"The Fall of the House of Usher" was one of Edgar Allan Poe's first contributions to Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, of which he was an associate editor. The story was printed in 1839, a little over a year after "Ligeia," which Poe always considered his best tale. Both "Usher" and "Ligeia" belong squarely in the Gothic tradition, but both feature language of such lyrical beauty that they have become timeless. It should also be noted that both involve deceased loved ones, much like the work which ultimately made Poe a literary star, "The Raven." Having inspired two inarguably great 1928 film adaptations--one by James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber, the other by French surrealist Jean Epstein--and a host of other movies, comic books, and ripoffs, "The Fall of the House of Usher," with its stark yet mysterious chronicling of mental collapse, its startling imagery, and its horrific finale, is today probably Poe's best known and most cherished story.
Character List
The Narrator
We know little of his background, and we never even learn his name. He was childhood friends with Roderick Usher. He arrives on horseback at the house with the intention of helping Usher. Though he details precisely the nature of Usher's madness, it is suggested through the course of the narrative that he too may be losing his sanity. Indeed, given his terrified description of the ghastly house in the opening passages of the tale, the reader must wonder whether he was sane from the start.
Roderick Usher
The last living descendant, along with his ailing sister Madeline, of the Ushers, a time-worn family of wealth and prestige, known as patrons of the arts and givers of charity, but also stricken with a peculiar temperament that seems to run through their blood. Never having crossed lines with other families, the Usher name lies entirely "in the direct line of descent"--so that, after Madeline dies, Roderick is his family's sole living exponent. At the beginning of the story he already suffers from a severe mental illness, which steadily grows worse as the tale progresses. After his sister's death, he seems to retreat completely into madness. Before that precipitous fall, however, he dabbles in painting and shows himself to be an able guitar player. A man of culture and erudition, Roderick Usher spends his days inside his dark and cavernous mansion, avoiding sunlight or the smells of flowers, and obsessing over "the sentience of all vegetable things."
Madeline
Roderick Usher's sister. She suffers from a mysterious illness, cataleptic in nature, never otherwise explained. What is most important to the story, however, is the degree to which Roderick loves her. He seems unable to bear the thought of her death. The fact that the two of them live together without spouses in the great family mansion suggests, given the pecularity of the two and their unusual family history, the possibility of an incestuous relationship.
Short Summary
An unnamed protagonist (the Narrator) is summoned to the remote mansion of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher. Filled with a sense of dread by the sight of the house itself, the Narrator reunites with his old companion, who is suffering from a strange mental illness and whose sister Madeline is near death due to a mysterious disease. The Narrator provides company to Usher while he paints and plays guitar, spending all his days inside, avoiding the sunlight and obsessing over the sentience of the non-living. When Madeline dies, Usher decides to bury her temporarily in one of his house's large vaults. A few days later, however, she emerges from her provisional tomb, killing her brother while the Narrator flees for his life. The House of Usher splits apart and collapses, wiping away the last remnants of the ancient family
Summary and Analysis of the Tale
"The Fall of the House of Usher" begins with one of Poe's most famous descriptions: "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year . . . " The Narrator is describing his arrival on horseback at Roderick Usher's isolated abode one dreary evening. Immediately he feels an irrational fear upon viewing the huge, decrepit house. Among the mansion's singular features are windows which resemble eyes and a fissure in the stone zig-zagging its way through the façade.
We learn that the Narrator and Usher were childhood friends. Recently, the Narrator received a letter from Usher. In the letter, Roderick described a certain "mental disorder" that was plaguing him, and he communicated a desperate desire to see his old companion. Due to the urgent tone of the letter, the Narrator never thought twice; without hesitation he obeyed this "very singular summons."
Usher, the Narrator informs us, was always excessively reserved and was somewhat mysterious. He belongs to an ancient family that has never put forth "an enduring branch." There are hints of incest over the years, but more important is the fact that Usher is now the only male descendant of the line. Tellingly, he lives not with a wife but with his sister, Madeline.
Musing on the Ushers' "peculiar sensibility of temperament"--this is, after all, a family which has over the ages served as patron to the arts, charity to the poor, and lover of music--the Narrator surveys the house. He notes how old it appears. He sees that individual stones seem on the verge of crumbling while the edifice as a whole appears remarkably stable (despite the fissure). He rides down a causeway to the entrance, over a "tarn" (a small mountain lake) that borders the construction. A servant takes his horse, and a valet escorts him into the house.
He goes through a Gothic archway, then up a staircase, where he meets the sinister-looking family doctor. Finally, he enters his old friend's studio, a dark and cavernous room. Usher arises from a sofa on which he has been lying and welcomes the Narrator with "overdone cordiality." Meanwhile, the Narrator notes that all of Usher's usual facial features--pale skin, thin lips, large and liquid eyes, web-like hair--have become exaggerated. The skin is now "ghastly" in hue, and the hair floats wildly over his forehead. Moreover, Usher seems incoherent and excessively nervous, bouncing back and forth between vivacity and depression.
He tells the Narrator of his illness, a "nervous affection" which has resulted in a few bizarre symptoms. For one, Usher's senses seem now incredibly acute. He cannot bear most food. He can only wear certain types of fabric. The smell of flowers makes him sick. His eyes cannot stand light. And almost all sounds save those of certain stringed instruments--like the guitar he sometimes plays--"inspire him with horror." All in all, the man seems overwhelmed by his malady, obsessed with the idea of fear. He calls the source of his fear a "grim phantasm."
The causes for this affliction are mysterious. One possible factor Usher mentions is the failing health of his beloved sister. The Narrator himself catches a glimpse of Madeline passing through a hall. She is bound to die, we learn, and the notion of being "the last of the ancient race of the Ushers" fills Roderick with dread and sorrow.
Still, the two boyhood friends do try to make the days pass decently. The primary reason the Narrator is even at the House is to provide some company if not also some cheer. He watches while Roderick paints. One of the paintings depicts the interior of a long vault or tunnel, clearly well below the earth, with no source of artificial light, yet bathed in "a flood of intense rays." Another pastime of Usher's is playing guitar. Due to his excitement and nervousness, he seems to excel at playing it. He revels in strange improvisations, and he often sings along.
One of these sets of verses, called "The Haunted Palace," tells of a beautiful castle in a green valley, inhabited by "the monarch Thought." Spirits move, and troops of "Echoes" sing the wisdom of their king. It is a kind of paradise. But "evil things" invade, reducing the palace to a place of "discordant melody."
Roderick also spends time in intellectual pursuit. He has become fixated on the idea of the sentience of all "vegetable," as well as even inanimate, things. He pores over books in his vast library, speaks of a living "atmosphere" about the waters and walls of the house.
When Madeline finally dies, he decides to preserve her corpse for a fortnight in one of the building's vaults. It seems a reasonable precaution, given how far away the family burial grounds are, so the Narrator accepts the idea.
In the process of this "temporary entombment," the Narrator gets his first good look at the face of the deceased. He is struck by how similar in appearance she and Roderick are. He learns that they were twins and that there had always existed some kind of intangible bond between them.
In the days that follow, the Narrator notes the increasing madness of Usher: his skin grows whiter, his ordinary occupations are forgotten, and he roams through the house or stares into space for hours and hours. What frightens the Narrator even more is that he too is beginning to feel "infected" by Usher's condition. The Narrator fears that he too may be going mad.
One night, when a storm rages outside and the Narrator is too terrified to sleep, he and Usher sit together in a bedroom and read from the "Mad Trist" by Sir Launcelot Canning. It is a ridiculous old romance about a knight's battle with a dragon. In it, Ethelred, the hero, breaks down the door of a hermit's abode, making quite a noise. But when the Narrator reads aloud the account of this act, he thinks he hears the same kind of noise described in the book--"the very cracking and ripping sound Sir Launcelot had so particularly described."
Trying to calm himself down, the Narrator continues reading to his friend, arriving at the spot in the story when Ethelred finds a dragon inside instead of the hermit and then promptly slays it. The dragon lets out a horrible shriek, and as the Narrator reads the description he hears a "most unusual screaming" sound. Terrified, he looks to Usher, who has now positioned his chair to face the door of the room and rocks from side to side while murmuring to himself.
The Narrator returns to the book, in which Ethelred removes the dragon's corpse and tries to grasp the shield on the wall (apparently the object he has been seeking). The shield, however, falls at his feet, making a "terrible ringing sound." Yet again, the Narrator hears with his own ears the same kind of noise. Finally Usher addresses him: "We have put her living in the tomb!"
Horrified about receiving retribution for "his haste" in the burial, leaping from his chair, Usher shrieks: "Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door!" As if on command, the doors to the chamber spring open--due to the storm, the Narrator explains--and there stands Madeline, her white robes stained with blood. With a "low, moaning cry" she attacks her brother, instantly killing him, while the Narrator flees into the storm.
The last image the Narrator describes seeing is that of the House of Usher splitting apart along the previously noted zig-zag fissure. The walls are bursting and the fragments are swiftly disappearing into the "deep and dank tarn."
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