Roderick Usher, the head of the house, is an educated man. He comes from a rather wealthy family and owns a huge library. He had once been an attractive man and “the character of his face had been at all times remarkable” (Poe, 667). Nevertheless, his appearance deteriorated over time. Roderick had changed so much that “[the narrator] doubted to whom [he] spoke” (Poe, 667). Roderick’s changed appearance probably is caused by his insanity. The narrator notes various symptoms of insanity from Roderick’s behaviors: “in the manner of my friend I was struck with an incoherence – an inconsistency...and excessive nervous agitation...his action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision...to that...of the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium” (Poe, 667). These are “the features of the mental disorder of [the narrator’s] friend” (Poe, 672). Roderick’s state worsens throughout the story. He becomes increasingly restless and unstable, especially after the burial of his sister. He is not able to sleep and claims that he hears noises. All in all, he is an unbalanced man.
The narrator appears to be a man of common sense. He seems to have a good heart in that he comes to help a friend from his boyhood. He is also educated. He observes Roderick and concludes that his friend has a mental disorder. He looks for natural scientific explanations for what Roderick senses. Criticizing Roderick for his fantasies, the narrator claims that Roderick is “enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted” (Poe, 668). The narrator’s tone suggests that he cannot understand Roderick. However, he himself is superstitious. When he looks at the house, even before he met Roderick Usher, he observes “there can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increasing of my superstition” (Poe, 665). The narrator also tried to deny the fact that he thinks Madeline is dead.
When he and Roderick go down to bury Madeline, he speculates that she may not be completely dead yet. Analyzing her face, he notes “the mockery of faint blush upon the bosom and the face...” (Poe, 672). Rather than mentioning his suspicion to Roderick, he remains silent and continues the burial. When Roderick claims that there are ghosts in the house, the narrator feels fear too, but he dismisses Roderick’s and his own fear by attributing them to a natural cause. He tells Roderick that “the appearances...are merely...not uncommon” (Poe, 674). In the end, this fear finally overcomes him. Although he had been able to suppress his fears all along, Lady Madeline’s reappearance runs him out of the house.
The same type of “mental disorder” ties the three characters together. All of them suffer from insanity, yet each responds differently. Lady Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane and continues her life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears to realize his mental state and struggles very hard to hold on to his sanity. The narrator, who is slowly but surely contracting the disease, wants to deny what he sees, hears, and senses. He, in the end, escapes from the illness because he flees from the house.
According to David H. Lawrence “The Fall of the House of Usher” can be interpreted as “a detailed account of the derangement and dissipation of an individual’s personality” (Lawrence, 83). The house itself becomes the “symbolic embodiment of this individual”(Lawrence, 84). The crack in the decaying mansion, which is noted by the narrator near the beginning of the story, represents “an irreconcilable fracture in the individual personality” (Lawrence, 84-85). Roderick represents the mind, while the portion of personality that we refer to as the senses (hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling) is represented by Madeline. During the course of the story, Roderick tries to detach itself from his twin, Madeline. This can be seen in Roderick’s aversion to his own senses as well as by his premature entombment of his twin sister. Living without Madeline, Roderick’s condition deteriorates. He begins to suffer from an “...intolerable agitation of the soul”. At the end of the story, Madeline returns from her tomb to claim Roderick, “a victim to the terrors he had anticipated”. As the two are reunited in death, the house (a symbol of a now deranged individual) crumble into the “deep and dark tarn” as the narrator flees in terror for his own sanity
Works Cited
Lawrence, David H. “Edgar Allen Poe,” Studies in
Classic American Literature, 1923. Reprinted by the Viking Press,1964:70-88.
Poe,Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
Baym, Nina. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York:Norton,1995.
“The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.”The Atlantic Monthly 78.462
4 pp. 2 Feb. 2000 <http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/classrev/poe2.htm>
Thompson, G. R. “Explained Gothic [“The Fall of the House of Usher”]. Critical Essay
on Edgar Allan Poe. Madison: ed. rev. University of Wisconsin Press,1973:142-151.