Text: Wendy Stallard Flory, Ushers Fear and the Flaw in Poes Theories of the Metamorphosis of the Senses,

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Ushers Fear and the Flaw in Poes Theories of the Metamorphosis of the Senses
Wendy Stallard Flory
Rutgers University, Douglass College As a consoling alternative to the prospect of total annihilation at death, Poe conceives a theory of metamorphosis according to which the senses persist after the death of the physical body. he main wea!ness of this "consolation# is that the senses must then e$perience the process of decomposition of the flesh. Poe never deals with this problem in his theoretical writings, but it surfaces in a dramatic way in his stories % and particularly in " he &all of the 'ouse of Usher# % as the theme of premature burial. (n Usher)s dilemma Poe attempts to confront this problem by dramati*ing it, but by ma!ing Usher a wea! and evasive character Poe leaves himself free to blame Usher)s final terror on failure of nerve+ thus Poe sidesteps the crucial flaw in his own theories.

he analogies with Roderic! Usher)s temperament are stri!ing. he e$treme acuteness of his senses seems to suggest a straining of his being toward that "ultimate# state in which the whole body becomes one undifferentiated sense,organ. he painfulness of all but the most restrained sensations ma!es it appear as though the "circuits# of his "rudimentary# sense organs are overloaded. his painfulness is to be e$pected, since Poe considers the pain which man e$periences to be integral to human

e$perience on earth, and believes that " he pain of the primitive life of -arth, is the sole basis of the bliss of the ultimate life in 'eaven# ./, 0123. he narrator)s comparison of Roderic!)s state to that of "the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense e$citement# .(((, 0453 is, in fact, a positive indication according to Poe)s ideas about the "ultimate# e$istence. Usher)s state resembles the mesmeric trance which Poe describes in "6esmeric Revelation,# and which, he says, ". . . resembles the ultimate life+ for when ( am entranced the senses of my rudimental life are in abeyance, and ( perceive e$ternal things directly, without organs. . .# ./, 0173. Roderic!)s heightened sensitivity seems to suggest how closely he is approaching his metamorphosis. hat Usher)s hypersensitivity is a hereditary condition suggests that Poe feels the "poetic intellect# is at least partly something one is born with. Usher, li!e Poe, is committed by his particular temperament to an intense preoccupation with the mysteries of death. 8hile Poe e$amines these mysteries methodically and programmatically through his philosophic writings and more indirectly in his tales, Usher approaches them only tentatively and hesitantly in his paintings, music, and random reading. Usher lac!s Poe)s dedication and single,mindedness and is
*pa+e !-:, dangerously passive. 'is undoing seems to lie in his lac! of courage.

Usher)s belief in the sentience of vegetable things, which the narrator dismisses as too bi*arre to deserve comment, is one which is central to Poe)s belief in ultimate unity as he e$pounds it in Eureka .03. (t is not Usher)s "mind# which disintegrates in the course of the tale but his "reason#C understood with all the limiting connotations of Poe)s use of the word. (f Usher is mad, then it is an enlightened and mind,e$panding !ind of madness. Although Usher)s hypersensitivity is a positive sign of imminent metamorphosis to a higher state rather than a sign of insanity, his intense fear is negative. (t indicates his ambivalence toward the approaching metamorphosis and leads to his attempts to evade or postpone it. 8e see his evasiveness when he dismisses his malady as ". . . a mere nervous affection . . . which would undoubtedly soon pass off# .(((, 0973. Also, he had invited the narrator to stay with him in the hope that his friend)s cheerfulness would cure his own nervousness, but this is a vain hope, since, as soon as the narrator is in the vicinity of the house, he himself is overwhelmed with gloom. (n many respects the narrator really plays the part of man)s own "reason# or "understanding# which he hopes can resolve the dilemma of his imminent mortality, but which Poe believes is ineffectual because the reason is completely abandoned in the e$perience of death, and the senses are self,sufficient.

he narrator does not present Poe)s view of the situation at all, because he sees only the negative aspects of Roderic!)s state. Poe himself would not describe the reason as "lofty.# he narrator)s viewpoint is an unenlightened and "rational# one. 'e can only react to Roderic!)s purely abstract paintings with an "intensity of intolerable awe# and feels that they are the product of an "e$cited and highly distempered ideality.# .:ormally abstraction is frowned upon by Poe, but these paintings probably only seem abstract to the narrator because they have reference to a higher plane of perception than he can rise to.3 he imminence of death is stri!ingly fre;uent in many of Poe)s tales, and it is usually death as inevitable, rather than as voluntarily sought out. <y setting several tales in a time of plague, he has found a simple way of dramatically intensifying all the threatening aspects of the prospect of death. he plague setting is very important in " he =phin$# which resembles " he &all of the 'ouse of Usher# in all but its tric! ending. (n " he =phin$# Poe has reversed the roles ta!en by host and guest in "Usher,# ma!ing the narrator here the Usher,figure, and reinforcing the idea of Poe)s closeness to and sympathy with Roderic!. As the two friends wait together daily hearing news of the death of friends from cholera, the narrator says>