Posted by Vicki on February 03, 1998 at 00:41:37:
In Reply to: The Fall of The House of Usher posted by MERLIN on January 23, 1998 at 13:33:46:
: I need as much info as i can get on the fall of the house of usher
We just read it in school - one main theme is the effect of isolation on an individual. Usher is going crazy because of his isolation, and the narrator starts to be effected by it also. Another thing we discussed was the possibility that Usher and his sister were meant to be physical and mental components of the same being - Usher the physical; his deteriorating health showed what was happening to them both. While his sister, Madeline, was supposedly suffering from some mental impairment, she still had a blush on her face, even in her apparent death (which we later learn was not death at all). The story ends ambiguously - we don't really know whether the house has actually fallen, or if it is only a figment of the narrator's imagination. One more thing we studied was Poe's use of "the single effect" in the house of usher - where every word was meant to lead the reader to a certain emotion. To create this, Poe used imagery (describing the house, the body in the tomb, Roderick's paintings), diction (words like , phantasmagoric, gothic), and, obviously, plot and characters. I'm not really sure on the history of why and when it was written, if that's what you were looking for, but I hope I was some help.