Also, Roderick suffers a mental disorder and his sister, Madeline, has anemia, which these diseases could be considered an evil because of the harm that it brings. According to Professor Abby Werlock, “evil and discord possess the house” and it is impossible for them to escape the surrounding evil. Roderick and Madeline suffer from illness and Roderick, himself, even knows that evil floats throughout. With the evil brewing inside of the House of Usher’s, the family lineage will soon cease to
Though Poe 's stories were dark and gloomy, he always included nature in his work. In this story; he talked about the crooked trees, the rain, etc. In conclusion, nothing says "romanticism" like one of Edgar Allan Poe 's tales. He mastered the characteristics of approximately 100 years of romanticism in less than half of that time. That is why he is now a very known and acclaimed author.
The crack along the side of the house not only reinforces the theme of the destruction of man. The crack also helps to show the function of setting; background for action by how the family is breaking apart because of tensions between them and Roderick’s desire for the Usher name to end. The cracking of the house could also be foreshadowing of the corruption of Roderick when he buried Madeline alive to end the Usher family name. The cracking could also be an example of background for action when Madeline escaped, and cracked herself. She became psychotic and attacked Philip then killed Roderick as the house was engulfed by flames.
Upon his arrival to the House, the narrator remarks on Roderick’s radical physical degeneration. “I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher!” (Poe 16). Roderick resembles nothing of the joyous boy the narrator knew in his youth. Both the Usher twins are devolving; Madeline similarly suffers from “a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person” (Poe 18).
The first effect the narrator brings to the story is when he describes how the weather was the day he arrived at the house of Usher. He says, "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,"¦. "The narrator also says that the plant life around the property is not kept up with decaying trees and single stemmed sedges around the perimeter of the estate. The setting in the house is described by the author as "I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity- an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn- a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernable and leaden-hued." This description given by the author shows how the up keep of the house is not that great which gives the house an even scarier effect of horror.
The “Web-like softness” of the hair of Roderick Usher and the “fine web-work” on the fungus which hung from the house is one of the mere similarities of the two (The Fall 24, 25). The fungus growing on the house, which is an obvious sign of decay, is mirrored in the image of Usher showing the man’s rapid disintegration. The house fell “sullenly and silently” just as Usher had when he was taken by his sister. Therefore, “Roderick’s Characterization reinforces the
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the author Edgar Allen Poe uses the euphemism “the family lay in direct line of descent” (Poe 1) to show the meaning of incest has on the entire story that which causes guilt, desperation, and homicide. The history of incest in the Usher family and the incest Roderick and Madeline are guilty of causes Roderick to try to dispose of his guilt. He expresses to the narrator that he wishes to destroy this malady he describes as a “constitutional and family evil, and one of which he despaired to find a remedy” (Poe 3). Though the reader could assume that Roderick just talks about the physical illness he possesses that is described. Roderick tries to bury his own personal guilt – his sister, “a tenderly beloved
They are the last two of the family of Ushers. The house itself splits in two and gets sucked into the ground. His fear leads to the what was left of the Usher family to die and the family coming to the end of their time. Fear can lead to a person scaring themselves, which leads them to die by the craziness the fear causes, is a gigantic idea in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Edgar Allen Poe.
Edgar Allen Poe was able to relate common lifestyle to his stories creating people to have some relation towards some of his stories. This was included in the article by saying “Poe related most stories to common basis without following into the fantasy side of reality as in a Tall Tale Heart that could commonly be revised as a crazed man that causes a homicide over an eye showing a situation that could happen in the real world” (Edgar Allen). The world we live in can be related to his stories causing a sense of actuality towards the connection of both these realities. Furthermore, other than the horror factor being included into society, there is the other topic being detective genres that also take a part in Edgar Allan Poe’s
Romanticism confirms that savage is noble and childhood is good. Second feature is strong feelings, senses, and emotions. Romanticism confirms that knowledge is gained by intuition. Third feature is awe of the nature; Romanticism confirms awe of the nature in language, art, and the sublimity by the connection with the nature. Fourth feature is importance of imagination and it is important because romantics believed in individual imagination as critical authority.