Usher House And Roderick Usher Mirror example essay topic

The Fall of The House of Usher is an eerie, imaginative story. The reader is captured by the twisted reality. Many things in the story are unclear to the reader; but no less interesting. For instance, even the conclusion of the story lends it self to argument. Did the house of Usher truly "fall"?

Or, is this event simply symbolism? In either case, it makes a dramatic conclusion. Also dramatic is the development of the actual house. It seems to take on a life of its own. The house is painted with mystery. The narrator himself comments on the discerning properties of the aged house; "What was it, I paused to think, what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the house of Usher" (54)?

The house is further developed in the narrator's references to the house. .".. In this mansion of gloom" (55). Even the surroundings serve the purpose. The narrator describes the landscape surrounding as having, .".. 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 a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden hued" (55).

This fantastic imagery sets the mood of the twisted events. Roderick Usher complements the forbidding surroundings terrifically. His temperament is declining and he seems incessantly agitated and nervous. And, as it turns out, Roderick's fears are valid. For soon enough, before his weakening eyes, stands the Lady Madeline of Usher. This shocking twist in the story is developed through the book that the narrator is reading.

The last line that he reads is, "Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door" (66)! Without suspecting such an event, the reader soon finds Lady Madeline actually standing at the door. She is described as having, .".. blood on her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame" (66). This line not only induces terror but invites debate. Upon seeing the woman the reader has to consider the cause of her death.

It can be dismissed as a strange illness, like the Doctors diagnosed. Or is it now feasible to suspect Roderick of some underhanded deed? Perhaps he killed the Lady Madeline, thus, validating his nervous state. The reader never learns the truth, but does not need to. The importance of the story lays in the actual "fall" of the house of Usher.

This event marks the actual fall of the house of Usher; the end of the Usher family name. It is the reader's choice to literalize the concluding event In "The Fall of the house of Usher", Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. Poe tries to evoke suspense in the reader's mind by using several different scenes. These elements include setting, characters, plot, and theme.

Poe uses setting primarily in this work to create atmosphere. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder, strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed.

He has a fearful appearance and his senses are acute. This adds curiosity and anxiety. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Because of this, the audience gets a sense that evil is lurking.

Madeline is in a cataleptic state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Finally, when she dies, she is buried in a vault inside of the mansion. In this story, the plot consists of rising events, conflict, climax, and resolution. The rising events include the parts in the story when the narrator first arrives at the house, meets Roderick, and hears about Roderick's and Madeline's problems.

Madeline's death and burial are part of the conflict. At this point, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are an omen that an evil action is about to occur. The climax is reached when Madeline comes back from the dead and she and her twin brother both die. Finally, the resolution comes when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall to the ground. The theme that Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convey is do not let fear take over your life because it could eventually de story you.

In the story, the narrator is fine and in a good state when he first enters the house. As Roderick begins to tell the narrator his problems, the narrator is affected and begins to sympathize with Roderick. Finally, when Madeline dies, and comes back to life, the narrator starts to hear things and is overcome by fear. This causes him to flee the House of Usher before it falls. "The Fall of the House of Usher", one of Edgar Allen Poe's most celebrated tales has captured the imagination of readers both young and old.

With great skill, Poe has metaphorically succeeded to mirror unlike objects in nature. One can find examples of how Poe has succeeded this throughout this short story. Among one of the first examples that one can find is. ".. that ancient metaphor for the body... (Montgomery 373)". The "ancient metaphor" that one can find is that of Roderick Usher and the later being the Usher house. With some close reading of the story, one can see how these two unlike objects mirror each other.

To commence an analysis of the different examples found in the story, one must get some brief some brief background information. Roderick Usher was excessively reserved during his childhood and there after. Roderick was the product of inbreeding which had caused him to lead a rather unhealthy life. According to Magill in the book Masterpieces of World Literature, since the Usher family had left only a direct line of descendants, the family and the house had become as one, the House of Usher (291). One can argue that this is true, but in my opinion, the relationship between the house and Roderick can be found in their descriptions.

The story's narrator describes Roderick as more zombielike than human. This is due to Roderick's cadaverous facial complexion: large, luminous eyes, thin and very pallid lips, his nose of "a delicate Hebrew model", his small molded chin, broad forehead, and his soft and web like hair (Magill 364). Throughout the story, the narrator describes Roderick's large eyes and hair with having a "wild gossamer texture" (Thompson 96). Roderick's unhealthy life has caused side effects to occur. They include such things as looking old for his age and at times trembling for no apparent reason (Bloom 60). The House of Usher is also similar to Roderick in their description.

The house's facade, as the narrator describes, resembles a giant face or skull with its eye-like windows and the hairlike fungi that hangs on the house's facade (Magill 364). The stonework that covers the Usher house is in decay. This stonework reminds the narrator. ".. of old wood-work which has rotten for long years in some neglected vault". (Bloom 59). The Usher House seems so fragile that it seems its instability will cause it to fall (59).

Roderick's complexion mirrors the house's facade. Roderick' large and luminous eyes are a mirror image of the house's "eye-like" windows. Roderick's soft and web-like hair resembles the house's hairlike fungi that hangs on the facade (Magill 364; Thompson 91). The stonework on the facade looks old just like Usher does. In addition, Usher's trembling resembles the house's instability which will cause it to fall (Bloom 59-60). One can see how the Usher house and Roderick Usher mirror each other.

Ironically, the story's narrator cannot. ".. connect with any idea of simple humanity... ". (Thompson 96) how Roderick Usher and the Usher house resemble one another. In my opinion, Edgar Allan Poe meant for the house to reflect Roderick's mind and body. As one has seen through the external appearance of the house and of Roderick, they both seem to be mirror images of each other. As for Roderick's state of mind, he is slowly descending into a state of mind in which nothing exits.

One can see this through the paintings the narrator describes. .".. I shuddered not knowing why; -from these paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavour to endure more than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely written words. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs... If ever mortal painted an idea that mortal was Roderick Usher (Wilson 72)". The paintings' images nothing but rays of light piercing throughout the canvas (Bloom 60).

As an amateur artist, I believe that artists express their inner thoughts through their art. If this is the case, Roderick is expressing what his mind sees, nothing. He has slowly descended into a state in which nothing exits due to the many years he has been in isolation. One can also interpret the paintings to be a metaphor of Roderick's death bed. The narrator also perceives the painting as Roderick's death bed. "One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although feebly, in words.

A small picture presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white and without interruption or device (Wilson 72)". This description of this particular painting reminds one of a coffin. One can image lying on a coffin and looking up. With no means of escape, the "coffin" that is depicted in the painting is Roderick's mind. There are other "objects" that can be found in the story that mirror each other. These two "objects" are Madeline Usher, Roderick's twin sister, and Roderick.

According to Irwin's book, .".. (Roderick) projects his own morbid self-absorption onto the figure of his dying sibling, in effect turning his twin into an external mirror image of his deteriorating mental state (214)". One might say that Madeline is the reflection of Roderick's mind and the Usher house of which will "fall". This "fall" might be physical and / or mental. In Roderick's case, he fits both categories. There are numerous ways to analyze this story and what the meaning behind it is.

In my opinion, Poe did not have a specific meaning behind the story. He meant for the reader to use their own critical judgment in reading the Usher story. "Through the hundred and thirty years since his death, that homeless spirit, Edgar Allan Poe, has wandered through our literature, tempting poets and novelists and critics to restlessness (Montgomery 9)". If this quote is correct, it might be another hundred years before one is able to understand what he is trying to "mirror" in his Usher story.

In the mean time, one can only assume that Poe meant for the story to be interpreted as one wishes to.

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985.
Hammond, J.R., An Edgar Allen Poe Companion: A Guide to the Short Stories, Romances, and Essay. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1981.
Irwin, John T., The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges and the Analytic Detective Story. London: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Magill, Frank N., ed. "Edgar Allan Poe". Masterpieces of World Literature. United States: Harper Collins Publisher, 1989.
Edgar Allan Poe". Mater plots. New Jersey: Salem Press, 1985.
Montgomery, Marion., Why Poe Drank Liquor. Illinois: Sherwood Sugden & Co., 1983.
Thompson, G.R., Poe's Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1973.
Wilson, James Southall, ed. The Tales of Edgar Allen Poe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927.