‘The Fall of the House of Usher’

By Edgar Allan Poe

 Born on January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7, 1849, Baltimore, Maryland

American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor who is famous for his cultivation of
mystery and the macabre (having death as a subject)

Was son of the English-born actress Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr., an actor from Baltimore
 Basic Background
■ within three years both of his parents died; he was taken into the home of John Allan, a Richmond merchant (his godfather)

■ poverty forced him to join the army under the name of Edgar A. Perry, but, on the death of Poe’s foster mother, John Allan

purchased his release from the army and helped him get an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point

■ he then returned to Baltimore, where he began to write stories

■ there he made a name as a critical reviewer

■ got married to his young cousin Virginia Clemm, who was only 13

■ he was dismissed from his job in Richmond, apparently for drinking, and went to New York City

■ according to medical testimony he had a brain lesions (abnormal tissue growth)

■ his wife, Virginia, died in January 1847

■ he suffered from recurrent depression and alcohol and drug abuse

It is a supernatural horror story published in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in 1839

It has features of a Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious

sickness, and doubled personality
 The Fall of the House of Usher
■ the setting, diction, and imagery combine to create an overall atmosphere of gloom

■ the terror of this story is its vagueness

■ the story begins without complete explanation of the narrator’s motives for arriving at the house of Usher

and this vagueness sets the tone for a plot that continually blurs the real and the fantastic

■ the narrator of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is unidentified aside from his gender. The story contains no

descriptions of his physical features, his age, or where he is traveling from. Apart from his boyhood

friendship with Roderick, his history is unknown

■ the absence of a specific description of his character allows the reader to easily identify with the narrator

■ it was observed that the narrator’s description of Roderick also applied to the author
 Theory
■ Poe may have become inspired by events that took place years before he was born, in the year 1800

■ according to the Guide to Boston, there once was an ‘Usher House’ that stood in Boston. At least, it is true that a house was registered to

an ‘Usher’ who lived there with his young wife

■ the legend goes that, years after the owners had passed, the house became physically unstable and had to be demolished like other

properties in the area. The horrid discovery of two human skeletons beneath the remains, holding one another in an embrace, propelled a

number of potential theories

■ the young wife of Usher was having an affair with a sailor, and that the two would meet at the Usher home, where they would hide in the

cellar area. Apparently, Mr. Usher caught them and locked them in the cellar, presumably until their deaths

■ the news must have circulated around town for years. The fact that we still hear the story more than two centuries later means it quickly

reached urban legend status where details are added year after year. It is no surprise that Poe may have grown up hearing the story

■ the idea of a locked cellar with live people inside squirming for their lives for days on end may have also prompted the writing of "The

Cask of Amontillado" and "Premature Burial”

References Used

■ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edgar-Allan-Poe
■ https://www.poemuseum.org/poes-biography
■ https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section3/
■ https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-fall-house-usher-relate-poes-life-404525
■ https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-inspired-edgar-allan-poe-write-fall-house
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