"The Fall of the House of Usher" has to be one of the most interesting pieces of literature I've read in a while, and so far the most interesting thing we've read in class. Edgar Allen Poe himself is an interesting character and "The Fall of the House of Usher" may be quite reflective of his character.
Poe's family life seemed to fall apart when Poe was young. His parents died within days of each other when Edgar was only 3 years old. From then on he never seemed to have a steady family life. He was taken in by friends of his parents, who seemed to move around. Although Poe was born in Boston and moved around quite a bit, he considered himself a Virginian. Perhaps this was his only claim to a sense of security after all he had endured.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" was described as the "ultimate nightmarish vision of the plantation myth of the Old South." (p.99) After reading it, this description couldn't be more correct. This story seems to only appear in a nightmare. The physical House of Usher seems to be right out of a horror story or movie. It is falling apart and has an eerie feel to it. Poe uses some unique statements to describe the house:
"extraordinary dilapidation," "crumbling condition of individual stones," "Gothic archway of the hall," "dark and intricate passages," "the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies."
Not only is the physical house falling apart, but the Usher family itself is falling apart. The last two known beings of the Usher family, Roderick and Madeline, are themselves falling apart, to the point of death. What I found most interesting about this story are the questions that arose in my mind. There are no definite interpretations of what is happening in this story. There are questions as to whether or not Madeline was already dead, was dying, or if she even existed. That was my biggest concern. I also began to feel bad for the narrator, in a sense sympathetic. The narrator was confused and a bit scared from the moment he came to the house. Roderick Usher seemed to be near death, but had the energy of a young boy. He had symptoms of various diseases so that one could not be pinpointed. There were many odd things that happened throughout the house. The narrator noticed all these things, but it was as if he was afraid to mention any of it. Eventually, the narrator seems to go crazy as well.
As a reader, I felt that the narrator should have gotten out of the house immediately, at the same time, I was curious to see what would happen next! It is similar to horror movies, where you are screaming at the TV for the main character to get out of the house!! You know something bad is going to happen but there is nothing you can do.
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8 comments:
I liked how in your post you used the quote about the House of Usher being a nightmarish vision- and that you could only come to this conclusion after reading the piece. Surely, having a long lost friend call you saying they had a mental breakdown, not knowing he had a twin sister, that sister dying (or so we thought) and then coming back from the dead only to scare her brother to death. Jeez, that is definitely a nightmare!
You made such a good point about the narrator and how he did not leave the house immediately. I definitely was yelling at the pages rather then the movie screen while reading this story.
I also thought that the "Fall of the House of Usher" was really interesting, and I enjoyed reading it a lot. So many strange things happened in this story, and it makes me wonder if this is all in the head of the brother. Maybe he's imagining everything, this could be due to his parents dying when he was so young. But if that were the case, where does the narrator fall in? Maybe eventually he came to believe everything.
Shannon, I think the point you make about there being no right or wrong interpretation of the story is very true. The reader is left with a lot of questions in the end, and the one that came up in class was if this was somehow a true event that occurred in Poe's life? Perhaps we will never know. I think it is also a very interesting and good point you make about Poe claiming to be a Virginian, even though he was not born (or buried) there. You say that Virginia was "his only claim to a sense of security after all that he endured." This brings us right back to that theme of the people connecting with the land, to the extent where they are one in the same. Good point!
This is such a twisted story that I would very much like to see a movie depiction of it, but I wonder if film would do justice to the images created in our minds of the house by the words that you cited. I do think that, if the story was not a figment of Poe’s imagination and was actually just meant to be a story, that Madeline was real and alive because the narrator notices her early on before I think the house and insanity of Roderick had enough time to alter his mental stability.
It seemed to me that Poe said he was a Virginian because he too had Southern pride, but why then did he choose to depict the plantation of the South in such a haunting and disturbing manner? Do you think this was this just because he was bizarre himself or was he trying to criticize slavery or some other aspect about Southern life?
Yes you are so right about Poe being crazy but an interesting fellow all at the same time. As for madeline im glad that you mentioned her. I personally think it was all in his head. I think that he was the type of guy that was very imaginitive. Another thing that was funny was the fact a long lost friend would call him to see him for one last time. He was ctrazy for even going to see him Anyone that is having a mental break down needs to br alone not drag everyone down with them.
Poe is an amazing writer and i think with that comes the art of writing. its open to interpretation, and i think thats why his pieces are so timeless. there is a slew of arguments that can be made and point of views that can be seen in all his works. this one piece is really intresting in that it has so many possibilities for explanations of whats happening. for instance, is the sister really alive? is the narrator dreaming all of this, or is it really one of poe's experiences, or maybe the direct result of drugs such as opium, which was mentioned twice in the story.?
I definetly agree with you that this reading was quite interesting. The story truly did have that horror story feel to it. The mood throughout the entire piece was dark. Poe's choice of language encouraged this theme. When he described the color of objects they were only in shades of black and it seemed as though the entire story took place at night and it was either foggy or stormy out which only added to the dark.
I also agree that you never really knew what was going on in the story. My first impression of the sister was that she was already dead and that the narrator was just seeing her ghost since Roderick didn't see her and it was like she just floated through the room. And Roderick is dying but has the energy of a little kid, he's crazy but there's nothing wrong with him. From the opening paragraphs when we are wondering why the narrator is coming to stay in this creepy house with a man that is practically a stranger until the end when the house just collapses, we have no real idea of what went on in the House of Usher.
I also really enjoyed Poe’s “The Fall of The House of Usher” I’ve always enjoyed his poetry. If you think this story was good you should read the “Tell Tale Heart” I also found the happenings in the house very interesting and scary all at the same time. If I were the narrator I would be asking a lot of questions. I don’t know how he didn’t. He was way too easy going, especially when they were burying Madeline. I also got the sense that the narrator was going crazy and if he wasn’t already crazy to begin with.
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