The Fall of the House of Usher – literary analysis

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher is set in a very old, gloomy
mansion in a desolate place. The inhabitants of the residence, Roderick and Madeline Usher,
are at the brink of death. As well as the building is near its collapse. Throughout the whole
story, the atmosphere and events happening in the owner's family are reflected in the
conditions of the abode as there would be an invisible and unbreakable bond between both
houses – the dwelling and the family.

On the first gaze on the habitation, the narrator utters that “a sense of insufferable gloom
pervaded my spirit”, which is the same mood in which he finds his host Roderick described as
a “wan being”. He also notices a fissure in the wall extending from the ground to the roof.
This could reflect Roderic’s illness — a mental disorder caused by his fear of losing his
terminally ill sister.

Another thing, that the owner and mansion have in common, is over sensibility. Roderick
“suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses”. The house also appears to be sentient.
Some parts of the house, for example “eye-like windows", are depicted as almost living. After
listening to the poem "The Haunted Palace" Roderic comes with the idea that “the kingdom of
inorganization” can perceive, meaning the old house. He continues to say that its
“importunate and terrible influence had for centuries moulded the destinies of his family, and
made him what he was”.

As the house of Ushers and Ushers are bounded, the conditions of the building as well as
Roderick mood worsens, when his sister Madeline dies. The narrator describes that "the dark
and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed
fitfully to and fro upon the walls", which makes the scene more dramatic altogether with
mysterious sounds in the following scenes.

Everything ends with Roderick death caused by his buried-alive sister. The extinction of the
last heir from the house of Usher causes the destruction of the building. "My brain reeled as I
saw the mighty walls rushing asunder - and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly
and silently over the fragments of the House of Usher," are the last words of the narrator, last
lines of the story.

To sum up, the setting of the changing and sentient house is an important element, which
makes the story more dramatic. The fates of the abode and Usher's family are interconnected.
All of this helped Poe to elicit feelings of dread, tension, and, above all "the grim phantasm",
FEAR.