PS Topics in Anglophone Literary Studies (Mad, Bad, and Sad: The Representation of the

Madwoman in Anglophone Literature)

Mag. Dr. phil. Klambauer, Anna
WS 23/24

„Mad Madeline: The Representation of the

Madness in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ by
Edgar Allan Poe”

Term Paper

Submitted by

Nina RAFFER
Matriculation number: 12002714
E-Mail: nina.raffer@edu.uni-graz.at

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Declaration
I hereby confirm that this term paper entitled „Mad Madeline: The Representation of the
Madwoman in ‚The Fall of the House of Usher’ by Edgar Allan Poe” is the result of my own
independent academic work. All sources (books, articles, essays, dissertations, the internet,
etc.) are cited correctly in this paper; quotations and paraphrases are acknowledged. No
material other than that listed has been used.

I also certify that this paper or parts thereof have not been used previously as
examination material (by myself or anyone else) in another course at this or any other
university. I understand that any violation of this declaration will result in legal consequences
possibly leading to my expulsion from the University of Graz.

Graz, 16.02.2024

(Signature of student)

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Table of Contents: 4000 to 5000 words, 12-15 pages
Introduction
The Gothic Setting
https://dspace.univ-ouargla.dz/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1249/1/touahir_yamina.pdf This
has smth to add anywhere
Environmental influences on the characters
- Spatial setting: Autumn
- The sickening environment and the tarn
- The gloomy atmosphere of the tarn inside the Gothic House sickens the body
- Potential addition to gothic architecture and literary gothic aesthetic connections
- https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11059-022-00673-7.pdf
The Narration: unreliable?
- End of reliability at the echoing story? Madness Narrative:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubgraz-ebooks/reader.action?
docID=6949927&ppg=86
- Dual Hallucination: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43467554
- Archetype and Raeality in HoU https://www.jstor.org/stable/45296601
- Journey from reason to madness https://www.proquest.com/docview/1311240816?
fromopenview=true&imgSeq=2&pq-origsite=gscholar&sourcetype=Scholarly
%20Journals&parentSessionId=%2B0Cz2lH8%2BKn0d3KE3%2F
%2BOo4Zh79ZkOFOjpFJdV0KSkU4%3D
Origins of Madness:
The tarn
The gloom https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/style.52.3.0287?seq=1
Madeline, the water, the feminine, the subjective as the origin of every characters
madness
- Female Ethelrede: She slayed the death dragon, her brother passive
(file:///C:/Users/ninar/Downloads/HirogakuKiyo_23_11.pdf)
- Alienation of female Figure / Denial of Subjectivity
https://litere.ucv.ro/litere/sites/default/files/litere/Cercetare/
explorations_of_identity_and_communication.pdf#page=121
- Jungian Reading: usher as shadow anima, madeline as oppressed soul animus, narrator
as rational persona
https://clausiuspress.com/assets/default/article/2021/05/07/article_1620397462.pdf
- Trauma and the Uncanny in Edgar Allan Poe's “Ligeia” and “The Fall of the House of
Usher https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/edgallpoerev.17.2.0178

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Introduction
In this paper the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, which was written by Edgar
Allan Poe (2011 [1839]) and will be analysed with special focus on the theme of madness. It
was originally published in 1839 by Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine and several versions with
minor alterations made by Poe followed. For this paper the version republished in 2011 by
The Floating Press was read, and several secondary sources inspired the following
interpretation. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, author, editor and
literary critic and a major influence on the development of literature, especially on the gothic
genre. In the gothic short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” an unnamed narrator visits
his sick friend in the Usher mansion, an old, decaying Gothic building, and makes rather
uncomfortable encounters with his dying twin sister. The madness in "The Fall of the House
of Usher" permeates the story, manifesting in various forms. Eventually, all three characters of
the story are in varying forms mad and there are several potential causes of their madness. In
the first chapter of this paper the setting will be explored, for the house and its environment
significantly contribute to the madness. In the following chapter the narrating character and
his unreliability, which is linked to the narrator falling mad himself will be analysed. In the
final chapter, the connections of the cause(s) of madness to Madeline, who has a telling name,
will be explored.

I The Gothic Setting

The main aim of Gothic writers is to the make the readers believe and feel the horrors of their
stories, which is partly achieved through detailed descriptions of the setting. Right away the
story begins with the narrator’s description of the environment as he arrived at the mansion of
his friend Roderick Usher. The setting is a classic gothic one in both a temporal and spatial
sense. Usually gothic settings are isolated (or abroad), linked to feelings of loneliness, and full
of supernatural mysteries, just as the narrator of “The House of Usher” describes it. The first
sentence of the story describes the oppressive autumn weather, which is the season several
authors of the gothic genre, such as Mary Shelley or Emily St. Aubert, chose for their Gothic
stories, as well (cf. Pajović 2014: 188). When he describes the weather of a cold autumn day
close to the nearing winter, the darkest and coldest season of all, it foreshadows that the
events to come will become even darker and create an even more icy atmosphere. In fact, the
narrator repeats himself more and more often nearing the end of story when he notes his
shudders, whether they be from the cold or the psychological terrors he experiences. He also
describes the decaying state of the mansion of Usher, choosing a more “’homely’ gothic
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which was predominant in the States”, contrary to, for example, a haunted castle or hospital
(Pajović 2014: 189). In this regard Poe was an avantgarde of the genre, marking the beginning
of the genre of Southern Gothic set in private spaces. The surroundings reinforce the feelings
of suspense and terror. The narrator notes the “bleak walls”, “vacant eye-like windows”, and
the “few white trunks of decayed trees”, as well as the “black and lurid tarn that lay in
unruffled lustre”, surrounding the mansion (Poe 2011 [1839]: 4–5). However, the narrator
does not simply give a description of the house, its environment, and the pond. The narrator
notes how his environment impacts him and causes him to feel depressed, or mad.

In the “The Fall of the House of Usher” emotions and nature are closely related. In an
interpretation through the lens of ecocriticism, Pramusita (2018) highlights the impact of the
ecosystem around the house on the feelings of the narrator. The surrounding nature is
decaying and implying that the ecosystem is out of balance. The narrator repeatedly points out
how the dark waters of the tarn significantly contribute to the negative atmosphere. Pramusita
(2018: 239–240) suggests that the dark water of the tarn “reflects the growth of iron and
sulfur bacteria inside it”, which kills all life inside the water and produces a gas that
negatively impacts all living systems around it. The narrator describes the atmosphere around
the mansion and describes that the air “had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey
wall, and the silent tarn – a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and
leaden-hued”, assuming himself that the poor condition of his friend could be attributed to the
poor condition of the ecosystem around him (Poe 2011 [1839]: 7). The importance of the
tarn’s connection to the decay of the family is reinforced at the end of the story. It is this tarn
the house of Usher is ultimately swallowed up by, and as the house itself serves as a symbol
for the family, the tarn can be interpreted as the final death cause.

Inside the house, the atmosphere is no livelier than it is outside. It is described as a dark place
without light, full of antiquities that point out the old age of the mansion. He also mentions
that an “irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all” of the house, and that he “breathed
an atmosphere of sorrow” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 8). Pramusita (2018: 240) suggests that the lack
of natural light, the rotting of the old foundation and walls of the house, as well as all the
dusty unused furniture create veritably a suffocating atmosphere, “because germs, dust mites,
and other free-floating debris can trigger many illnesses.” Additionally, the tarn’s influence
persists within the house. Roderick explains to the narrator that “in the gradual yet certain
condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the walls”, this influence
“had moulded the destinies of his family” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 16). The combination of the

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fungi on the walls and the tarn affects the “morale of his existence”, the narrator notes when
Roderick first states this belief on page 11, detailing it few pages later (Poe 2011 [1839]).
These factors could be the ecological origin of the “irredeemable gloom”. In this sense, the
house ecologically creates a sickening environment that influences any life in it negatively,
making them suffer from illnesses and poor health. Poor health is, for example, pointed out
when the narrator first meets Rodrick Usher and describes him a “cadaverousness of
complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; […] a finely-moulded
chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 9].
Such poor health can indeed manifest in the body as an excessive nervous agitation, caused by
the sickening atmosphere inside the house.

(Un)reliable Narration
The story is told through a homodiegetic narrative. The character who tells us the story is
never named and remains unidentified aside from being a male friend of Roderick.
Homodiegetic narration faces human limits in telling the story. The narrating character cannot
be at several places at once, cannot read other characters’ minds, cannot know the truth, he
can only tell the story from his perspective. In other words, the narration is subjective. In her
article Chen (2021: 27) provides a Jungian archetypical analysis of the story and refers to the
narrator as a “deceptively rational ‘Persona’ in unreliable narration”. While the narrator keeps
a rational tone, he repeatedly admits feelings of fear. “As the narrator appeared to be in an
unsound mind, but still tried to behave and utter normally, his narration seemed to lose its
credibility in his attempt to retreat from this story” (Chen 2021: 28). Caught between his fear
and remaining rational, he distances himself from his feelings and becomes dishonest towards
himself, and thus, an unreliable narrator for the reader.

Along with his vain attempt to remain rational and take distance, the narrator puts his focus on
the psychological decline he witnesses in Usher and neglects his own mental deterioration. He
states that Usher has “a mind from which darkness […] poured forth upon all objects of the
moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation of gloom”, as if the ‘gloom’ is a
contagious sickness (Poe 2011 [1839]: 12). He keeps his focus on Roderick’s symptoms,
notices that he nervously and rapidly moves, yet is in a state of “intense mental collectedness”
(13). The narrator does not want to admit to his infection of the ‘gloom’, at first. According to
Engel (1985: 26), the narrator “fails to perceive [what] is the beginning of his own
psychological deterioration.” However, the narrator does indeed state “it was no wonder that
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this condition terrified – that it infected me. I felt it creeping upon me, by slow yet certain
degrees, the wild influences of his […] superstitions” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 19). Arguably he
failed to perceive the beginning of his own psychological decline, yet with these lines shortly
before the climax the narrator warns the readers about his unreliability. He experiences the
psychological terror of witnessing events he can no longer understand through reason, now
being fully emerged in the irrational and superstitious realm of the house of Usher. He does
not deny that his sanity suffers, yet he struggles to accept his madness.

At the climax of the story the unreliability of the narrator is an essential factor in creating
suspense and madness becomes evident in his hallucinations. Due to the narrator’s
unreliability, the question whether or not Madeline is alive remains ambiguous from the
moment they buried her. The narrator notes “the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and
the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip”, noticing himself that she looks as
if she was still alive – yet does not take these perceptions seriously (Poe 2011 [1839]: 18).
The narrator notices his mental decline and tries unsuccessfully “to attribute his feelings to the
room with its strange trappings and thus explain them away” (Engel 1985: 28). When the
narrator begins to read the “Mad Trist” to Roderick, the reader cannot rely on the narrator’s
perception. Nor does the narrator himself know how to reason the sounds he hears- he might
be hallucinating. Hill (cf. 1963: 397–399) asserts that indeed the sounds and the final
appearance of Madeline must be hallucinations, for the vault in which she was buried had
little oxygen, making it even more impossible to regain the strength to lift the immense
weight of the coffin and to open the iron door after resting there for a week.

That the final reappearance of Madeline was a mere hallucination is also suggested by the
weather outside the mansion. The stormy weather reinforces unease in the reader, for wild
storms and strong winds are indeed dangerous natural events. To use nature as a reflector of
the inner state of characters is a common marker of romantic/gothic fiction. Additionally,
supernatural elements are mingled into the descriptions of the storm, and the narrator tries to
convince Roderick that the ghostly appearances he sees outside are merely “electrical
phenomena not uncommon”, though he admits few lines before he also perceives an unnatural
light outside (Poe 2011 [1839]: 21). The low clouds indicate that the narrator’s mind is
clouded, as well. The fast and ever-changing winds reflect the narrator’s own nervousness and
fright. His judgement is clouded, his sanity blown away.

The narrator has succumbed to the maddening influences of his friend and the house,
hallucinating himself. Hill (1963) argues on page 401 that Roderick’s “hallucination […] is
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not only the product of an erratic mind but of a wish to die himself”, and that it his madness in
first place that affects his friend. While Roderick accepts his madness, even wishes to follow
his twin sister into death, the narrator does not cease to try and distance himself from it, not
knowing he already lost this fight. On the contrary, Roderick seems aware he has infected his
friend, calling him a madman when Madeline appears. Indeed, this hallucination is the final
proof that the narrator, too, lost his sanity.

Origins of Madness
One potential origin of the madness the Usher family, and eventually the narrator himself,
suffer from, has already been mentioned in the ecological analysis of the setting. The impact
of the tarn on the psyche is undeniable. The narrator writes about “the rapid increase of […]
superstition” right after his “experiment – that of looking down within the tarn” (Poe 2011
[1839]: 6). Additionally, he witnesses the obsession of his friend’s mind on the tarn. The
psychological impact of the tarn is again noted by the narrator when he states during the storm
that the appearances Roderick hallucinates may “have their ghastly origin in the rank miasma
of the tarn” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 12). The influence of the miasma on health is obvious and as
stated before, in combination with the mould of the house, it could indeed be a potential cause
of hallucinations and mental deterioration. However, Garmon (1972) is not satisfied with the
explanation of the tarn as the origin of madness. He argues that while Poe must have
intentionally included the miasma to cause gloom, in another essay Poe “actually denies the
probability of harm. ‘Whether such injury [due to miasma] actually does occur is very
questionable’”, he quotes the author (Garmon 1972: 12). As the tarn swallows up the house it
undeniably affects the house of Usher and contributes to its ultimate decay, yet it is debatable
whether it is the origin of madness. Its impact seems to be intended to be understood
symbolically only.

The essential element of the symbolic tarn is water, which “is usually associated with the
feminine principle, the maternal principle, the subconscious, the dark side or the obscurity of
the feminine psychic power” (Munteanu 2014: 1101). There are several connections between
water, the subconscious and the feminine that can be found within the text. Mantenau (2014:
1108) further explains how water is linked to femininity due to its “coldness, sensuality and
waviness”, and linked to maternity “due to its warmness, swing and protection, […]. The sea
is the mother.” An elaboration on the connection between the house and the maternal feminine
principle will be found in the following paragraphs. What is apparent is that ‘mad’ is the first
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syllable of Madeline. The dark water of the tarn is as sick as it is sickening. Madeline’s mind
is darkened, as well. Her mind is sick, and in fact, it is Roderick himself who, right after
telling the narrator about mystic forces surrounding the mansion, states that her darkened
mind is also sickening. Roderick proposes to the narrator “a more natural and far more
palpable origin” of his madness: Madeline (Poe 2011 [1839]: 11). He roots his mental
disorder in hers, attributing to her both the sick and sickening qualities that are mirrored by
the tarn. While Roderick is ultimately taken down by Madeline, it is the tarn that takes down
the mansion.

The house itself can from a Jungian perspective also be considered as a symbol “for the
personality as a whole”, as Martindale (1972: 10) argues in his paper, and its inhabitants as
aspects of this personality. The two basic aspects of the self, the conscious and unconscious,
“tend always to be symbolized as male and female figures respectively, often as brother and
sister” (Martindale 1972: 10). In a healthily developed self, the subconscious can be
symbolized through benevolent ‘anima’ figures, while an undeveloped ego will be ruled by
his unconscious that is best “symbolized by ‘Terrible Mother’ figures which on some level
seduce or destroy a vulnerable hero” (Martindale 1972:10). The ‘anima’ is the female aspect
in the psyche of a male person, whereas the ‘animus’ is the male aspect of a female psyche. In
Martindale’s (1972) interpretation, Madeline is symbolic for a madness that is a result of the
unconscious dominating the conscious. The conscious is symbolized by Roderick. Her male
counterpart is indeed a victim of a mental disorder, which could originate from his unhealthy
relationship with his subconscious. In the end, he is taken down by Madeline, or rather, by the
hallucinations originating from his subconscious.

An unhealthy relationship between Roderick and his sister is evident in the way he treats her
as if she was a ghost. When the narrator meets Madeline for the first time, she passes through
the room like a spectre and does not interact with anyone in the room, foreshadowing her later
reappearance by hallucinations, or indeed as a ghost. Roderick is so fixated on the nearing
death of his sister, that it seems he does not even see her when she walks through the room,
still alive. As the narrator turns his eyes from Madeline to Roderick, he notes, “but he had
buried his face in his hands […] through which trickled many passionate tears” (Poe 2011
[1839]: 11). Through the lens of Roderick, Madeline has become a ghost before her burial
already. Even in her burial scene she is described by the narrator in a way that leaves it
ambiguous whether she is dead or alive, putting her in a space in between life and death
where ghosts are. “Throughout the story, Madeline is not seen as a human being in flesh and

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blood, but only as a specter that frightens the narrator” (Rădulescu 2016: 123). Madeline’s
reduction to a ghost silences her, not a single word is spoken by her throughout the whole
story. Her ghostliness is “suggestive for women’s marginal position in society, public affairs
and even family where the man […] occupies the prominent place and is the decision-making
person” (Rădulescu 2016: 123). Rădulescu (2016) highlights Madeline’s confinement to the
sickening mansion, her being unmarried and childless. During the nineteenth century a
woman’s position in society depended on her father, husband, and/or brother. Madeline cannot
exist freely outside the mansion or outside the relationship with her brother. Shortly before
Madline appears, Roderick states that his “tenderly beloved sister” was “his sole companion
for long years” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 11). As Rădulescu (cf. 2016: 123–124) points out this
statement correlates with the contemporary reduction of women’s roles in society to
homemakers and caretakers, showing that for years her sole purpose was to attend to the
needs of her brother, without a chance to develop into a free individual personality. Even in
death she cannot break the confinement of the house, when her brother decides to bury her in
the vault. Having her own needs disregarded over many years, it is with high probability the
cause of her depression.

Madeline appears to exist only as a shadow of Roderick. Her disease is described as a “settled
apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, […] a partially cataleptical character” (Poe
2011 [1839]: 11). Rădulescu (2016: 124) interprets the catalepsy of Madeline as another
metaphor for women’s societal position, referring to the “traditional misogynistic position”
that believes in “women’s incapacity, inconstancy and lack of strength”, associating them with
“instability, fluidity”. It is debatable whether Poe intended to point out the marginalized
position of women at his time, more likely he intended highlight through her ghostly
appearance her connection to the unconscious. In fact, most women in Poe’s stories are
“spectres, idealized images drained of blood” (Symons 1978: 240), who are merely “beautiful
or horrific shadows existing only in the mind of the narrator” (207). In Jungian terminology,
the ‘shadow’ of the psyche are the parts of a personality that must be hidden from society.
Outside the private realm people show their good sides, the ‘persona’, like a mask underneath
which the ‘shadow’ hides. Madeline is hidden most of the times, Roderick hides her corpse
away in the deep, dark vault.

Madeline, as a Jungian ‘shadow’ of Roderick, is the key to his dark secrets and origin of their
madness. These secrets are merely suggested to the narrator of the story. Roderick states that
“the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very

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temporary variation, so lain” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 6). The narrator understands that it “was this
deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent undeviating transmission, from
sire to son, of the patrimony” causing sickness and madness (Poe 2011 [1839]: 6). Right
beforehand he explained that the whole family were passionate about art and, “perhaps even
more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties of musical science” (Poe 2011
[1839]: 6). Garmon (1972: 12) explains that the family has been “heightening their
sensitivities for generations, and part of that heightening seems to have been incest - partly
and immediately because the sensations of intercourse are greater when the ultimate
perversity of incest is added.” Though the dark inheritance of incest within the family is
(strongly) suggested, there are no hints that intercourse between Roderick and Madeline
happened. Chen (2021) argues that Roderick took it upon him to end the family’s inheritance
of incest and thus intentionally murdered Madeline. Roderick “wanted to end this cycle of
exercising incest, so he sent his living sister into the coffin as a symbol of terminating this
factitious ‘direct line of descent’” (Chen 2021: 26). Her claim is supported by the murmurs of
Roderick shortly before her ghost (or hallucination) reappears. “I dared not - I dared not
speak! We have put her living in the tomb!” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 24). What he also dared not
speak was all that Madeline embodied without speaking. She is the neglected shadow of her
brother, who had decided above her to end the family line and their sickening inheritance – by
murdering her. Chen (cf. 2021: 27) interprets her final reappearance as the revenge of her
oppressed soul, a reawakening of her ‘animus’. Traditional gender roles are twisted in the end,
when Madeline shows supernatural strength by freeing herself from the vault and aggressively
attacks her brother. He, who at this point succumbed to his hysteria, his irrationality and
madness, holds an over-emotionality and a frailness of the mind usually attributed to women.
This hints at the problematic nature of incest, for sister and brother have become too much
alike each other to fulfil the binary gender roles they are supposed to live. The dark
inheritance of the twins has caused them to become too sick, too similar to continue passing it
on. Their secret was kept in the dark for too long, for it finally breaks out.

The twisted gender roles in the end are mirrored in the story “Mad Trist” read by the narrator
to Roderick, as Madeline seems to return as a female Ethelred. The hero Ethelred enters the
hermit’s dwelling by force, and the story suggests that at the same time Madeline opened her
tomb with supernatural force. The metallic hallways are another hint for the close connection
between the “Mad Trist” and Usher’s reality. In contrast to the hermit’s dwelling which floors
were of silver, the vault where Madeline laid was sheathed with copper (cf. Sato 1987:12–13).
Roderick’s poem “The Haunted Palace” also speaks of a palace that once was “radiant”, as if
11
it were of gold and silver like the hermit’s palace (Poe 2011 [1839]: 14). A second hint is that
Ethelred does so during tempest weather, mirroring the storms outside Usher’s mansion.
Then, she surprisingly meets a dragon, not a hermit, and strikes him down. A sound similar to
the shrieking of the dragon is attributed to “the grating of the iron hinges of her prison” (Poe
2011 [1839]: 24). As Ethelred attempts to claim the shield it falls on the floor, causing a
metallic sound that is likened to the opening of the coppered door of the vault. Madeline is the
female Ethelred, who slayed “the dragon of death, whereas Roderick is the embodiment of
pure passive sentience” (Sato 1987:12). Sato (1987) argues that the dragon might be more
than a symbol of death, that he actually symbolizes Roderick himself. He argues that in the
same way the dragon is the last guard to protect the hermit’s place, Roderick is the last
guardian of the house of Usher. The dragon is not referred to as ‘it’, but as ‘he’, heightening
the possibility of the connection to a male character (cf. Sato 1987: 14). Additionally, Ethelred
is awed when he first meets the dragon, just like the narrator notes his awe when he meets
Roderick.

Nonetheless, if Roderick is the dragon, then Madeline should have been the hermit he guards,
and not Ethelred. There are indeed several similarities. Firstly, Madeline is hardly present in
the story, she does not speak a single word, just as the hermit. The hermit is referred to as
“obstinate and maliceful” (Poe 2011 [1839]): 22), and Madeline is also reduced to a maliceful
ghost in the story. Sato (cf. 1987: 15–16) continues to argue that the narrator actually is
Ethelred, due to both being intruders. However, it seems more plausible that the hermit simply
is what Madeline should have been if she were not mad, or not the twin sister. The obvious
similarity of Ethelred and her taking similar courses of action cannot be ignored. Madeline
should have been the angel of the house of Usher, alongside her guardian of a brother,
maliceful in the sense that she consents to their incestuous relationship. Yet, the hermit was
already gone when Ethelred broke into the dwelling; her brother had already buried her. Little
is revealed about Madeline, but Roderick states that “she had steadily borne up against the
pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed” (Poe 2011 [1839]: 11). Her
character seems to be strong-willed; she might have had a stronger will than her brother.
Maybe what she resisted was the pressure of incestuous love, and she refused to lay down in
her bed in several senses. Though, it is Ethelred who enters the dwelling by force, this might
be reflective of what Roderick has done before. The Ethelred that returned is a reflection of
the ‘animus’ of Madeline, seeking revenge. Her brother has failed her, so she becomes a better
man and the one who makes the bloodline find its end. Through the romance read by the

12
narrator, brother and sister finally find to each other, ultimately united in death, taking
incestuous madness out of life.

Conclusion
In the short story the gothic setting and its horrors suggest several origins of madness. The
sickening atmosphere around the house seems to rip life force out of anything around it.
Especially the tarn is an important symbol, as it is repeatedly suggested to be the origin for the
sickening atmosphere. However, the tarn, on which surface the house is mirrored, can be
better understood as a symbolic origin of madness. The water of the tarn can be understood as
a symbol for the only female character of the story, who Roderick explicitly blames to be the
origin of his madness. Madeline has a telling name, and indeed she is the key to understand
where the madness is coming from. She embodies the shadow and incestuous desires of
Roderick. Incest is only suggested, though the family’s direct lineage and the way Roderick
speaks of his twin sister confirm it. To conclude, it may not be Madeline herself who is the
origin of madness, but she does embody the actual origin of it.

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