Madness:"The Fall of the House of Usher"

Paper Summary:

The paper explores the meaning of madness in this short story through the analysis of setting, plot, and character development. Examples from the text are given. A discussion of Poe's use of the house to represent the madness and despair of the family is presented.

From the Paper:

"To understand the ultimate meaning of madness is this dark tale, we must first look at the story itself, and the protagonists who inspire such madness. The opening lines of "Usher" immediately prepare us for the setting of the story. Throughout the tale, Poe consistently reminds the reader that the House of Usher is dank, dark, and depressing. "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens" (Poe). This dreary setting is the perfect backdrop for the two remaining members of the Usher family, Roderick, and his twin sister Madeline.
The narrator of the story receives a letter from his boyhood friend, Roderick, who begs him to come for a visit. "The writer spoke of acute bodily illness of a pitiable mental idiosyncrasy which oppressed him," (Poe) and it is no wonder. The narrator says when he first sees the house, "I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that around about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity " an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn, in the form of an inelastic vapor or gas " dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leadenhued" (Poe). He feels the house is staring at him, and immediately we understand that this is no ordinary house, and no ordinary family that lives in it. From the very beginning of the story, the madness is apparent in the house, and in the residents. It is frightening, and yet seems very appropriate in this dark and dreary setting, full of sickly inhabitants."

More papers on Madness:"The Fall of the House of Usher":

• Book Review # 93320 : "The Fall of the House of Usher"
• Analytical Essay # 127174 : "Edgar Allan Poe and the Horror Tale"
• Analytical Essay # 2257 : "Poe and the Hunger for the Fatal Demon of Fear"

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