Fear in the house of usher e
Fear in the house of usher : eThe Fear in the House of Usher
The short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, uses a rational first person narrator to illustrate the strange effects the house has on the three characters within it. Everything about the house is dark and supernaturally evil, and appears to convey some fear that is driving its occupants insane. The narrator enters the story as a man with a lot of common sense and is very critical of the superstitious Usher, but he himself senses these same powers only he tries to escape the reality of the phenomena by reasoning or focusing on something else. Edgar Allen Poe, the author of this short story, is trying to show through the narrator that the denial of our fears can lead to insanity, much the same way it has already turned Usher insane and is slowly but surely acting upon the narrator.
The House of Usher is described by the narrator in the beginning of the story as having life-like characteristics suggesting that the narrator is already receiving supernatural feelings from the house. He describes the windows as being “vacant” and “eye-like”, adding to the all around eerie feel the house gives off. The narrator, upon seeing the house, is immediately driven to superstitious descriptions despite his attempts to remain rational. Because the reader sees everything through the narrator, the evil supernatural imagery that is conveyed can only be interpreted as a foreshadowing of what is to happen to the narrator in the story. When he says things like “the insufferable gloom pervading my spirit” upon looking at the house, the reader has to sense something-sinister going on within the house and the fear that the narrator feels toward it.
After entering the house, the narrator discovers his boyish friend in serious mental illness, which has altered even his physical appearance. In fact the narrator hardly recognized him saying things like “it was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my early childhood. (1377)” After speaking with Roderick for some time about his condition, the narrator learned that he was bounded by some mental terror and that “he was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted…he had never ventured forth.” (1378) By having the narrator make this connection, Poe is showing that perhaps the narrator himself is beginning to feel these same fears, that perhaps fear is contagious.
As the story progresses, the condition of Roderick Usher deteriorates and his insanity becomes even more evident, especially after the burial of Madeline. This is evident when the narrator notices that Usher now “roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless step. (1383)” The narrator was very concerned with the development of Usher’s condition and even went so far as to say that “his condition terrified-that is infected me. (1384)” The...
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