuli, even painful stimuli such as a pinch on the skin. In the past, a victim of catalepsy was sometimes pronounced dead by a doctor unfamiliar with the condition. Apparently, Madeline is not dead when her brother and the narrator entomb her; instead, she is in a state of catalepsy. When she awakens from her trance, she breaks free of her confines, enters her brother's chamber, and falls on him. She and her brother then die together. Besides Roger and Madeline, the narrator himself may suffer from mental instability, given his reaction to the depressing scene he describes in the opening paragraphs. If he is insane, all of the events he describes could be viewed as manifestations of his sick mindillusions, dreams, hallucinations. Mystery From the very beginning, the narrator realizes that he is entering a world of mystery when he crosses the tarn bridge. He observes, "What was itI paused to thinkwhat was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher ? It was a mystery all insoluble." Strange Phenomena The narrator describes the mansion as having a pestilent and mystic vapor enveloping it. He also says Roderick Usher was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted.
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Symbolism
The Fungus-Ridden Mansion: Decline of the Usher family. The Collapsing Mansion: Fall of the Usher family. The Vacant eye-like Windows of the Mansion: (1) Hollow, cadaverous eyes of Roderick Usher; (2) Madeline Ushers cataleptic gaze; (3) the vacuity of life in the Usher mansion. The Tarn, a Small Lake Encircling the Mansion and Reflecting Its Image: (1) Madeline as the twin of Roderick, reflecting his image and personality; (2) the image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceive; though the water of the tarn reflects details exactly, the image is upside down, leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a false reality; (3) the desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world. The Bridge Over the Tarn: The narrator as Roderick Ushers only link to the outside world. The name Usher: An usher is a doorkeeper. In this sense, Roderick Usher opens the door to a frightening world for the narrator. The Storm: The turbulent emotions experienced by the characters.

Foreshadowing
The narrator's reference to catalepsydescribing Madeline Usher as having affections of a partially cataleptical characterforeshadows her burial while she is still alive.
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Madeline as Target of Murder Plot

Although physicians are incapable of curing Madelines illness, they recognize transient catalepsy as one of its symptoms, the narrator reports. This information means that both Roderick and the narrator are aware that Madeline occasionally enters trances resembling rigor mortis. Furthermore, the narrator reports that Madeline has the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face before he and Roderick screw down the coffin lid. One may theorize, then, that Roderick and the narrator are aware that Madeline is still alive when they close her coffin and, therefore, that they are attempting to commit murder. If that is what they are doing, the next question that arises is why. Here is a possible scenario: Roderick, as Madelines twin, is united to her in looks and personality. The narrator even suggests that they communicate through extrasensory perception, pointing out that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them. There is a possibility, too, that they are partners in incest which, in their case, would be a kind of narcissism, or self-love, because they would be making love to their own image. Now to the motives: It may be that Roderick is longing for independence; he does not want to be simply a mirror image or alter ego of his sister. Also, he may wish to end the oppressive guilt he suffers under the burden of the family evil, incest. (See Other Themes, Evil.) It may be, too, that he wants to rid himself of the illness Madeline passes on to him via the sympathies described above. So he decides to eliminate her. He summons his friend (the narrator) to commiserate with him, hearten him, and help him dispose of Madeline while she is in the throes of a cataleptic trance. After awakening from the trance, Madelinerefusing to allow Roderick to dissever their relationshipsummons unearthly strength to break out of her coffin and the vault. Then, after entering her brothers chamber, she thrusts herself upon him 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. Their bodies locked, they go to their doom as a single, pitiful lump of humanity.
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