Usher's Metamorphosis

Most immediately, Roderick’s hair is described as “wild” and of “Arabesque expression,” which the narrator is unable to connect “with any simple idea of humanity” (Poe 2003).  Similarly, Roderick’s manner strikes the narrator with “an incoherence – an inconsistency,” and his voice is compared to that of “the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium” (Poe 2003), all of which mark his social difference as not understandable.  After the entombment of his sister, Roderick’s external madness intensifies: he roams with “unequal, and objectless step,” has a “more ghastly hue” of face, a “species of mad hilarity in his eyes,” a “restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor,” and speaks in a “gibbering murmur” (Poe 2003).  But all of these are, as the narrator puts it, “the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness” (Poe 2003).  When it comes to representing the internal process of mental breakdown, Poe (at least in this story) still only describes Roderick’s irrationality from an external and stereotypical position.  Roderick describes his condition as a “deplorable folly” that will force him to “abandon life and reason,” he is “enchained by certain superstitious impressions,” and suffers from “melancholy” and “hypochondria” (two terms associated with earlier misunderstandings of madness) (Poe 2003).  The only time we see the irrational thought process represented is in Roderick’s monologue about entombing his

Everybody can relate to the death of a loved one. Even if it hasn’t happened in someone’s life, they can still think about what it would feel like. Edgar Allan Poe can definitely relate to this feeling and it could be why he wrote the story. He did, in fact, lose a sibling to sickness as well. The fact that the death doesn't just end with Madeline, but Roderick dies as well, is symbolic of the fact that death affects everybody. The tone the narrator uses in this story also helps readers to develop emotion. The tale is told in retrospect by the narrator, so it is lacking the tone of frantic emotion and stress that we could expect from someone in his situation. This helps the reader to develop their own emotions, and being that we can obviously relate to our own emotions better than those of others makes them more powerful than any feeling the author could have pushed on

Edgar Allan Poe wrote, "The Fall of the House of Usher", using characterization, and imagery to depict fear, terror, and darkness on the human mind. Roderick and his twin sister, Madeline, are the last of the all time-honored House of Usher (Jacobs and Roberts, pg. 462). They are both suffering from rather strange illnesses, which may be attributed to the intermarriage of the family. Roderick suffers from "a morbid acuteness of the senses"(464), while Madeline's illness is characterized by " a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent all though transient affections of a partly cataleptical character"(465) which caused her to lose consciousness and feeling. The

Most times, anything abnormal or odd tend to be pushed under the rug. Edgar Allan Poe subtly brings attention to topics the are typically ignored. E. A. Poe had far from a perfect childhood. His father left when he was young and his mother died when he was three. Poe also seemed to have a lonely childhood after his parents were gone. He was separated from his relatives and didn’t appear to have many friends. He attended the army and after went into West Point. His academics there were well but he was eventually kicked out because of poor handlings of his duties. Before Poe died, he struggled with depression and a drinking problem. Some believe Poe’s tragic lifetime was the inspiration for some of his stories. Such as, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. A possible theory about this story is that Roderick and the Narrator were one in the same. This essay will discuss the possibility of them being the same through plot, characterization, and personification.

“‘Her decease,’ he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, “ would leave him the last of the ancient race of the Ushers”’(Poe). The narrator's exaggeration stretches the differences between the Usher’s and standard families. Roderick Usher’s desperation affects him in a negative way as he only has one relationship in his life for the many years that he has been isolated for. His dependence on Madeline allows any influence by her to affect him negatively without any interference. The narrator notes the “striking similitude” between the two Usher siblings, as siblings it is surmised that they resemble each other, but the author draws attention to this detail, as if proposing another more complicated factor about their relationship on account of an† alliteration (Poe). This observation advocates an even closer relationship between the two siblings. Which can provide a better explanation for why she had to come back from the vault to kill Roderick, as they were twins, which were born together and must die together. Finally, Stein postulates that Roderick Usher’s mental state “cannot be clearly understood unless it is directly related to the illness of his twin sister.” Stein conveys that Roderick’s mental illness is a consequence of his relationship with Madeline. As twins they share the same mind through a certain supernatural way allowing her unnamed problem to directly affect him. The relationship between Madeline and Roderick expresses the twin relationship intrudes Roderick’s mind and his dependence on Madeline allows for negative influence on him to be

Corman’s film implied that the house itself was the monster. Viewers saw this throughout the film, by the objects falling mysteriously, the houses’ constant trembling, the eerie sounds etc. The role of the narrator was eliminated in the film, so the viewers had to make conclusions and descriptions based on what the viewers might have seen. This is a challenging task because the viewers were so caught up in the movie that the viewers might have not noticed a few things which would have otherwise been explained and described in the short story. In the short story Roderick asked for Phillip, through a letter. Roderick was sick and wanted comfort and company. Poe’s story was captivating and creepy but Corman changed the story and made Madeline and Phillip lovers. The story and the film both depicted the siblings’ illness the same way. The film also implied that Roderick may have viewed Philip as a romantic rival, which suggested an incestuous relationship between Madeline and Roderick. They were not regarded as twins in the film and were not at all similar. In the film, Phillip was preoccupied with Madeline and fear. In the story, he spent most of his time reading, painting, and listening to Roderick’s music. His whole purpose of being there was to cheer Roderick up. In the story, Madeline was barely mentioned or known of until the end. In the film, she was a critical character and essential to the plot of the movie. The foreshadowing in the film was much more

A concern of Roderick Usher is the waning health of his twin sister, Lady Madeline. Usher explains to his dear friend, the narrator, that she is the only surviving relative he has. He further explains that his sister’s health condition baffles any physician that has come to the house. After a few days of the narrator’s visit, Lady Madeline dies. Usher explains to the narrator that he wishes to preserve her body by placing her into the underground crypt of the house. I believe that Poe is trying to use symbolism in Lady Madeline’s death in relation to Roderick’s faltering mental stability. For example, Lady Madeline represents a part of Usher that he has lost; a part of him that has become so strange and frightening to him. When he and the narrator place Lady Madeline’s body into the crypt, it is a desperate act to help preserve a part of himself.

Roderick is deteriorating from mental illness, he has heightened senses (easily stimulated by stimuli). He represents the mental aspect of the two while Madeline, who is suffering from catalepsy (a disease that involves coma-type trances), represents the physical aspect. They can't live without each other, they make up one whole person (mind and body).

Men, of course, were seen as the mind and intellect of the household, and the one qualified to receive an education and work in the outside world. A woman’s mental ability was regarded as essentially limited to superficial sensing, while a man would have been seen as the one responsible for complex thought and reflection in a household. In a way, Madeline’s suppression by her twin brother and the way she generally presents herself reflects this. Madeline does not speak, and simply obeys the orders of everyone else in the house. Roderick, on the other hand, always has the final word. This is exemplified once again the Roderick’s live burial of Madeline, in which Madeline could not do anything to change her fate.

If Madeline was indeed a figment of Roderick’s imagination, Poe is here exploring the difference between the mental and physical self, and the importance that the two are similar.

Roderick, who believes he buried her alive, is going insane because when he imagines that she appears in front of her. Poe describes the feelings of Roderick in a manner that one can sense the fear that he must feel seeing someone return from the grave.

Poe makes the connection that Roderick and Madeline are not just brother and sister but twins who share "sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature". As Madeline's mysterious illness which the doctors are unable to cure approaches physical paralysis, Roderick's mental agitation takes the form of a "morbid acuteness of the senses" that separates his body from the physical world making all normal sensations painful "...the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these were from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with

Even though he is also mad, his torture is not entirely inflicted by moral sickness, but rather by the fragility of his own mind. In this dark and complex story of decay and destruction, Roderick and his twin sister Madeline are represented as two interrelated parts of mind who share "sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature" (Poe, 11), thus connecting his mental disintegration to her physical decline. Adding to the theory, Kevin J. Hayes concludes that “Not accidentally does Poe give us a tale of disintegrating bodies, but, more important, disintegrating psyches as well, which he frames with a mansion that looks like a human head.” (Hayes, 179). Besides the fact that Roderick and Madeline are not just twins, but represent the mental and physical components of a single mind or soul, there is also a connection between the family mansion and the remaining members who live within. Poe uses the phrase "House of Usher" to refer to both the decaying physical structure and the last of the "all time-honoured Usher race...”. The constant decay and conflict, resulting in Madeline’s premature death, leaves Roderick’s fragile mind vulnerable. Again, death is where one circle ends and new one begins, as Roderick, having lost the unconscious part of his mind in Madeline, slowly fades into insanity, which turned out to be the ultimate

The narrator comes to the House to aid his dying friend, Roderick Usher. As he arrives at the House he comes upon an “aura of vacancy and decay… creating a pathologically depressive mood” (Cook). The state of the House is daunting to the narrator – he describes it with such features as “bleak walls”, “eye-like windows”, “rank sedges”, “decayed trees”, and “an utter depression of the soul”. These images foreshadow a less than pleasant future for the narrator and his dear friend Roderick. Poe continues to foreshadow the narrators turn of events with a description of the House’s “dark” and “comfortless” furniture. The House becomes a living hell for the narrator as he watches Roderick’s condition evolve and struggles to understand the mystery tying unfortunate events together. However, as the narrator gradually becomes more enveloped in Roderick and the House’s malady, he seems to develop a malady of his own. While the narrator’s illness is less prominent than that of Roderick and his sister Lady Madeline, the sicknesses are one in the same.

“The Fall of The House Usher” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839. It shows Poe’s great imagination with descriptive details to make the reader feel like part of the story. His naming of the character Madeline shows us the closeness of their relationship. He may have been basing the relationship of Roderick and his sister to his own real life experiences, as they were only three years apart.