THE FALL OF THE

HOUSE OF USHER

EDGAR ALLAN POE

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF
USHER
EDGAR ALLAN POE
 EPIGRAPH
Son coeur est un luth suspendu;
Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne.
– De Beranger

Translation:
"His/her heart is a poised lute;
as soon as it is touched, it resounds".

These lines are a quote from Le Refus, a song by French songwriter Pierre-Jean de Béranger,
a (roughly speaking) contemporary of Poe’s. Beranger’s lyrics actually read "Mon cœur" (my
heart), but Poe changed them to read "Son cœur" (his/her heart).

The first question to ask is, who wrote this epigraph? Typically, an epigraph is the author’s
opportunity to give a hint to his reader as to how to interpret the work. But as we’ve seen in
this text (check out Symbols, Imagery, and Allegory), the real and the fictional are often
intertwined. One possibility, then, is that the epigraph is the work of the narrator.

If this is the case, we then have to ask to whom the lyrics refer. “Son” is the possessive article
in French, and it could mean “his” or “her” depending on the subject. In this case, our
subject is gender-ambiguous. Is the narrator referring to Roderick? Or to Madeline? If you
believe the argument (as discussed in “Character Analysis”) that the twins share some sort of
other-worldly connection, or that they are two halves of the same person, then the gender-
ambiguity is appropriate, as the epigraph can refer to both Madeline and Roderick together.

Another interesting, if slightly harder-to-swallow interpretation is that Usher wrote the

epigraph – because Usher wrote the story. What are we given throughout the entire story
except example after example of Roderick’s eerie artistic creations? Together, he and the
narrator listen to music, read books, and pore over artwork. Accordingly, we see one of
Usher’s songs, and one of his paintings, but we don’t see a piece of his writing. Unless, that
is, “The House of Usher” is that very fictional work we’re missing.

Anyway, what does the epigraph actually mean? These lines describe a heart so alone that it
is poised and ready for touch, and so sensitive that it will resound the moment it is. Recall
the story’s theme of isolation as well as Roderick’s “acuteness of the senses” and try running
with that.
 AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
WHO WAS EDGAR ALLAN POE?
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best known for evocative
short stories and poems that captured the imagination and interest of readers around the
world. His imaginative storytelling and tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the
modern detective story. 
Many of Poe’s works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of
Usher,” became literary classics. Some aspects of Poe’s life, like his literature, is shrouded
in mystery, and the lines between fact and fiction have been blurred substantially since
his death.

EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY

Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Poe never really knew his parents — Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British actress, and David
Poe, Jr., an actor who was born in Baltimore. His father left the family early in Poe's life,
and his mother passed away from tuberculosis when he was only three.
Separated from his brother William and sister Rosalie, Poe went to live with John and
Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia. Edgar
and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he had a more difficult relationship with John
Allan. 
By the age of 13, Poe was a prolific poet, but his literary talents were discouraged by his
headmaster and John Allan, who preferred that Poe follow him in the family business.
Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan's
business papers.
Money was also an issue between Poe and John Allan. Poe went to the University of
Virginia in 1826, where he excelled in his classes. However, he didn't receive enough
funds from Allan to cover all of his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference,
but ended up in debt. 
He returned home only to face another personal setback — his neighbor and fiancée Sarah
Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe
moved to Boston.
ARMY AND WEST POINT
In 1827, around the time he published his first book, Poe joined the U.S. Army. Two years
later, he learned that Frances Allan was dying of tuberculosis, but by the time he returned
to Richmond she had already passed away.
While in Virginia, Poe and Allan briefly made peace with each other, and Allan helped
Poe get an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Poe excelled
at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his
duties. 
During his time at West Point, Poe had fought with his foster father, who had remarried
without telling him. Some have speculated that Poe intentionally sought to be expelled to
spite Allan, who eventually cut ties with Poe.
EDITOR, CRITIC, POET AND WRITER
After leaving West Point, Poe published his third book and focused on writing full-time.
He traveled around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore,
Philadelphia and Richmond. In 1834, John Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will, but
providing for an illegitimate child Allan had never met.
Poe, who continued to struggle living in poverty, got a break when one of his short stories
won a contest in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter. He began to publish more short stories
and in 1835 landed an editorial position with the Southern Literary Messenger in
Richmond. 
Poe developed a reputation as a cut-throat critic, writing vicious reviews of his
contemporaries. His scathing critiques earned him the nickname the "Tomahawk Man." 
His tenure at the magazine proved short. Poe's aggressive-reviewing style and sometimes
combative personality strained his relationship with the publication, and he left the
magazine in 1837. His problems with alcohol also played a role in his departure, according
to some reports.
Poe went on to brief stints at Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, Graham's Magazine, The
Broadway Journal, and he also sold his work to Alexander’s Weekly Messenger, among
other journals.
In 1844, Poe moved to New York City. There, he published a news story in The New York
Sun about a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean that he later revealed to be a hoax. His
stunt grabbed attention, but it was his publication of "The Raven," in 1845, which made
Poe a literary sensation.
That same year, Poe found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of fellow poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary
figure, was a plagiarist, which resulted in a backlash against Poe.
Despite his success and popularity as a writer, Poe continued to struggle financially and
he advocated for higher wages for writers and an international copyright law.
WIFE
From 1831 to 1835, Poe lived in Baltimore, where his father was born, with his aunt Maria
Clemm and her daughter, his cousin Virginia. He began to devote his attention to Virginia,
who became his literary inspiration as well as his love interest.
The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 years old. In 1847, at the age of 24 — the
same age when Poe’s mother and brother also died — Virginia passed away from
tuberculosis. 
Poe was overcome by grief following her death, and although he continued to work, he
suffered from poor health and struggled financially until his death in 1849.

DEATH
Poe died on October 7, 1849. His final days remain somewhat of a mystery. Poe left
Richmond on September 27, 1849, and was supposedly on his way to Philadelphia. 
On October 3, he was found in Baltimore in great distress. Poe was taken to Washington
College Hospital, where he died four days later. His last words were "Lord, help my poor
soul."
At the time, it was said that Poe died of "congestion of the brain." But his actual cause of
death has been the subject of endless speculation. 
Some experts believe that alcoholism led to his demise while others offer up alternative
theories. Rabies, epilepsy and carbon monoxide poisoning are just some of the conditions
thought to have led to the great writer's death.
LEGACY
Shortly after his passing, Poe's reputation was badly damaged by his literary adversary
Rufus Griswold. Griswold, who had been sharply criticized by Poe, took his revenge in his
obituary of Poe, portraying the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged
drunkard and womanizer. 
He also penned the first biography of Poe, which helped cement some of these
misconceptions in the public's minds.
While he never had financial success in his lifetime, Poe has become one of America's
most enduring writers. His works are as compelling today as they were more than a
century ago. 
An innovative and imaginative thinker, Poe crafted stories and poems that still shock,
surprise and move modern readers. His dark work influenced writers including Charles
Baudelaire, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Stephane Mallarme.
 INTRODUCTION

dgar Allan Poe was an American writer in the first half of the 19th century famous for

E scaring the heck out of his readers. He is the master of dismemberment,

underground crypts, murder, suffocation, ghosts, the living dead, haunted mansions,
blood, and all the other lovely features of your favorite horror movies. He’s been
immensely popular in France, and many scholars attribute this popularity to the
gorgeous translations of his work by the poet Baudelaire, who rendered Poe poetic
instead of melodramatic (overly dramatic).

Poe remains generally popular, if not lauded in academia, for both his short stories and
his poetry. Both are featured in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” his most famous
short story (the poem is buried inside it). “Usher” was first published in 1839 in Burton’s
Gentleman’s Magazine and is pretty much typical Poe material: it tells the story of a sick
brother and sister who… well, let’s not give the ending away. Just be forewarned: there
will be blood.

“Usher” has been read and re-read by critic after critic, and there are several interesting
“theories” to explain the major action of the tale. Most have approached the tale from a
psychological viewpoint, which will make more sense to you after you read the text and
check out our “Character Analyses.” There’s also been some criticism regarding the
story’s typical Poe-ness; some feel that it is too formulaic and relies on stock Poe
characters that can be found in any number of his stories. Decide for yourself.
 SUMMARY

n unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by

A 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.

Roderick indeed appears to be a sick man. He suffers from an "acuteness of the senses,"
or hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, taste, and tactile sensations; he feels that he will die of
the fear he feels. He attributes part of his illness to the fact that his sister, Madeline,
suffers from catalepsy (a sickness involving seizures) and will soon die, and part of it to
the belief that his creepy house is sentient (able to perceive things) and has a great power
over him. He hasn’t left the mansion in years. The narrator tries to help him get his mind
off all this death and gloom by poring over the literature, music, and art that Roderick so
loves. It doesn’t seem to help.

As Roderick predicted, Madeline soon dies. At least we think so. All we know is that
Roderick tells the narrator she’s dead, and that she appears to be dead when he looks at
her. Of course, because of her catalepsy, she might just look like she’s dead, post-seizure.
Keep that in mind. At Roderick’s request, the narrator helps him to entomb her body in
one of the vaults underneath the mansion. While they do so, the narrator discovers that
the two of them were twins and that they shared some sort of supernatural, probably
extrasensory, bond.

About a week later, on a dark and stormy night, the narrator and Usher find themselves
unable to sleep. They decide to pass away the scary night by reading a book. As the
narrator reads the text aloud, all the sounds from the fictional story can be heard
resounding from below the mansion. It doesn’t take long for Usher to freak out; he jumps
up and declares that they buried Madeline alive and that now she is coming back. Sure
enough, the doors blow open and there stands a trembling, bloody Madeline. She throws
herself at Usher, who falls to the floor and, after "violent" agony, dies along with his sister.
The narrator flees; outside he watches the House of Usher crack in two and sink into the
dark, dank pool that lies before it.
 THEMES

MADNESS
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is the story of a sick man whose fears manifest
themselves through his supernatural, sentient family estate. (Sentient means able to
perceive things.) The story explores both physical and mental illness, and the effect that
such afflictions have on the people closest to those who are sick. One interpretation is
that much of the seeming “madness” of the main character does turn out, in fact, to be
the cause of truly supernatural events. That is, he’s not crazy – his house really is
haunted, and his sister really is back from the dead. Another interpretation is that the
madness really is imaginary.

FAMILY
“Usher” explores a family so bizarre, so self-isolating, so removed from normalcy that
their very existence has become eerie and supernatural. The bond between the featured
brother and sister characters is intense and inexplicable – possibly it’s supernatural,
possibly it’s incestuous. Their bond transcends even death. One interpretation of the tale
is that the siblings are actually one person split in two; thus one is unable to survive
without the other.

ISOLATION
This story explores a family so isolated from the rest of the world that they’ve developed
their own supernatural barriers to interacting with it. The House of Usher exists in its own
reality, governed by its own rules and with no interest in others. Such extreme isolation
forces the family members closer and closer to each other, again to a supernatural
degree, and inexplicable to any outsider.

FEAR
For Roderick Usher fear itself is worse than whatever you actually fear. In fact, fear is
responsible for at least one of the deaths in this story. One possible interpretation of the
tale is that the fear of some dreaded occurrence actually manifests it in reality; that is,
because the protagonist fears his death, he brings about his death.

IDENTITY
One interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is that it presents a dramatized
interpretation of a split-personality disorder. At the least, the tale explores different
aspects of identity and the ways in which those aspects might be fractioned or made
distinct. Differences between the physical and the mental parts of the self are emphasized
and explored in the text, as well as the way that parts of the self interact.
 CHARACTERS

NARRATOR
The narrator is an enigmatic character. One way to explain his role is that the narrator’s
job is simply to narrate the story. We don’t know his name, which is representative of us
knowing nothing about him at all. He really only exists in relation to the Ushers, and that
relation is primarily as an outsider.

When the narrator first arrives at the house, he notes several times the isolation and
closed-off nature of the Usher family. Their bloodline has no branches, Usher never leaves
his house, he and his sister have a special connection, Madeline is Roderick’s only
companion. The narrator is on the outside of whatever eerie relationship the Ushers'
share. He is also on the outside of the eerie goings-on inside the house of Usher. When
Madeline passes by, for example, she doesn’t even notice or acknowledge the narrator’s
presence. This could be because she’s too far away, or it could be because the narrator is
intentionally being established as an outsider. When Madeline rises from the dead, she
again disregards the narrator completely. He doesn’t even really partake in the story; he is
unable to affect Usher in any way despite several attempts to cure the man of his
melancholy. The narrator basically just watches the tale unfold before his eyes. You can
start to see why some people suspect that he is a fictional creation in one of Usher’s
stories – see “What’s Up with the Epigraph” for more.

An alternative point of view is that the narrator is significantly more important than just
being a narrator. He is Usher's childhood friend and shows an incredible level of
compassion towards the entire creepy situation (to agree give Roderick weeks of his life in
the first place is pretty interesting, given that he clearly did not feel close to Roderick in
the beginning). The fact that Roderick calls on him for help is interesting as his "only
personal friend." Perhaps he was reaching out to help himself? Or did he just want an
audience for his spookiness? You can also think about the way Roderick forms a foil to the
narrator.

RODERICK USHER
Roderick Usher is not well. While parts of his affliction seem to manifest themselves
physically, in his overly-acute senses, his illness is primarily a mental one. While his sister
is cataleptic and wasting away, Roderick is tormented by, to be quite honest, his own fear.
By his own admission, he doesn’t so much fear any particular thing as he fears his own
fear. And one day, he predicts, this affliction will kill him.

Which it does, pretty much. One conclusion to be drawn from the final scene is that
Roderick dies of fear. Madeline rushes upon him and he falls to the floor a corpse, too
terrified to go on living. As we’ll talk about in Madeline’s “Character Analysis,” it’s even
possible that Madeline is just a physical embodiment of Roderick’s fears.

But let’s talk about this brother-sister connection. What exactly is going on there?
Roderick claims that he and his twin share a special connection, one that others would
scarcely understand. As we discuss in the “Sex” section, one interpretation is that they
are incestuous. Another, less controversial interpretation is that they share a sort of extra-
sensory bond. Those who approach “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a psychological
tale posit that Roderick and Madeline are actually two halves of the same person: male/
female, mental/physical, worldly/other-worldly, natural/supernatural. See, e.g.,
Supernatural Horror in Literature by H.P. Lovecraft. If this is true, we can see why
Roderick cannot live while Madeline is dead, which explains why she comes back for him.
Alternatively, if Roderick may have been intentionally speeding up his own death by
burying Madeline early, making her burial something of a suicide attempt.

Another theory involves far less psychology and far more revenge. It’s possible that
Roderick knew Madeline was alive when he asked the narrator for help in entombing her.
This could be for any number of reasons, and you’re welcome to speculate. (Was he
trying to end the Usher line once and forever? Tormented with guilt over the incest they
may have committed together? Trying to kill himself by killing his doppelganger other
half? (Doppelganger means ghostly double.)) In this scenario, Madeline comes back from
the dead to get even with her brother for burying her alive.

We can also think about the spooky connection that Roderick shares with his house. He
tells the narrator that he thinks it is sentient or conscious, and that the house is largely
responsible for his feeling so dark and gloomy. Many of his artistic compositions revolve
around his house (or thinly veiled haunted mansions that act as stand-ins for his own). We
know that Roderick is a recluse to the extreme, so his existence is confined by the walls of
his house. It might be that Roderick’s very identity has somehow meshed with his house,
much the same way his identity might be shared with his sister Madeline. Madeline dies
and so Roderick dies, too. Similarly, Roderick falls dead to the ground, and so does his
house.

Another oddity to consider here is Roderick’s relationship with the narrator. He doesn’t
know this guy that well – they were friends in childhood but haven’t seen each other in
years. Roderick reaches out to him for help because he doesn’t have any companions.
The fact that he turns to a distant friend is a testament to how very isolated Roderick is.
But why reach out in the first place? Roderick knows that he’s going to die (or at least,
he’s convinced himself of as much) – so why ask for help? Does he really think the
narrator can do anything to help him? Not really, no. It seems more plausible that he
invited the narrator as an audience – to watch the horrors that go down between him, his
sister, and his house.
MADELINE USHER
There are several different directions you can go in your interpretation of Madeline Usher.
One theory is that she doesn’t fully exist from the start, but is some sort of supernatural
shade, a spiritual doppelganger half of Roderick. (Doppelganger means ghostly double.)
This is why the narrator rarely sees her and why she doesn’t acknowledge or interact with
him during those times. It’s why she can come back from the dead – because she wasn’t
fully human in the first place.

If you like the psychological approach we discuss in Roderick’s “Character Analysis,” then
Madeline and Roderick are two halves of the same person. Naturally, a person cannot live
divided into two pieces, much as the House of Usher cannot stand with that crack
running down the middle.

Another approach, this one blending psychology with the supernatural, argues that
Madeline, at least the Madeline who returns from the dead, is the physical manifestation
of Roderick’s worst fears. In fact, when Roderick is foreshadowing his death, he says "…
the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in
some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." Does FEAR = Madeline? In “What’s Up
With the Epigraph” we discuss the way that Roderick’s artistic creations either predict or
create the tale’s spooky outcomes. Notice that Madeline doesn’t appear at the door until
Roderick claims that she is standing there – some good evidence for this last
interpretation.
 ANALYSIS
Tone
DELIBERATE
“The Fall of the House of Usher” tells a terrifying story, and the narrator is up front and
center for the most bizarre parts. But it’s important to note that this tale is told in
retrospect, so the deliberate authorial tone isn’t at all compromised by the frantic mania
of a horrified narrator. For example, take a look at this second-to-last paragraph: “For a
moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold,—then, with a
low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent
and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he
had anticipated.” (41) Poe’s story unfolds in a careful and calm manner, keeping its
respectful distance from the more inexpressible details (see “Point of View”) and
maintaining perspective on all the crazy goings-on. In a way, this calm approach to such
abnormal events is a bit horrifying in itself; the author treats the tale the same way you
might disclose a trip to the grocery store.

Genre
HORROR OR GOTHIC FICTION
A sentient house, a dead body (or two), an underground tomb, dark and stormy nights…
this is a horror tale. One of the sub-genres of Gothic fiction is “Supernatural Gothic,” in
which the weird stuff that happens really can be attributed to bizarre supernatural
happenings (as oppose to the figments of a crazy person’s imagination). The presence of
inexplicable diseases – both of the body and of the mind, in Usher and his sister, is
another great indication that we’re dealing with the horror genre.

Title
There are several levels on which we can interpret this title. First is the actual, physical
House of Usher, the mansion the narrator visits and the setting for the story. At the end of
the story, the House of Usher falls, literally, into the tarn or pool of water in front of the
house. As we discuss in “Symbols, Imagery, and Allegory,” the small fissure that the
narrator sees upon first arrival foreshadows this fall. We know there’s something wrong in
the House of Usher, and it is indeed at this fissure that the House ultimately splits in two.

We can move on to the symbolic meaning of the title. The narrator makes a point of
telling us that the term “The House of Usher” refers no only to the estate, but to the
family as well, the Usher bloodline. The title refers not just to the literal fall of the physical
house, but the metaphorical fall of the Usher family. The narrator revealed that Roderick
and his sister were the last two alive in the family, so when they die, so dies the whole
family.

This decline, too, is foreshadowed in the text. Usher prophecies his own death to the
narrator in exactly the manner it takes place: he believes he will die from fear. It’s worth
noting that Roderick’s death is yet another literal fall – he and Madeline collapse to the
ground together.

It’s probably no coincidence that Roderick literally falls, the bloodline falls in the death of
the twins, and the house collapses all at the same time at the story’s conclusion. This
contributes to the story’s fantastical nature. The pieces fit together just a little too neatly;
symbols are tied to action a bit too strongly, reminding us that we’re not in a realistic
world here. Also remember Roderick’s insistence that the house is sentient – there’s a
stronger tie between the Usher family and the Usher mansion than we might expect. You
could think of the house as a third member of the Usher family: Roderick, Madeline, and
the House. Or you could think of Roderick, Madeline, and the house as all being part of
the same person (see “Character Analysis” where we discuss the theory that Roderick and
Madeline share one soul).

Ending
Let’s talk about the freaky scene BEFORE the ending before we talk about the actual
ending. First, Madeline is back from the dead. There are several different ways to think
about this reappearance, which we talk about in “Character Analysis.” It could be that
Madeline’s ghost is back to take vengeance on her brother for intentionally burying her
alive. It could be that she and Roderick are really two halves of the same person, and so
one cannot live without the other. It could be that she is a manifestation of Roderick’s
fears, not an honest-to-goodness “ghost.”

Then you’ve got Roderick’s death. Remember that he predicted his death earlier in the
text, and supposed that it would be caused by fear. This is good evidence for the
argument that Madeline is just a manifestation of his fears. As we discuss in “What’s Up
With the Title?”, Roderick’s literal fall to the floor is tantamount to the fall of the Usher
bloodline, and is accompanied by the physical fall of the house itself.

Now onto the final line of the story. If you’re reading “Usher” online, or if you’ve got a
less-than-accurate hard copy in your hands, you might be missing the idiosyncrasy of the
last line, which Poe wrote like this:

“[…] and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the
fragments of the ‘HOUSE OF USHER.’” (42)

Those are not our capitals; they were part of Poe’s text, and they’re definitely not easy to
nail down. Why would he put these words in capitals and in quotes?
Quotes generally indicate that you’re using someone else’s terminology rather than your
own; there’s a sense of irony, as opposed to genuine intention. Recall that in “What’s Up
With the Epigraph” we discuss the possibility that this entire work is fiction by the
deranged mind of Roderick Usher. If this is the case, then we can rationalize the
formatting of these final few words. The text revealed that the peasants around the estate
coined the name “House of Usher” to refer both to the mansion and to the family who
owned it. Either to Roderick Usher or to the narrator – whoever you think composed the
tale – this phase belongs to someone else; it is not his own, and he uses quotes to indicate
as much. What we mean is that the quotes emphasize the artificiality of this phrase. The
phrase is used as though it belongs to someone else.

As far as capitals go, we can’t tell you definitively. From one perspective, it adds a gravity
and ominousness to the very definitive ending: just imagine a deep, movie-announcer
voice booming, “THE HOUSE OF USHER.” On the other hand, it could be ironic
melodrama, though we find this interpretation less likely given that Poe was really all
about the theatricality. (Melodramatic means overly dramatic, and most of Poe’s stories
are full of it.) Read any Poe story – or just read “Usher,” and this will be painfully obvious.

Setting
HAUNTED MANSION, SEVERAL DARK AND STORMY NIGHTS
(To be fair, this was probably less of a cliché when Poe wrote “Usher.”) Notice that we
don’t know the geographical location nor a specific year when these events go down. The
fact is, the mood and atmosphere in the setting is far more important than the facts of
time and place. And it certainly is a powerful atmosphere that Poe creates. The outside of
the mansion is the first of many spooky settings Poe renders in his tale. You’ve got an
ethereal glowing cloud and a dark and scary lake, not to mention the ominous fissure
running down the center of the mansion. He creates a different but equally scary setting
inside the mansion, where the corridors, though filled with seemingly ordinary objects,
seem to scream “YOU ARE IN A HORROR STORY.” The dank underground tomb is yet
another of the masterfully-crafted mini-settings in “Usher,” one we actually recognize
from the Roderick’s painting earlier in the text (make sure you check out “Symbols,
Imagery, Allegory” for some juicy, painting-related thoughts).

The house itself is carefully crafted to heighten the mood and atmosphere of the story,
like the creepy tapestries and furnishings inside. The fact that Usher hasn’t left the house
in ages lends the tale a sense of claustrophobia. In fact, the narrator himself doesn’t leave
until the story’s end – which makes us, the reader, feel just as trapped as Roderick. The
house’s sentience is also a big deal – the physical setting of the story is as supernatural as
its action and themes. Then there’s the fall of the house itself, which we discuss in
“What’s Up With the Title?”
 Epigraph
These lines are a quote from Le Refus, a song by French songwriter Pierre-Jean de
Béranger, a (roughly speaking) contemporary of Poe’s. Beranger’s lyrics actually read
"Mon cœur" (my heart), but Poe changed them to read "Son cœur" (his/her heart).

The first question to ask is, who wrote this epigraph? Typically, an epigraph is the
author’s opportunity to give a hint to his reader as to how to interpret the work. But as
we’ve seen in this text (check out Symbols, Imagery, and Allegory), the real and the
fictional are often intertwined. One possibility, then, is that the epigraph is the work of
the narrator.

If this is the case, we then have to ask to whom the lyrics refer. “Son” is the possessive
article in French, and it could mean “his” or “her” depending on the subject. In this case,
our subject is gender-ambiguous. Is the narrator referring to Roderick? Or to Madeline? If
you believe the argument (as discussed in “Character Analysis”) that the twins share some
sort of other-worldly connection, or that they are two halves of the same person, then the
gender-ambiguity is appropriate, as the epigraph can refer to both Madeline and Roderick
together.

Another interesting, if slightly harder-to-swallow interpretation is that Usher wrote the

epigraph – because Usher wrote the story. What are we given throughout the entire story
except example after example of Roderick’s eerie artistic creations? Together, he and the
narrator listen to music, read books, and pore over artwork. Accordingly, we see one of
Usher’s songs, and one of his paintings, but we don’t see a piece of his writing. Unless,
that is, “The House of Usher” is that very fictional work we’re missing.

Anyway, what does the epigraph actually mean? These lines describe a heart so alone that
it is poised and ready for touch, and so sensitive that it will resound the moment it is.
Recall the story’s theme of isolation as well as Roderick’s “acuteness of the senses” and
try running with that.

Writing style
RHYTHMIC, ORNATE
Poe’s prose is known for being a tad over-the-top, a bit melodramatically macabre. And
indeed, “Usher” bears the marks of this authorial stamp. But before you condemn it for
its theatricality, take a moment to admire its nearly-poetic rhetoric. Check out “singularly
dreary tract of country” in the first sentence. Read it out loud and notice the weight and
length of the “y”’s in the first two words contrasted with the hard, cutting “c”’s of the
second two. Or jump to the last sentence and read “the DEEP and DARK tarn at my feet
closed SULLENLY and SILENTLY over the fragments of the ‘House of Usher.’” And there’s
a cartload of rhetoric gems to be found in between.
 Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
REALITY AND ART
You might have noticed a strange mingling of the fictional with the real in this story.
Roderick’s artistic creations have a definite connection with what happens to the House
of Usher. He paints an underground tomb; Madeline is entombed underground. He sings
about the decline of a house; the House of Usher declines. He screams that the dead
Madeline is standing at the door – and so she is at the door. In fact, way back the
beginning of the story Roderick declares that will die from fear, which in fact comes true
at the end of the tale.

One possibility is that Roderick, with his magic, lustrous eye, can foresee the future. He
knows these events will transpire and so he prophecies them aloud. Another possibility is
that Roderick actually causes these things to happen, so that he is consumed by fear he
manifests his fear in reality, along with the help of some magic pixie dust from his
haunted mansion.

DOUBLING
We’ve seen that art mirrors reality in this story, but there are several other cases of
“doubling” or “reflection” going on. Starting off the story is the inverted reflection of the
House of Usher in the tarn that lies before the house. You’ve also got the inverted
dichotomy between Madeline and Usher, twins, but male/female, mental/physical (see
“Character Analysis”), alive/dead. Dichotomy means a division between two opposing
things.

THE SMALL FISSURE

The narrator observes a crack in the mansion upon his arrival to the Usher estate. Since
he’s just mentioned that “The House of Usher” refers both to the family and the building,
we should have an eye out for symbolic connections between the two. And indeed, we
can see this small fissure as representative of a disruption in the unity of the family, more
specifically, between Madeline and her brother. This is the disruption that ultimately
tears the family – and the mansion – to pieces.

Narrator point of view

FIRST PERSON (PERIPHERAL NARRATOR)
The narrator is nameless, which suggests that his principal job is to narrate. We don’t
know much about him, and our attention is drawn instead to the strangeness going down
in the House of Usher; it’s the narrator’s place to take us on a tour of the Mansion de Fear.
One of the most interesting things this narrator does is insist, over and over again, that all
attempts to accurately portray the weird happenings of the House of Usher are essentially
futile. Observe:

…an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be
re-stated. (12)

I should fail in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or of
the occupations, in which he involved me. (16)

I would in vain endeavour to educe more than a small portion which should lie within the
compass of merely written words. (16)

I lack words to express the full extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion. (20)

It’s almost like he’s trying to make a point here. Poe renders his story even more
horrifying, even more bizarre, by claiming that it’s even scarier and crazier than it sounds
in his story. Whatever the narrator says was going on, take his word for it – what actually
went down was worse.

You might want to think about the implications of this given that the narrator at one point
reads aloud to Usher from a book and that the fictional sounds are manifested in reality.
Here the narrator is insisting that words cannot describe reality… and yet the words he
reads aloud to Usher come true! In fact, these fictional words he reads are prophetic. This
is similar to the way that Usher predicts his own death early in the narrator’s tale. You
might also want to think about the prophetic nature of narration in this text, given that
Usher foretells his own death. We’ll talk about this more in Symbols, Imagery, Allegory.