The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short
stories, particularly his tales of mystery. (born January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7, 1849,
Baltimore, Maryland),
Important Information about the story
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story published in 1839 in American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It was first
published in Gentleman’s Magazine by Burton and later included in the collection Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque
in 1840. The story is a work of Gothic Fiction and deals with the themes of isolation, madness, family, and
metaphysical identities.
Hezekiah Usher House could provide a source of inspiration for Poe’s story. The house was located in the Usher
estate. The house was built in 1684 and was relocated in 1830. The sources indicate that the owner of the house
caught a sailor and his young wife in the house and entombed them in their place of trysting. In 1830, when the
house was torn down, two bodies were found in the cellar cavity.

What makes Gothic fiction?

The Gothic novel is a genre associated with the mystery and intrigue surrounding the supernatural and the
unknown. Characteristics of the Gothic include: death and decay, haunted homes/castles, family curses,
madness, powerful love/romance, ghosts, and vampires.

Characters

Roderick Usher
He is the owner of the Usher estate. He is the last surviving male member of the Usher Family. He acts as a twin of
his sister, Madeline. He illustrates himself as a mind to her body and suffers from the mental counterpart of his
sister’s physical illness.
Roderick is one of the character doubles of Edger Allan Poe. He is a bookish and intellectual man while his sister is
sick and bedridden. Roderick’s mental inability to differentiate from reality and fantasy correspond to his sister’s
physical weakness. These characters are employed by Poe to explore the relationship and philosophical mystery
between body and mind.
Poe imagines what would happen if the connection between the body and mind are served and assigned to different
people. The imagery of the twin and the incestuous history in Ushers’ family line shows Roderick is inseparable from
his sister. Poe maintains the idea that even though the mind and body are inseparable, they depend on each other
for survival. When one of the elements suffers from a breakdown, the interdependence causes a chain reaction. The
physical death of Madeline parallels the collapse of Roderick’s sanity and the house of Usher.
Madeline Usher
She is the twin sister of Roderick; she is suffering from mysterious illness catalepsy. When the narrator discovers that
she is the twin sister of his friend, it points out the outsider’s relationship of the narrator to the house of Usher.
Unnamed narrator
He is the boyhood friend of Roderick. Roderick contacted him when he was suffering from emotional and mental
distress. He does not know much about the house of Usher and is the first outsider to visit the house in many years.

Genre
The story “The Fall of the House of Usher” belongs to the Gothic Fiction. There is a sentient house, an underground
tomb, a dead body, and dark and stormy nights. All of these feature a tale as Gothic fiction. “Supernatural Gothic” is
one of the subgenres of Gothic fiction. In supernatural gothic, weird, and strange things, happenings can be
attributed to the supernatural happening.
Moreover, the inexplicable diseases of the mind and body in Roderick Usher and Madeline Usher show the story
belongs to the genre of Gothic or horror fiction.

Setting
The setting of the novel is several dark and stormy nights and the haunted mansion. Any particular geographic
location of the story or the time of occurrence is completely unknown to the readers. However, the atmosphere and
the mood of the setting are far more important than the time and place of the setting. Poe creates a powerful
atmosphere. The first of the many settings of the house, Poe describes the outside of the house as spooky. There is
an ominous fissure that runs down the center of the house.
Poe creates a more scary setting inside the house. Even though the corridors in the house are filled with the
apparently ordinary things, they scream out horror. Moreover, another horrific element of the story is the dank
underground tomb. It is masterfully-crafted mini-setting the house of Usher.
The mansion is carefully crafted to emphasize the atmosphere and mood of the story. There are creepy furnishings
and tapestries inside the house. The story becomes claustrophobic when the readers know that Roderick Usher has
not left the house in ages. In fact, once entered, the narrator also does not leave the house until the story ends.

The Fall of the House of Usher Summary

The short story opens with an unnamed narrator who approaches House of Usher on the dark, dull, and soundless
day. The house belongs to his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. The house is mysterious and gloomy. The narrator
noticed the diseased atmosphere and absorbed evil in the house from the murky pond and decaying trees around
the house. He also observes that even though the house appears to be decaying, its structure is fairly solid. In front
of the building, there is no small crack from the roof to the ground.
The narrator has visited the house because Roderick Usher has sent him a letter that sincerely asks him to give him
company. In the letter, Roderick has mentioned that he has been physically and emotionally ill due to which the
narrator has rushed to help his friend.
The narrator then mentions the Usher family. He says that though they are an ancient clan, they have never
flourished. From generation to generation, only one member of the family survives. Therefore, they formed a direct
line of descent with no branches from outside. With its estate, the Usher family becomes so much identified that
people often confuse the inhabitants with the home.
The narrator further mentions that the inside of the house is as scary and frightening as inside. He goes to the room
where Roderick is waiting for him. He observes him be less energetic and paler. Roderick tells him that he is suffering
from fear and nerves, and his senses get heightened.
The narrator also mentions that Roderick appears to be afraid of his own house. Madeline, the sister of Roderick, is
taken with a mysterious illness that cannot be cured by the doctors. She is perhaps suffering from catalepsy in which
one loses the control of his/her limbs. To cheer up his friend, the narrator spends several days with him. He listens to
his friend and plays guitar. He also reads stories to him; however, he is able to lift the spirit of Roderick. Soon
afterward, Roderick claims that the house is unhealthy.
Madeline dies, and Roderick resolves to bury her in the house temporarily. Since her disease was rare and unique, he
fears that the doctors may take her dead body scientific research, so he wants to keep her in house. The narrator
helps his friend to put Madeline’s body in the tomb and observes that her cheeks are rosy. He also realizes that
Madeline and Roderick were twins.
With passing days, Roderick becomes more uncomfortable. The narrator was unable to sleep one night. Roderick
knocks on the door in a hysterical state. He takes the narrator to the window. The see a bright-looking gas nearby
the house. The narrator tells him that such gas is natural; there is nothing uncommon in it.
In order to pass the night, the narrator reads a story to Roderick. He reads Sir Launcelot Canning’s “Mad Twist,” a
medieval romance. When he reads the story, he starts hearing the noises that resemble the description in the story.
Initially, he ignores the noises thinking it to be his imagination. However, the noises become more clear and more
distinct after some time that it cannot be ignored.
He also observes that Roderick has fallen over his chair and is muttering to himself. To listen to him, the narrator
approaches him. Roderick discloses that he has been hearing such noises for days and thinks that they have buried
Madeline alive. It is Madeline trying to escape. He cries that she is standing behind him. The door opens with the
wind blowing, and Madeline was standing behind it in a white bloodied robe. She instantly attacks him, and he dies
of fear. The narrator runs from the house. As soon as he escapes, the house of Usher cracks and crumbles to the
ground.

Themes
Madness
The short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is an account of a madman whose sickness is suggestive because of
the sickness in the family line. His fears are apparent and manifest themselves through the sentient and supernatural
family estate. The story deals with both mental and physical illness and its effects on people who are close to you.
Much of the apparent madness in the story does not appear to be due to supernatural elements. The main character
is not really crazy or mad. However, the house he lives in is haunted. Considering this, one can interpret that
Roderick does not bury his sister alive, but she is back from the dead. One can also interpret that madness is
imaginary.
Family
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is an account of a family that is self-isolated, bizarre, and so remote from normalcy
that the very existence of this family has become supernatural and eerie. The bond between the brother and sister is
inexplicable and intense. It could possibly be supernatural or incestuous. This between them even surpasses death.
One can interpret that twin siblings are actually one person that is split into two. That is why they are inseparable
from each other.

Isolation
The story deals with the family that is so remote and isolated from the world that they have developed their own
non-existing barriers to interact with the world outside. The house of Usher has its own reality and is governed by its
own rules, with people having no interest in others. This extreme isolation makes the family closer and closes to the
extent that they become inexplicable to the outside world.

Fear
The idea of fear is worse for Roderick Usher than the object he fears. In fact, it is fear that causes his death in the
story. One can interpret the last action in a way that fear of any occurrence manifests it in real life. Roderick has
feared his death, and he brings his own death.

Identity
The short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” shows a split-personality disorder in a dramatized way. The tale
explores the various aspects of identity and the means through which these aspects could possibly be fractioned.
The story emphasized the difference between the mental and physical parts and how these parts interact with each
other.

Literary Analysis
The short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” contains a quintessential characteristic of gothic fiction. There is a
dreary landscape, haunted house, mysterious sickness, and double personality. Even though the gothic elements in
the story are easily identifiable, some of the terror in the story is because of its vagueness. The readers cannot
identify the location of the house or when the story takes place. Instead of using standard narrative markers, Poe
employed gothic elements such as a barren landscape and inclement weather.
The readers are left alone with the narrator as it is such a haunted place. Even though the narrator is the boyhood
friend of Roderick, he does not know much about him – even he does not know the basic fact about him that he has
a twin sister. Poe makes the readers ponder on why Roderick contacts the narrator in his state of need and the
persistence of the response of the narrator.
Though Poe gives the identifiable elements of the Gothic take, he contrasts the standard form of a tale with the plot
that is sudden, inexplicable, and filled with unexpected interruptions. The story opens without providing complete
information about the motives of the narrator’s arrival at the house of Usher. This ambiguity sets the plot of the
story that vague the real and the fantastic.

Edger Allan Poe also creates a claustrophobic sensation in his story. The narrator of the story is trapped in the charm
of Roderick’s attraction, and he cannot escape it until the house of Usher completely collapses. Because of the
structure of the house, the characters cannot act or move freely in the house. Thus the house is assumed to be a
monstrous character/structure in itself. It is a mastermind that controls the actions and fate of its residents.
Poe also creates confusion between the inanimate and living objects by doubling the house of Usher to the genetic
family line of the Usher family. The narrator refers to the house of Usher as the family line of the Usher Family.
Even though he metaphorically employs the word “house,” he also uses it to describe the real house. The narrator is
not only trapped inside the house, but the house also describes the biological fate of the family as well, as the Usher
family has no branches, all the genetic transformation takes place through incestuous relationships within the
domain of the house. The people and peasantry also confuse the house with the family as the physical structure
effectively portrays the genetic pattern of the family.

The claustrophobia of the house of Usher has a deep influence on the relationship among the characters of the
story. Due to claustrophobia, the narrator is not able to realize that Roderick and Madeline are twins. He realizes
when they prepare to entomb her dead body. Moreover, he is confined, and the cramped setting of the tomb
metaphorically characterizes the characters. The twins are so similar, and it is impossible for them to develop
separately. Because of Madeline’s similarity to Roderick, she has been buried before she is actually dead, and this
similarity is shown by the coffin that holds her identity.
Madeline appears to be suffering from the typical problems of nineteen-century women. All of her identity is
invested in her body. While on the other hand, Roderick possesses intellectual powers. However, when Madeline
comes out from the tomb, she possesses more power in the story and counteracts the weak, immobile, and nervous
disposition of her brother.
Some scholars and critics argue that the character of Madeline does not exist at all. They have reduced her to the
shared figment of the imagination of the narrator and Roderick. However, Madeline appears to be central to the
claustrophobic and symmetrical logic of the story. Madeline suppresses Roderick by not permitting him to see her
separate or essentially different from him. This attack is completed when she finally attacks and kills him at the end
of the story.

Throughout the story, there is a doubling. The story emphasizes the Gothic character of the doppelganger.
Doppelganger is the character double and portrays the doubling of the literary forms or inanimate structures. For
example, the narrator observes that the mansion is a reflection in the shallow pool or tarn that joins the front of the
house. The house is doubled through its image in the tarn; however, the image is upside down, which characterizes
the relationship between Madeline and Roderick.
The story also alludes to many other works of literature. It alludes to the poems “Mad Trist” and “The Haunted
Palace” by Sir Launcelot Canning. These poems are composed by Poe; however, in the story, he attributed these
poems to the other sources. Both of these poems counteract and therefore predict the plotline of the story. The
poem “Mad Trist” is about breaking into the dwelling of a hermit by Ethelred and mirrors Madeline’s escape from
the tomb.
The overpass of the border is vitally related to the Gothic horror of the story. Poe’s experience in the magazine
industry makes him excessively obsessed with word games and codes. This story highlights his obsession with
naming characters. The word “Usher” not only refers to the family of the mansion. It is actually the act of crossing a
border that carries the narrator into the tenacious world of Madeline and Roderick.
The letters of Roderick ushers the narrator into an unknowable world. And maybe the presence of narration – an
outsider – leads to the destruction of the house. The narrator is excluded from the Usher’s fear of the outsider, a
fear that highlights the claustrophobic nature of the story. The narrator unwittingly draws the whole structure by
undermining the fear of the outside. The poem “Mad Trist” and Madeline escapes also show the similar yet playful
crossing of the borders. Thus Poe buries the pun in tales in an invented severity of medieval romance, and this
earned him popularity in the magazines of America.

Introduction Gothic Stories are romantic tales of terror and the supernatural, which rely a great
deal on scene and setting to convey a sense of horror to the reader. The American author Edgar Allen Poe (1809-
1849) is just one master of the literary genre known as the Gothic story, and he makes great contribution to Gothic
fiction. He inherits and develops the tradition Gothic fiction, and the American literature forms the background of his
horror fictions and gives his fictions unique power and charm. To a certain degree, Poe’s horror fiction prepares the
origin of Southern fiction. In his works, he reveals people’s horror towards super nature, nothingness, death, evil and
disintegration of personality. He tries to make it clear that horror comes from our soul. He tries his best to state how
the evil and horror function in bringing the sublimation and purification to man’s inner world. The Fall of the House
of Usher written by Edgar Allan Poe in l839 is regarded as an early and supreme example of the Gothic horror story,
and it has the usual Gothic elements found in most works by Poe. Every aspect expected from a Poe’s piece can be
found within this story
3.1. Analysis of Atmosphere Gothic atmosphere is very important for representing its dark feature for Gothic tales.
The traditional Gothic atmosphere is always located in ruined castles and abbeys, and has dark passages and
stairwells echoing with howls, groans and dripping charnel houses which come from the Gothic architecture, which
bloomed in the 12th to the 16th century. And the use of the atmosphere is very simple, but the atmosphere
emerged in Poe’s works is diversity. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the atmosphere is used extensively to do many
things. The author uses it to convey ideas, effects, and images. It establishes a mood and foreshadows future events.
Poe communicates truths about the character through atmosphere. Symbols are also used throughout to help
understand the theme through the atmosphere. Poe creates an atmosphere in the reader’s mind. He chose every
word in every sentence carefully to create a gloomy mood. For example, Usher’s house, its windows, bricks, and
dungeon are all used to make a dismal atmosphere. The “white trunks of decayed trees,” the “black and lurid tarn,”
and the “vacant, eyelike windows” contribute to the collective atmosphere of despair and anguish (Edgar Allan Poe,
1982). This is done with the words black, lurid, decayed, and vacant. The narrator says that the Usher mansion had
“an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven.” (Hayes, 2004). It was no where near being beautiful,
holy, or clean. He uses descriptive words such as decayed, strange, peculiar, gray, mystic, gothic, pestilent, dull and
sluggish to create the atmosphere. Poe’s meticulous choice of words creates a very effective atmosphere in the
story. Through the atmosphere, Edgar Allan Poe is able to foreshadow events, and reveal character traits. Although
the reader may not notice all the numerous devices used, they contribute to giving the story depth. Noticed or not,
Poe utilizes the atmosphere to its full capacity to create the mood, characters and foreshadowing.

3.2. Analysis of Characterization

The Gothic characters portray in Poe’s works are unique and excellent. Many of them emerged with a fear for
death: someone is already mad or someone wants to be away from the incipient madness just as Roderick Usher in
The Fall of the House of Usher. What’s worse, some others are striving to come back from the tomb like Ma- W. F.
Pang et al. 18 delin, in fact, who is buried alive. Unlike those archetypal hero-villain who are popular in traditional
Gothic literature, Poe’s characters are mostly victimized, either by the dark psycho that “do wrong only for wrong’s
sake’’ or the terror that roots in his inner fear. The most victimized character in Poe’s fiction is no doubt Roderick
Usher, and Poe describes him like this: A cadaverousness of complexion, an eye large, liquid, a luminous beyond
comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew
mode…, a fine moulded chin, … in its want of prominence… (Chang, 2002) As someone has said, what the writer
described about the Roderick Usher is very similar with Poe himself. If this is true, maybe we can judge that the role
in the novel still reflects Poe’s world. What’s more, the reason that the narrator finds everything within his room in
House of Usher, such as the black oaken floor, the dark drapery and the general furniture which are “profuse,
comfortless, antique and tattered”, makes an unspeakable sense of familiarity and gives us what the environment
like in Poe’s own inner world. He is afraid of this kind of feeling and suffers bitterly by his inner fear for the result
which is caused by his inner horror and secret sin, but the narrator could not need to consider about these. So, at
the first sight of his ever intimate companion in early boyhood, he connects its Arabesque expression with any idea
of simple humanity. His special fear affects everything no matter in mind and without, from the guest and the House
itself and the tarn beyond. It explains the result of the tale naturally that the collapse of Usher’s reason makes the
fall of his house. It is the special collapse of character’s mind that made the realistic things has the same result.

3.3. Analysis of Symbol

As we all know, symbol in literature can be defined as something you can see that has taken on a meaning beyond
itself or a visible object or action that suggests some further meaning, in addition to itself. From The Fall of the
House of Usher, we can have a conclusion that the Usher family is the symbol of the final production of the highly
sensitive civilization, it is destined to be buried under the ground by horror. The tarn and canvas symbolize evil, the
malaria symbolizes super nature and illusion, horror lies in evil and madness, death finally defeat goodness, sense
and life, and everything vanish in deathly stillness. The house of Usher can be regarded as the body of Roderick
Usher, the gloomy inside of the house symbolize the illusion in his mind, the whole novel can be taken as “a journey
to the depth of self”, and the hero Roderick is the metaphor of “hypnosis of the brain” (Xiao, 2005). The uncertain
symbols cast a veil on Poe’s works and leave a huge space of imagination for the readers and trap them into the
horrible atmosphere when they search for the symbolic meaning of the novel.

4. Aesthetic Function of Gothicism

This part is to discuss the charm of Poe’s Gothic fictions on aesthetic. Sometimes, Poe’s Gothic fictions show us a
method that is not easy and harmful to be accepted by the readers to adjust their physical and psychological
balance. But we have to admit that in Poe’s Gothic fictions, horror and ugliness grasp our aesthetical vision. In the
parts about horror and evil, Poe achieves the aesthetical functions of sublimation and purification of human morality
and spirit.

4.1. Horror Brings Sublimity

First, we focus on the analysis on sublimation given by Poe in The Fall of the House of Usher which expresses the
beauty of astonishment: The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet. It was, indeed, a
tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty…did not prevent our
perceiving the life-like velocity with which they flew careering from all points against each other, without passing
away into the distance (Chang, 2002). Horror, danger, pain and death are the psychological and aesthetic effects that
Poe’s Gothic fictions always want to have. One also feels a certain special painful pleasure and beneficial judge of
morality and value from W. F. Pang et al. 19 the horror and mercy cause by them, which always enlighten and
educate people and make people face the internal himself. Poe wants to show us through his stories that there
should be a proper place for the irrational instinct and impulse, but we should be careful to keep them in harmony
with our sense. Conflicts should be avoided, and if we refuse this kind of ideas, we will fall into the dark world. When
we can avoid the extreme behavior or adopt the proper method to deal with it, we can get some benefit and achieve
a collection of freedom. Once the readers keep an aesthetic distance with Poe’s Gothic fictions, they can experience
the “astonishment” produced by horror. In Poe’s Gothic fictions, the horror is turned into beauty after the terrible
experience, and pain is turned into peaceful delight after aesthetics. This is the biggest aesthetic pleasure brought to
us by horror in his works.

4.2. Gothicism Brings Purification of Human Soul

Gothic fiction is a special kind of literature. It can convince people to believe that there is nothing to be afraid of. It
wakes up the terror in our soul and then turn it into an pleasure experience. The mixture of horror and pleasure
enter our soul and purify us. Gothic fiction exposes various horrible elements hidden in our everyday life: the pain of
loss, the mystery of death, the unpredictability and inefficiency of the occurrence of events. Just because horror is
one part of which we usually have in our daily life, though it sounds very strange to talk about daily life with the
saying as horror. Although we don’t know whether to laugh or cry, this expression on horror is effective to some
degree. Because the daily life looks very natural and it has no depression of horror sometimes. Gothic fictions
describe the depressed horror in everyday life through show us the frightening elements of horror. This process is
much like Freud’s theory about dreams. Gothic fictions are a mixture that provide us charming beauty as well as the
frightening horror. Just as dreams can cure the depressed ideas of dreamer, the horror emerged in fictions could
make the readers experience some imaginary life. But it should not too cruel, because if the tales make them feel
too painful and too terrible that they will close the book. In the fictions which are full of horror, although we are
afraid of the threatening in our mind but its danger to our bodies, we know it clearly that it will not be met in real
life. In other word, under the condition of no real danger, Gothic fiction creates lots of horrible scenes which bring a
strong thrill to people and make people feel safe while experiencing the extreme danger and death. People are
provided with a particular relaxation and pleasure. That is where the endless charm of Gothic fiction lies in. As we all
know, the horror in real life is terrible and can not produce pleasure. But in Poe’s Gothic stories, a horrible
frightening will emerge suddenly without any psychological preparation, and at the same time it can produce the
huge delight or great pleasure. In other word, our hearts will be filled with some exaggerated excitement make by
this kind of sudden horror. This aesthetic pleasure is some kind of pleasure in our internal sense. Simply, maybe we
can feel great pleasure from destruction. Everyone will have this experience which can be call “so cruel pleasure”.
The pain in the process of reading brings us the pleasure to validate our power (Yang, 2006). To Poe himself, maybe
he didn’t want to write any external horror, because what he wanted to explore is the horror in everyone’s heart. He
tried his best to transfer the spiritual ties hidden in our unconsciousness into consciousness, then face them and deal
with them. Finally, Poe’s Gothic fictions make the courage and force to defeat horror in the readers’ hearts and
encourage people to face the real self bravely. We can draw a conclusion that horror can bring people a stronger
tragic aesthetic delight, which can urge people to get moral, correct mentality and purify morality, and at last make
them achieve “goodness” or “virtue”. So, the purpose of literature is to arouse people’s emotion and let out people’s
horror, pain and mercy. We not only get the aesthetic pleasure from the horror and evil, but also a kind of
“purification”.

5. Conclusion Edgar Allan Poe is a genius of imagination and verbal creation. He is a master skilled in manipulating
language in his fictions as is the case of The Fall of the House of Usher to create the unique aesthetic effect he aims
to achieve. His purpose for composition is to produce a feeling of beauty to bring “an elevating excitement of the
soul”. In the given work discussed here, Poe offers different kinds of beauties: the beauty of horror, the beauty W. F.
Pang et al. 20 of love, and the beauty of death and despair. His pursuit of beauty labels him the first man who keeps
to the principle of “Art for Art’s sake.” Throughout his writing career, he pursues his aesthetic effect steadily at the
cost of being ridiculed and wronged viciously by many. Among all the beauties presented in Poe’s works, the beauty
with Gothicism is most striking one. In The Fall of the House of Usher, everything from atmosphere creation,
character portrayal to the use of symbol shares one single purpose of creating Gothic horror to brings out the sense
of sublimity for spiritual purification among readers. Kevin J. Hayes, the expert on Poe study once concludes, “the
word ‘aesthetic’ and its cognates have clung to the name of Edgar Allan Poe.” This is the right comment for Poe’s
principle of composition. To sum up, aesthetic theory about the beauty of horror is successfully incarnated in Poe’s
Gothic fictions like The Fall of the House of Usher and Poe is creditably a giant in Gothic literature. An analysis of
Poe’s use of Gothicism is helpful for readers to appreciate the special aesthetic charm of his work.

The Use of Symbolism in The Fall of the House of Usher

Introduction

The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe's most famous short stories. Moreover, analyzing this story provides a
basis for understanding Poe's Gothicism and his literary theories. Poe's carefully makes every sentence in the story
contribute to the overall effect, horror, accompanied by oppressing morbidity and anxious anticipation of terrifying
events. So, here he uses symbolism as a contribution in drawing the image of terrifying house. This chapter will
clarify the symbols in the story then, applying North whitehead theory

. 4.1 Symbols in the story

Symbolism becomes apparent as the story progresses. At first, the reader thinks that the story is about the structure
of the house as Poe describes its condition (Cummings, 2005). However, as the story continues still further, it
becomes apparent that it is about Roderick Usher and the lament of the end of his family line (ibid.). It will end upon
his death which is all too obviously imminent.

4.2 Symbolism in the Name 'Usher' as a character

The Fall of the House of Usher is full of symbols which serve both the plot and themes the flagrant symbols the
name Usher; an usher is a door keeper. In this sense, Roderick Usher opens the door to frightening the world for the
narrator. Roderick Usher is the last of the descendants of the Usher family. He has no children; therefore, no heirs to
carry on the family name or bloodline. The structural "house of Usher" is old, decrepit and in disrepair. Roderick
Usher is aged, infirm and about to die. He knows that when he dies, his family line dies with him. Hence, with
applying Whitehead's theory, Usher is a symbol and the door keeper is the symbolic reference of Usher.

4.3 Symbolism in Objects 4.3.1

The Title Symbolism in The Fall of the House of Usher begins with the title. At the end of the story, the house itself
does indeed fall; in the beginning, however, Roderick usher tells the narrator that once his chronically ill twin sister
Madeline dies, it "would leave (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.

4.3.2 The Fungus – Ridden Mansion

In the story, the overuse of the word fungus which symbolize the Decline of the Usher family. So, the Fungus or
Ridden mansion is a symbol, whereas the Decline of the Ushers family is the symbolic reference.

4.3.3 The Collapsing Mansion 36 Another symbol which is the collapsing mansion, it can be interpreted as the Fall of
the Usher family. Poe used this symbol to describe the end of the Usher family.

4.3.4 The "Vacant Eye – like" Windows of the Mansion Besides, there is another symbol in the story, the vacant eye –
like. The latter has many interpretations: - The first, hollow, cadaverous eyes of Roderick Usher. - Madeline Usher's
cataleptic gaze. - The vacuity of life in the Usher mansion. So, we have three suggestion symbolic reference of the
symbol" the vacant eye". In this case, the 'vacant eye – like' windows of the mansion is the symbol and the three
interpretations is the symbolic reference. Poe used the vacant eye to describe the evil throughout the story.

4.3.5 The Tarn, a Small Lake Encircling the Mansion and Reflecting its Image: This is another symbol in the story; it
has three possible symbolic references: (1) Madeline as a twin of Roderick, reflecting his image and personality
(Cummings, 2005). (2) The image of reality which Roderick and the narrator perceives; through the water of the tarn
reflects details exactly, the image is upside down, leaving open the possibility that Roderick and the narrator see a
false reality (ibid.). (3) The desire of the Ushers to isolate themselves from the outside world (ibid.
4.3.6 The Bridge over the Tarn Another symbol in The Fall of the House of Usher, is the bridge over the tarn which is
the symbolic reference of the narrator as Roderick Usher's only link to the outside world. Poe uses this symbol to
emphasize the need to contact the outside world (people) as the bridge in our life.

4.3.7 The Storm The storm in this story symbolizes the turbulent emotions experienced by the characters. Hence, the
motives of Poe's behind using the storm is to express the emotion we experienced in our life. The storm is the
symbol, then the turbulent emotions is its symbolic reference

4.3.8 The House of Usher There is much symbolism associated with the house itself; the narrator describes the house
at length in the beginning of the story. From the outside in, everything about it seems to be in a state of decline,
disrepair or neglect, paralleling the steadily declining health of the occupants (Cummings, 2005). Perhaps the most
telling image is the upside-down reflection of the house on the lake, indicating that everything about the place is
wrong (ibid.). It is main symbol in (FHU), which refers to both the house and the family (ibid.). The author uses it to
tell us about the Usher family. Thus, The House of Usher is a symbol and the Usher family is the symbolic reference

9 The Ghastly Images Inside the House It symbolizes the madness of the house's inhabitants. Poe used the ghastly
images to emphasize his gothic style. The ghastly image is the symbol and madness is it's the symbolic reference

The Fungi and Physical Deterioration of the House Another symbol in the story, symbolizes the physical deterioration
of Roderick and Madeline. The fungi and the physical deterioration of the house is the symbol, then the physical
deterioration of Roderick and Madeline is the symbolic reference.

4.3.11 The Upside Down Reflection of the House in the Tarn This symbolizes the upside down thinking of the Ushers.
The bridge over the tarn symbolizes the narrator who serves as the only bridge to the outside world. Here we have
the 39 symbol which is the upside down reflection of the house in the tarn, whereas the troubles of Usher's thoughts
are the symbolic references.

4.3.12 The Collapsing of the House Straight Down into the Tarn This symbolizes the linear fashion of the Usher's
family tree and its ultimate collapse. Poe uses this symbol to describe the ultimate ending of Usher's family
(Cummings, 2005). The collapse of the house is the symbol, and the collapse of the Usher's family is the symbolic
reference.

4.3.13 The Rank Atmosphere in The Fall of the House of Usher This symbolizes the negative effect of being in the
Usher's presence. The atmosphere is the symbol, and the negative effect in the Usher's presence is the symbolic
reference.

4.3.14 The Structural "House of Usher" 40 This symbolizes the family line or "House of Usher, because family lines of
the nobility in England are referred to as 'Houses' (Cummings, 2005). The family line of the several kings and nobility
of England were referred to as the "House of York" or the "House of Lancaster", etc (ibid.). Thus, the structure of the
house of usher is the symbol and the family line of nobility considered as the symbolic reference.

4.3.15 The Painting and Poem In the middle of the story, Roderick paints a picture of the inside view of the vault
(Cummings, 2005). Later, he and the narrator place the supposedly dead Madeline in an almost identical real vault.
In the same passage, there is a poem or a ballad called "the haunted palace". It describes a once-beautiful palace in
once-green setting in which "evil things, in robes of sorrow/ assailed the monarch's high estate" (ibid.). The Usher
Mansion immediately comes to mind, while the "robes of sorrow" are reminiscent of Madeline's burial robes (ibid.).
Hence, they are the symbolic reference of the the burial robes of Madeline.

4.3.16 The Weather and Moon In the final scene, a storm comes up, building along with the narrative; storms in
literature have long been used to underscore climatic action (Cummings, 2005). Finally, as the house crumbles into
the lake, there is a full, blood-red moon overhead, symbolic of bloodshed and death (ibid.). Thus, here the weather
(storm) and then moon are symbols then blood and death are the symbolic reference

At the story's end, Roderick dies and the "House of Usher" dies with him. As the narrator of the story rides away
from the house, then the structure itself falls. Conclusion In this chapter we attempted to analyze Poe's use of
several symbols in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher, such as the 'house', 'the fall' and 'the family Usher'.
It should be stated that in this story every detail is on purpose. Edgar Allan Poe make use of such symbols in the
story, to transmit his massage.