Short story written in 1839.
SYNOPSIS
“The Fall of the House of Usher” opens with the following epigraph: Son coeur est un luth sus-pendu; / Sitot qu’on le touche il resonne [His heart is a suspended lute; / Whenever one touches it, it resounds]. The lines are taken from the poem “Le Refus” by Pierre-Jean de Beranger (1780–1857).
The story also includes the first appearance of Poe’s poem “The HAUNTED PALACE,” spoken by Roder-ick as he contemplates mortality. The plot of the story was familiar to readers of gothic romances in Poe’s time. A young man is mysteriously sum-moned to an ancient home that holds long-hid-den secrets imbued with power over life and death.
The decaying Usher mansion has vacant, staring windows and a nearly invisible crack that scars the façade. While visiting, the narrator is involved in a series of bizarre and supernatural events for which he can provide no scientific explanation. Usher has appealed to the narrator to visit as “his only
personal friend,” for he suffers “of acute bodily ill-ness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him.”
Roderick Usher has a cadaverous appearance, with large and liquid eyes, thin and pallid lips, a nose “of a delicate Hebrew model,” and “a finely moulded chin.” His skin has “a ghastly pallor,” his hair is wild and uncut, and it “floated rather than fell about the face.” He appears to suffer from “a con-stitutional and family evil. . . . a morbid acuteness of the senses” that allows him to eat only “the most insipid food” and to wear “only garments of certain texture.” He cannot stand the smells of any flowers, and “his eyes were tortured by even faint light.” He lives in a constant state of nervousness, dreading
“even the most trivial incident, which may oper-ate upon this intolerable agitation of soul.” When pressed by the narrator, Usher admits that much of his gloomy disposition is due to the severe and long illness of his sister, Madeline, his only relative.
The narrator and Usher spend many solitary hours together, among the “rare and curious” books, some of them on divination and other subjects of the supernatural.
As the narrator speaks with her brother, Mad-eline passes slowly through a remote portion of the apartment without noticing either. The source of her illness “had long baffled the skill of her physi-cians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affec-tations of a partially cataleptical character, were the unusual diagnosis.” Up to the time of the narra-tor’s arrival, she has been ambulatory, but she takes to her bed, succumbing “to the prostrating power of the destroyer.” One evening, the narrator is informed by her brother that “that the lady Made-line was no more.” She later appears to the narrator and Roderick, with “blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame.” She stands and stares, then falls forward against her brother and
“in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse.” The narrator is called upon to take part in a strange task—in this case, to assist Roderick Usher in providing Madeline with “temporary entombment” after her apparent death. Later, while a violent storm rages outside, the narrator reads aloud to Usher from a medieval
romance. Madeline rises from her coffin and then appears to them, as Usher informs the narrator that Madeline was buried alive. The enshrouded Madeline falls onto her brother, dragging him “to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.” As brother and sister fall dead, the house begins to collapse, and the narrator runs out to avoid being killed. Having barely escaped with his life, the narrator gapes in horror as “the deep and dank tarn at [his] feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the House of Usher,”
and he is left to tell the tragic story of the Ushers.
COMMENTARY
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is the most popular of Poe’s stories, and one that attracted considerable attention when it first appeared. The publication of the story brought acclaim to Poe as a serious writer, and the tale has inspired numerous interpretations.
Multiple layers of meaning spring from the gothic trappings of the plot and the mysterious relation-ship of the brother and sister characters. Many crit-ics believe this tale reveals the most about Poe’s life—from one critic’s assertion that the description of Roderick Usher is “the most perfect pen-portrait of Poe which is known” to another’s suggestion that references to “the morbid condition of the auditory nerve” and the shifting visual imagery in the mansion unmistakably reflect a familiarity with the effects of opium. Certainly, the wasting away of Madeline Usher strongly calls to mind the suffer-ings of Poe’s child-bride VIRGINIA CLEMM, though Virginia suffered her first serious illness in 1842, after the story’s publication.
The complex nature of the story has led scholars to disagree over its exact meaning. While some prefer to see “Usher” as simply a story of the super-natural, others see in the events and characters the workings of the human mind on the brink of insanity, with Madeline and Roderick each repre-senting the unconscious and the conscious, respec-tively. When the conscious (Roderick) strives to deny the existence of the unconscious (Madeline), the human mind (the house encompassing both) must fall into destruction. A third approach moves the meaning of the story into the realm of creativ-ity and the role of the romantic artist in achiev-68 “Fall of the House of Usher, The”
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ing an ideal creative plane. The dilemma faced by the romantic artist is represented by Roderick, who effectively plunges into madness when he leaves the real world behind in his search for the sublime.
Madeline contrasts with the cerebral Roderick, whose readings have led him into untold areas of the occult.
Many critics have noted that “The Fall of the House of Usher’ ” is an excellent example of gothic short fiction. Beverly Voloshin argues that the story is a turning point in Poe’s development of the gothic tale. She says it contains all the necessary ingredients: romance, mystery, darkness, supernat-ural, decay, a corpse, and even the suggestion of vampirism. In addition to providing readers with the requisite elements of horror, supernatural, ter-minal illness, incest, and death, the story is set in a desolate, decaying mansion.
Other critics, however, point out that the story departs from the usual gothic fare in its emphasis upon introspection rather than action and incident.
The focus is placed on the narrator’s perceptions and observations of a disintegrating intellect—of a crumbling Roderick Usher rather than a crumbling castle or abbey. The effect produced is not one of physical terror but of the psychological, which requires the reader to enter Roderick’s mind and to join him in fearing the onslaught of insanity.
The end of the standard gothic tale brings resolu-tion through revelaresolu-tions of familial relaresolu-tionships, old vendettas, and interpersonal debts. The end of
“The Fall of the House of Usher” serves no such purpose. Instead, it raises questions that can never be answered because the characters who may pos-sess vital knowledge perish.
Critics agree that Poe uses setting, symbolism, and imagery to explore themes of evil, madness, and insanity. Beginning with the title, the crum-bling house is a major character in the story. The Usher family mansion is an isolated, dreary, and decaying structure in “a singularly dreary tract of country” and evokes in the narrator “a sense of insufferable gloom.” The house has a distinct personality, and it is described as having “vacant eye-like windows,” “bleak walls,” and “minute fungi [that] overspread the whole exterior.” The themes of isolation and self-destructive
concen-tration are symbolized by the house as well as by the character of Roderick Usher. When the nar-rator enters the house, he finds that the interior is morbidly depressing, with its “vaulted and fretted”
ceilings, “comfortless, antique, and tattered” fur-niture, and “dark draperies hung upon the walls.”
Roderick suggests that the house is one of the causes of his agitated behavior, and the narrator relates that Roderick “was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth.” The story is told from the point of view of the rational and objec-tive narrator, who tries valiantly to ascribe logical causes for the seemingly supernatural occurrences that take place in the house. He seeks to explain Roderick’s nervousness and anxiety as grounded in his mental anguish, but explaining through the use of logic becomes increasingly difficult as the story progresses and the narrator begins to doubt his own perceptions.
Poe uses a number of symbols to express the dis-integration of the Usher family. The most evident symbol is the house itself, which with its isolation, decay, and atmosphere of death serves as a repre-sentative of the Usher family. This association is expressed clearly by the narrator, who states that
“about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn.” The vegetation around the house is dead; although water is usually a symbol of life, the “black and lurid tarn” seems dead and reflects the house in “remodelled and inverted images.”
The narrator feels “an ici-ness” and “a sickening of the heart.” He sees “about the whole mansion . . . a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible and leaden-hued.” The apparent split between the twin personalities of the last of the Ushers, Madeline and Roderick, is symbolized by the crack in the house noted by the narrator, and it suggests the anticipated final destruction of the family and the house. Poe also conveys the sense of death and Roderick’s madness by the “fantastic character” of Roderick’s guitar playing, as well as his
“phantasmagoric” abstract painting and his lyrical poem, “The Haunted Palace.”
Images appear throughout the story to empha-size the foreboding atmosphere of “The Fall of the House of Usher” and to convey Poe’s themes. The narrator’s fear at the start of the story becomes evident when he sees the physi-cian standing on the staircase and observes, “His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled expres-sion of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with trepidation and passed on.” Madeline is portrayed as ghostlike and mysterious: “The lady Madeline passed slowly through the remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, and my eyes followed her retreating steps.”
An atmosphere of evil pervades “The Fall of the House of Usher,” expressed through the narra-tor’s descriptions of his hosts and their crumbling mansion. The house is “a mansion of gloom,” and Roderick has “a ghastly pallor of skin” and hair of a “wild gossamer texture.” He tells the narra-tor that he and Madeline are cursed and that he suffers from a “nervous agitation” which is “con-stitutional and family evil.” Madeline is portrayed ambiguously, with clear indication that she is ill but also with the suggestion that she is sapping the life force from Roderick, as well. Throughout, the narrator attempts to present an unbiased account that avoids ascribing the sense of foreboding to supernatural forces, but he fails as the situation worsens and Roderick’s hysteria increases. Rod-erick’s growing mental and emotional instability and increasing list of mysterious complaints lends credence to the belief that madness and insan-ity afflict the Usher family. The narrator states that Roderick suffers from “morbid acuteness of the senses,” and that he is overwhelmed by fear and anxiety. Madeline’s fatal illness, which causes her to lapse into a cataleptic state, then later to appear to rise from the dead, increases the agita-tion. His time is also spent in reading books on the occult. The story leaves unanswered questions as to whether Roderick’s strange behavior is the result of psychological disturbance or whether he is truly the victim of supernatural forces.
ADAPTATIONS
A radio play version of the story, originally broad-cast on the NBC University Theater, is available on the audiocassette Nosology; The Cask of Amon-tillado; The Fall of the House of Usher (Golden Age of Radio Thrillers, Metacom, 1991).
The visually graphic content of the story has also made it the subject of several films. The earli-est one appeared in France in 1929 as Le Chute de la Maison Usher, directed by Jean Epstein and Luis Buñuel. This impressionistic version, which fea-tures flying drapery, low-lying mists, sudden gusts of wind, and artistically flickering candle flames, earned critical acclaim. Television movie versions appeared in England in 1950; in the United States in 1958, as part of the NBC-TV Matinee Theater;
and in 1982, as an amateurish production with cardboard sets.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” was adapted to film in 1952. Directed and produced by Ivan Bar-nett, this black-and-white, 70-minute film starred Kay Tendeter as Roderick Usher and Gwen Wat-ford as Madeline Usher and is available from Vigi-lant Distributors. It is generally considered a poor adaptation of Poe’s story.
ROGER CORMAN’s low-budget 1960 version, titled House of Usher in the United States and The Fall of the House of Usher in Great Britain, is consid-ered by many film critics the best film adaptation of the story, despite the liberties it takes in making the narrator Madeline’s fiancé and in having the house first burn, then sink into the ground. This film was the first of eight Poe adaptations by Corman.
The story was also adapted to film in 1980. Star-ring Martin Landau as Roderick Usher and Dimitra Arliss as Madeline Usher, this 101-minute color film was produced by Charles E. Sellier, Jr. and directed by James L. Conway. It is available from Sunn Classic.
A dramatization of “The Fall of the House of Usher” was taped in 1965 as part of the “American Story Classics” series. Available from Film Video Library, this adaptation runs 29 minutes and is in black-and-white.
Another dramatization of the story was taped in 1976 by Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational 70 “Fall of the House of Usher, The”
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Corporation. Also produced by Britannica in 1976, The Fall of the House of Usher: A Discussion fea-tures science fiction writer Ray Bradbury discussing the gothic traditions of “The Fall of the House of Usher” as well as Poe’s influence on contemporary science fiction.
The story also became an obsession of the French composer CLAUDE DEBUSSY, who worked sporadi-cally from 1890 through his death in 1918 on an opera based on the story, yet left it unfinished. The composer told friends that he had become obsessed with the “heir of the Usher family” and had nearly finished a long monologue of “poor Roderick’s. It is sad enough to draw tears from a stone,” he said.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
The story was first published in the September 1839 issue of BURTON’S GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE
and was later collected among the 12 tales appear-ing in TALESBY EDGAR A. POE, published by Wiley
& Putnam in 1845.
CHARACTERS
Usher, Madeline The twin sister of Roderick Usher. The two are the only surviving members of the Usher family line. They live with a scarcely referred to valet and never-seen servants in the gloomy and dilapidated family mansion, the House of Usher. The narrator first learns that Madeline is ill when he enters the house and proceeds up a winding staircase, on which he encounters a valet and the Usher family physician, who wears an expression of
“low cunning and perplexity.” Glimpsed briefly as she appears to float through the back of Roderick’s studio, Madeline makes only a brief appearance in the story and does not speak at all. At the moment that the narrator does see her in the studio, Roderick suggests that his depressed state may largely be due to the severe and lengthy illness of his sister, who has been “his sole companion for long years—his last and only relative on earth.” A few days after the narrator arrives, Roderick frantically tells him that Madeline has died and asks his help in placing her body into the family tomb. The narrator experi-ences discomfort as he observes that she retains the coloring of a living woman: “As usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of
a faint blush upon the bosom and face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death.” Nearly a week later, Madeline’s shrieks are heard, as are the sounds of her escaping from the tomb. She had fallen into a catatonic state and was entombed alive. Madeline appears at the doorway to Roderick’s studio in the final throes of death and falls onto her brother, who dies with her,
“a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had antici-pated.” At the outset of the tale, Roderick is the stronger twin and Madeline the weaker. As Maurice Beebe observes, “It is Roderick who affects, Mad-eline who is affected” (125). At the end of the story, Madeline appears to have drained whatever vitality remained in Roderick, and she has taken him with her to death.
Usher, Roderick The twin brother of Madeline Usher. He and the narrator were “boon compan-ions in boyhood.” Although the unnamed narra-tor survives the destruction of the house, the snarra-tory he relates is actually told from the perspective of Roderick, who displays a naked sensitivity to light and sound and exhibits similar heightening of his other senses. The narrator states that Roderick
“suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endur-able; he could wear only garments of a certain texture; the odours of all flowers were oppres-sive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light;
and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.” Poe presents a clear analogy between the crumbling state of the mansion and the deteriorating mental and physical states of Roderick Usher, who
was enchained by certain superstititious
was enchained by certain superstititious