Mental Illness In Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe was an extraordinary author whose horror and mystery stories leave an impression on readers even today. In some of Poe’s works, the narrator’s thoughts and actions make the reader question the narrator’s sanity. Two good examples are Poe’s poem “The Raven” and his short story “The Black Cat”; there is plenty of evidence to support that both of the narrators are not completely sane. In Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Black Cat,” both narrators exhibit symptoms of mental illness, including hallucinations, illogical thinking, mood swings, and substance abuse.

In the story, “The Fall of The House of Usher”, there are many mysterious happenings that go on throughout the story between the characters Roderick Usher and the narrator. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe uses themes such as madness and insanity to connect the house back to Roderick Usher. In the “Fall of The House of Usher”, the narrator goes through many different experiences when arriving to the house. The narrator’s experiences start out as almost unnoticeable in the beginning, turn into bigger ones right before his eyes, and end up becoming problems that cause deterioration of the mind and the house before the narrator even decides to do anything helpful for Roderick and his mental illness. In “The Fall of The

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, the Transcendentalism movement became a seminal force in literature. Originating in the New England region of America, transcendentalism emphasized the spiritual over the corporeal, and the power of individual intuition over organized doctrine as a means of attaining true spirituality. But one of the most notable writers of this period, Edgar Allan Poe, made no secret of his disdain for the tenets of transcendentalism. He mocked transcendentalist ideals by clearly expressing anti-transcendentalist themes in one of his most well known works, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Although this work openly exhibits Poe's contempt for transcendentalism as a literary movement, it was nonetheless

“If a fear cannot be articulated, it can't be conquered” written by Stephen King himself from his novel “Salem’s Lot”, stating if you cannot express fear, it can't be conquered. Unfortunately in the short stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Edgar Allan Poe, and “House Taken Over”, by Julio Cortázar, haunted houses caused the characters from both stories to get tugged into fearful situations that they don't even know themselves why that is. As both stories progress, the fear of the unknown tends to grow stronger the more the characters try to ignore it. All the running and hiding leads to the character's own downfalls. Although, both stories fall into different genres they do share the same idea; the fear of the unknown. Cortázar

While most of the primary characters in the American Gothic cannon are members of the aristocracy, their societally dominant position does not guarantee them satisfying lives. The focus of this analysis will be the portrayal of the individual as it relates to his or her economic status: does having wealth mean that upper class characters are more likely to lead fulfilling lives than middle/lower class characters? Through a close reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby,” and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, readers can clearly see a pattern of social commentary in which the members of the aristocracy are—in general—the most restricted,

Dramatic stories of people with mental health conditions appear pervasively in almost every media outlet, beginning generations ago, and continuing steadily in modern society. These themes--of violent madmen, hysterical witches, insane criminals, and every other generalization of the mentally ill--perpetuate the harmful misrepresentation and stigmatization of mental illness, which is a common element in modern everyday life. One of the greatest factors contributing to this situation today is the presence of said misconceptions in printed media--not just modern works, but also the appraised classics, such as William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth and Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. Even as centuries pass and contemporary society advances, it is evident that ultimately, as the reader analyzes both Macbeth and Frankenstein, definitive British literature strengthens the negative stigma surrounding mental health, as it similarly misrepresents the legitimate issues regarding mental illness.

These two short stories have much in common when it comes down to it. Things such as both are a form of gothic literature, moods, etc. However, they do have their differences. These two short stories settings are alike in some ways, but also very different in many ways as well. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is by a famous author known as Edgar Allan Poe. The genre of it is Horror Fiction and Gothic Fiction. “House Taken Over” is by an author known as Julio Cortázar. The genre of that is Fiction. Both stories are a form of Fiction. In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, a narrator visits his childhood friend, and things start to get very gloomy and dull. In “House Taken Over”, a brother and sister are living in a huge mansion, only for it to be taken over by a mysterious spirit. These two short stories get very intense to say the least, so stay tuned to read about what happens in both of these stories!

The human imagination is a powerful tool that sometimes is very hard to control, if it can be controlled at all. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe uses imagination as a key tool to make the story come to life.

In Bly’s time, mental illnesses were not taken seriously. Bly described the asylum she was admitted to as overcrowded, cold, and dirty (ch. 7). It defeated the purpose of trying to give extra attention to those in need. It was easy to get admitted into an institution, but nearly impossible to make it out because the treatment was not treatment.

A Sense of Tension in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

The house of Usher is the setting for a nightmarish sequence of events. Our narrator is asked to come and help his friend through his difficult times. Once the narrator arrives, however, it is clear that both his friend Roderick and his house are out of sorts in more than one way. The narrator describes Roderick’s condition with difficulty, informing us that there are no words capable of actually detailing to the full extent his friend’s condition. This is just the first of many instances in the tale which suggest something faulty going on in the mind of our narrator.

Poe artfully depicts a foreboding theme of unexplainable illness in his short stories. This theme is ever present in the House of Usher and Tell-Tale heart. As a reader watching the characters grapple with an incurable, undiagnosable illness is maddening, but captivating as well. This theme overlaps with another fictional character Norman Bates from the show “Bates Motel”, which was inspired by Robert Bloch’s novel “Psycho”. I intend to periodically relate Norman and his life to the narrators in The Fall of House of Usher to show how they personally deal with mental illness, how their familial relationships are affected, and how the inability to treat or cure this problem affects the psyche of these characters making for a phenomenal piece of gothic literature.

Edgar Allan Poe used fear to attract his readers into his gothic world. Poe realized that fear intrigues as well as frightens, and sew it as a perfect motif for many of his stories, particularly The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe emphasized the mysterious, desolate, and gloomy surroundings throughout the story to set up the fear that got the reader involved. Then he extended the fear to the characters in order to reveal the importance of facing and overcoming fear. Poe suggested in the story that the denial of fears can lead to madness and insanity. This has clearly shown through the weakening of Roderick Usher's mind and the resulting impact on the narrator of the story.

Edgar Allan Poe was a unique man that most people could not understand. Many recognize that he is a talented writer with a very strange and dark style. One of his most well known short stories is “The Fall Of The House Of Usher.” Many argue the different meanings of this story and how it is symbolic to his life. Poe was a very confused individual who needed to express himself, he accomplished this through the short story of “The Fall Of The House Of Usher.” Through this story, Edgar was trying to show the fear he had for him self, he did not understand him self so therefore Poe ran from his own personality and mind. This story enables the reader to take a look at Poe’s mind and

The purpose of psychoanalytic criticism is to offer the reader a better understanding of a literary piece by the analysis and interpretation of certain aspects through psychoanalytical theory. The aim, as is the case with all critical approaches, is to go beyond the surface structure and into the deep structure of a text, this time through the study of the psyche and by looking for patterns which are significant and convey meaning. The focus of such an approach is either the author, the intricate mechanisms of his own mind, which explain how and why the text came into being, or, in some cases, the characters, whose psyches can shed further light on the content.