Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the psychoanalysis view of literature held by Freudian and Lacanian therapists focus entirely on the minds of the characters and how they are affected by their experiences. In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher", the author perceives that the use of mirror images plays an important role in the development of the characters and the plot. The paper concludes that the tale is driven almost entirely on the principles of idealized selves.

From the Paper:

"The tortured mind of a man going slowly insane from the complete lack of any genetic variability in his gene pool struggles to even exist in Poe's "Usher". The story itself begs to be seen from the point of view of insanity. The narrator himself even admits to being sucked into the gloomy atmosphere that Usher as man and house create, serving to push the idea of idealized selves and mirror images even further. The family in past and Usher in present are nothing but a large series of mirror images of one another who are constantly striving to stay ideally unified."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lacan, Jacques. "The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of I." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Blackwell Publishing Ltd: Malden, MA. 2004. 441-46.
• Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Story and Its Writer an Introduction to Short Fiction. Ed. Ann Charters. Bedford/St. Martins: Boston, MA. 2003. 1193-1206.

More papers on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher":

• Analytical Essay # 64877 : "Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories"
• Comparison Essay # 122496 : "Edgar Allan Poe - Two Short Stories"
• Analytical Essay # 23500 : "Edgar Allan Poe's "Tales of Terror"

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