Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” is one of his most excellent pieces. It’s a story about an unnamed character who visits a longtime friend’s home after receiving a letter. He immediately notices that the house gives an evil vibe, and the day itself is gloomy. Throughout his entrance into the home, he details to us the frightfulness of the home. He finds his friend Roderick sickly, and stays with him for a few days in order to cheer him up.
English 1102 “The Fall of the House of Usher” A nameless narrator walks us through the mysterious house of his childhood friend Roderick Usher on a gloomy and ominous day. From outside narrator notices house is old, creepy, has an evil atmosphere and a huge zig-zag crack in the roof. Has been asked to come to the house by Roderick because he is sick. Goes inside, find the inside just as creepy as the outside. Finds Roderick in house, super sick and pale, not himself.
An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has been sick lately, afflicted by a disease of the mind, and wrote to his friend, our narrator, asking for help. The narrator spends some time admiring the awesomely spooky Usher edifice. While doing so, he explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is famous for its dedication to the arts (music, painting, literature, etc.). Eventually, the narrator heads inside to see his friend.
Once the narrator is inside the house we are introduced to Roderick Usher, who is the narrator’s childhood friend but once again he is set up to be a complete mystery even though we are informed right away that something isn’t completely right about him. He is described to have an unusual temperament, which then leads him to tell us that every member of the Usher family shared the same trait, which leads them to be artistic. Sure enough the narrator is completely involved in the surroundings and seems to be overwhelmed by the bizarre state of the house. Roderick Usher is then described to be incoherent and inconsistent also followed by stating that he seems nervous and displaced to his surroundings it seems that Usher is always concerned about something that isn’t quite there his emotions always running high and as the story progresses the reason for the narrator’s visit is explained by
The house's state of disrepair is a symbol for the moral, physical, and mental state of Roderick and his sister. Illness is obvious in the two, and the house, which used to be a grand estate, has sunk along with the death of the last two Ushers. So, it is a complete "fall" of the house and the family whose name the house carries. The Narrator arrives at the House of Usher in order to visit a friend. While the relationship between him and Roderick is never fully explained, the reader does learn that they were boyhood friends.
| | | SHOW ME THE HOUSE FACTS!Previous owners: Multiple generations of the Usher family has lived in this exact same house. Although the most recent owners were Madeline and Roderick Usher, sadly Madeline passed due to an unrecognizable illness. On the other hand Roderick died from fear OVERALL DESCRIPTIONThis spacious mansion is different from others, with an extremely large yard the exterior shows discoloration, dilapidation, old wood work and crumbling condition of stones which makes it look like an antique but as soon you walk in your welcomed by phantasmagoric armorial trophies that decorate the walls beautifully, spiral staircase that leads to some of the many rooms. Encrimsoned light will be beaming down at you. The further you walk in the more knowledge you can gain about the previous owners.
Analyse how the theme of madness is implied and portrayed in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, focusing on one section of the story. Passage focus for analysis - ‘Upon my entrance, Usher arose…’ to ‘periods of his most intense excitement’, including other parts of the text. Madness is a clear theme throughout The Fall of the House of Usher, and could even be argued to be the main point of the story, as the narrator himself eventually falls victim to the insanity that consumes the household. In this extract, the focus is upon the character of Roderick Usher, his mental decline and the physical consequences. The narrator describes him as ‘lying at full length’ on a sofa, which gives the reader the image of a weak, diseased man, but Poe creates antithesis to this portrayal with the suggestion of his ‘vivacious warmth’.
The "ancient metaphor" that one can find is that of Roderick Usher and the later being the Usher house. With some close reading of the story, one can see how these two unlike objects mirror each other. To commence an analysis of the different examples found in the story, one must get some brief some brief background information. Roderick Usher was excessively reserved during his childhood and there after. Roderick was the product of inbreeding which had caused him to lead a rather unhealthy life.
When the narrator does not leave the house till the house has completely collapsed the reader also starts feeling trapped. Since Poe also uses the word “house” metaphorically, the reader also learns that this confinement can symbolise the biological fate of the Usher family. Also, since the narrator had previously personified the house, by noticing its “eyelike windows”, the house seems to be in itself a member of the Usher family, which, when the last of the family members die, collapses on the previous inhabitants still bodies. Throughout his story, Poe uses the setting
Something happened that changed his personality”(Maugham 27.) Patsy’s death, moreover the entire war, changed Larry. He was at times to be found less active. The biggest change noticed among his friends was his desire to merely “loaf”. Larry, while talking with Isabel uttered “the dead look so terribly dead when they’re dead.” (46).