"Paradise Lost" and "The Fall of the House of Usher"

Paper Summary:

This paper compares the secular fall in the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe and the divine fall within the epic theological poem "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. The paper reports that the theme of falling from grace is common to both, but in the first it is a secular fall whereas in the second it is a divine, spiritual fall.

From the Paper:

"However, Poe, while rendering the Biblical figures into a mortal, temporal context, seems to suggest that there is an inherently fallen quality that is irredeemable in some person's souls, like Roderick and Fanny Usher. "Poe mocks the transcendental beliefs, by allowing the characters Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, the house and the atmosphere to travel in a downward motion into decay and death, rather than the upward transcendence into life and rebirth that the transcendentalists depict. The transcendence of the mind begins with Roderick Usher and is reflected in the characters and environment around him." (Nadeau, 2000) Thus view of the Ushers may be overly harsh--Poe's tone is often not mocking, but elegiac, sympathizing with the downward sinking of the home, and his inversion of the Adam and Eve creation myth, whereby the Usher's failure to procreate and look beyond their union results in the death of their home and line, is not necessarily paraodic, but a warning against self-absorption and narcissism. The fact that tragedy of fallen nature of the Ushers, and the darkness of the house also do not present a perfect parallel either with Milton's Adam and Eve or with the transcendentalist's sunny view of the soul aspiring upwards suggests that the Usher's narcissism deliberately recalls another Miltonic figure, one of arrogance rather than temptation. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Milton, John. "Paradise Lost." 1674. The Milton Reading Room: Dartmouth University. [16 May 2006] http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_5/index.shtml
• Moore, Andrew. "Milton: Paradise Lost." 2006. Universal Teacher. [16 May 2006] http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/poetry/paradiselost.htm
• Nadeau, Astrid. "Downward Transcendence in "The Fall of the House of Usher" 2000. American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. [16 May 2006] http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/PoeFall.htm
• Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher." 1838. American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. [16 May 2006] http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/PoeFall.htm
• Scharf, Douglas. "Edgar Allan Poe: Biographical Contexts For "The Fall of the House of Usher." 2000. American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. [16 May 2006] http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/PoeFall.htm

More papers on "Paradise Lost" and "The Fall of the House of Usher":

• Analytical Essay # 131115 : "Milton's 'Paradise Lost' and Women"
• Comparison Essay # 32576 : "Paradise Lost" and the "Rape of the Lock"

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