Morley

1
. Jeff Morley
Pro. Perry
English 384R
15 April 2016
Doorways of the Mind: The Fall of the House of Usher and Psychological Instability
As the narrator in The Fall of the House of Usher reads the Poe invented story titled,
The Mad Tryst, to an uneasy and nervous Roderick Usher, the bedroom door suddenly flies
open revealing Madeline, Ushers supposedly deceased sister. In utter horror, Usher cries out in
hysteria, and Madeline, in her grotesque form, falls upon Usher causing both to become corpses.
It is this part of Poes story that compels us to take a closer look. Throughout the story, Usher
suffers from anxiety and other mental ailments. These worries and anxieties climax upon this
scene, and Usher becomes victim to the reality of his greatest fearthe fact that his sister is still
alive. What demands more attention is the relationship between Ushers increasingly unstable
mental state, and the bursting open of the bedroom door, that breaks the last bit of integrity of
mind that he has. There is a parallel between that door and Ushers mind. As it remains closed,
he still has some stability over his mental state. Yet, once opened, his mind collapses along with
him and Madeline. The door becomes a symbol of the mind. When closed it is safe and sound,
but opening the door causes psychological turmoil that brings about the quick demise of Usher.
The state of mind compared to the function of a door comes with many different
examinations and interpretations. While focusing on The Fall of the House of Usher, there are
yet other stories that provide insight into this door/mind parallel. Alfred Hitchcocks Psycho,
although not an adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, contains a scene that is
particularly similar to the ending of Poes story. Also, a movie adaptation of Stephen Kings

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Secret Window, Secret Garden, starring Johnny Depp contains two scenes that will provide
more insight into the symbolism of the door. The benefit of these two movies is that the original
stories are from authors who are very much influenced by Edgar Allan Poe. This influence will
help in understanding and seeing the symbolism of the door as the mind of Usher. The efforts of
this paper will attempt to understand that symbolism in greater detail and provide an artistic view
into the psychology behind the human brain.
There has been an enormous amount of research and discussion on Edgar Allan Poes
views and understanding of human psychology. He was one of the few of his time that focused
so greatly on the human mind and how it is affected. One such paper is by Mark Canada, titled,
Poe in His Right Mind. This paper discusses the discovery of the right and left hemispheres of
the brain and how it relates both to psychology and Poes unique style of writing. There is
another essay, Sciences of the Mind, written by Johann G. Spurzheim, that delves into
understanding the similarities between physiognomy, or physical characteristics associated with
the mind, and psychology. It is his discoveries of various physical traits of skulls that provide a
new outlook into how the brain functions. Also, Richard Wilbur wrote a paper titled, The House
of Poe, that contains golden nuggets into The Fall of the House of Usher and also into states
of mind within Poes tales. It is these and other articles that this paper will share in discussion to
provide a better understanding behind the symbolic and psychological view of the door.
There is a scene in Alfred Hitchocks Psycho, where Norman Bates, the films
antagonist, is supposedly speaking with his mother in her bedroom, attempting to convince her to
be moved to the cellar to be kept safe. While talking with her, the door to the room is only
slightly ajar, and the only view the audience has is a partial view of the bedroom rug. There is a
moment as the scene progresses where the camera goes from a low angle below the bedroom

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door, to a high angle, stopping near the ceiling above the doorway. The entire shot plays with the
audiences perception. It moves in what the audience assumes will give them a better angle into
the room, yet it never helps. It only adds to the mystery of Norman Bates mother. What the end
of the movie reveals, though, is that Normans mother is actually dead, and he, due to
psychological trauma earlier in life, developed a split personality, and his mother is the
personality that has committed all of the murders. It is the opening of the bedroom door that
allows for this other personality to become present. In her paper, Have You Ever Seen the
Inside of One of those Places?: Pyscho, Foucault, and the Postwar Context of Madness,
Cynthia Erb educates her audience as to Hitchcocks purpose for the films behavior. She writes,
In [his] attempts to render madness through different appeals of the avant-garde, Hitchcock . . .
exemplif[ies] the modernist tradition of schizophilia. Still [his] work breaks in certain respects
with straightforward celebrations of madness that function at the expense of the mentally ill
(54). I may add that these celebrations, these exemplifications of madness, come from the detail
of the scene with the bedroom door. As we relate this to The Fall of the House of Usher, the
two doors act as both security and seclusion within the human mind. For Psycho, the security and
seclusion came from the ability to keep the audience in mystery and to keep them from the truth
of Norman Bates split personality. In the House of Usher, the door keeps Ushers hysterical
mind at peace, and supposedly safe from the horrific reality of his sister. The use of the door is,
like mentioned by Cynthia Erb, avant-garde-like, or new and artistic way of showing the
vulnerability of the mind.
Another example of artistic use of the door as a symbol for the mind comes from the film,
The Secret Window. This film stars Johnny Depp, who plays Mort Rainey, an author who is
currently suffering from writers block, whose own wife he had caught having an affair, and who

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has just been blamed for plagiarism by a violent man named John Shooter. There is a scene
where Rainey is taking a nap right after his first encounter with Shooter. During his nap, he
dreams of a door. This shot of the door is in black and white and the door is shaking violently,
struggling to keep itself closed against the force on the opposite side as a bright light is shining
through the sides of the door. This scene, is not only a foreshadowing of the eventual dual
personality that Rainey falls victim to, but also parallels the bursting open of the door in The
Fall of the House of Usher. Although the door has not yet burst open for Mort, the violence of
the force behind it will eventually break down the door and Rainey will come to the realization
that he and Shooter are the same person. It is this understanding that aids in seeing the
parallelism between the door and the mind. In The Fall of the House of Usher realization
comes after the breaking down of the door as well. It is Ushers recognition and the breaking of
his mind that stems from the opening of the door. Richard Wilbur explains that, we may think
of Usher as a state of mind which the narrator enters at a certain stage of his progress into
dreams. Considered as a state of mind, Roderick Usher is an allegorical figure (814). We can
take from Wilbur that indeed, Usher is a state of mind that is an example of a psychological
break. With the inclusion of the door, Usher as a state of mind becomes much more accessible in
terms of understanding psychological behavior.
There is another scene within The Secret Window that implies the psychological
symbolism of the door. After Rainey discovers that he is in fact Shooter as well, his soon-to-be
ex-wife comes to visit to get him to finalize the divorce. As she ascends the stairs of his cabin
she notices the word shooter etched in the walls and in tables. As she turns to go back down
the stairs, Rainey, originally hiding behind the open bedroom door, pushes it aside to reveal the
words shoot her with her etched into the door. It is here the audience realizes the

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significance of the name Shooter and then becomes witness to the gruesome murder of Raineys
wife. When Madeline bursts open the door in The House of Usher, Ushers suspicions become
true and he is overcome by his fear and by his sister. The door acts as a medium of revelation
and understanding about the characters psyche. The door in The Secret Window providing
understanding into Shooters name, as well as revealing Raineys other personality, while the
door in The House of Usher acted as the climactic reveal of Ushers greatest fear. These doors
act as a mode for audiences to understand the mental state of the characters. It is Johann G.
Spurzheim that discusses the innate and gruesome traits of humanity. He says that, It may be
observed that in children as well as in adults, among the uncultivated as well as among the polite
and well bred classes of society, certain individuals are sensible, and others indifferent, to the
suffering of others (743). If this is true, then these doors act as a way for us to see the
indifference and pleasure from witnessing suffering. It can be argued that Usher didnt exhibit
traits as such, but indeed he has by the cause of his own suffering. He tortured himself with
thoughts of his sister still living. He hysterically exclaims to the narrator, when the sounds of
Madeline emerging from her coffin fill the house, Longlonglongmany minutes, many
hours, many days, have I heard ityet I dared notoh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!I
dared notI dared not speak! (House of Usher 215). His personal torture becomes the
evidence into what Spurzheim wrote and is completed by the opening of the door by his sister.
As we begin to recognize the purpose of placing doors within these films and stories, we begin to
see the artistic and visual benefit they provide into understanding the human mind.
Edgar Allan Poe has written other stories and poems that focus on this door symbolism.
In Edgar Allan Poes The Raven, a young student is drearily at his studies one night, tormented
by the loss of his love. A violent storm is raging outside, adding to the gloomy and despairing

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feelings of the student. As he keeps himself occupied, he hears a tapping at his door, a sign of his
mental unease. The rapping continues and he soon grows more awake and alert to the sound.
Then the tapping is heard at the window of his room. As he opens the window, a raven flies in,
and in the students own words, perched above my chamber door / Perched upon a bust of
Pallas just above my chamber door / Perched, and sat, and nothing more (The Raven 59).
Although it is through the window that this torturous raven has flown through, the door still
remains an object worth discussing in the poem. The raven represents the mind of the student. In
The Philosophy of Composition, it says, the bird itself perches on the most convenient seat
out of immediate reach of the student (Poe 683). It is this perch above the door that adds more
evidence into the symbolism of the door. The raven is the students own torture device. With
only the word nevermore spoken by the raven, the student is impelled . . . by the human thirst
for self-torture (Philosophy of Composition 683). It is only the mind of the student that is
causing himself pain; psychologically and emotionally affecting him. But the raven, acting as
that door into the students head, the door becomes even the more symbolic and meaningful. It is
once more a connection to The Fall of the House of Usher. It provides more emphasis on what
is occurring amongst the door, though. In The House of Usher, Madeline is at the door, the one
thing that has been torturing Usher for days. The raven is the same such object for the student.
Both objects at each respective door become keys that open the mental breakdown for each
character. A mental breakdown requires some sort of traumatic or difficult event to occur and
that is precisely what the raven and Madeline are for the student and Usher correspondingly.
The evidences within Poes stories provide us with understanding into Poes own mind.
With a style of writing that was beyond original at his time, and with many presently attempting
to duplicate it, Poes mind is extremely influential within writing and within psychology. What

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I am saying by means of this example is that the scenes and situations of Poes tales are always
concrete representations of states of mind (Wilbur 811). If we look through the door of Poes
own mind, we find a self-inflicted and troubled individual. We find a caring, passionate, and
decent man, but one with a life full of affliction. His stories, whether purposefully, or not, reflect
his own life. The symbolic doorways within his stories represent the troubled mind of the author
himself. In Mark Canadas paper, he discusses that the traumatic experiences in his life, such as
losing many of the dear women, especially his mother in his youth, were a source that made him
the psychological author he is known as today. Analyzing recent studies of childhood mourning
and Poes numerous treatments of dead women, premature burials, and life in death in Ligeia,
The Fall of the House of Usher, and other works . . . suggests that Poe never accepted his
mothers death and that this confusion became a lifelong obsession (43). It is these obsessions
that provide the opening of psychological doors. Each obsession in The Fall of the House of
Usher, Psycho, The Secret Window, and The Raven all deal with loss of some kind. The
loss of Madeline, Normans mother, Raineys wife, and the students lover, were all too much for
each respective character and psychological damage occurred. By using the door as a way of
looking into the minds of these characters, we can see exactly what it is that caused their minds
to break. As doors open, minds fall apart and give way to the damaging events in their lives.
In conclusion, The Fall of the House of Usher contains great insight into what can
easily happen to the human mind if dealt with tragic events. The mind is such a fragile thing, and
to unlock the door to its instability is an easy thing to do. Like the narrator describes Ushers
house when he first comes to it, trauma on the mind can be insufferable; for the feeling [is]
unrelieved by any of [the] half-pleasurable . . . with which the mind usually receives even the
sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible (House of Usher 199). To attempt to close

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the door of mental illness is a difficult thing to accomplish. It could take years while still
providing little to no restitution. Poes stories enlighten us into the reality and commonality of
mental illness. It is our goal to not open those doors and withstand the keys of trauma attempting
to unlock and burst them open.

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Works Cited
Canada, Mark Alan. Poe in His Right Mind. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1997.
Web.
Erb, Cynthia Marie. Have You Ever Seen the Inside of Those Places? Psycho, Foucault, and
the Postwar Context of Madness. Cinema Journal. 45.4. (2006): 45-63. Web.
Moldenhauer, Joseph J. Murder as a Fine Art: Basic Connections between Poes Aesthetics,
Psychology, and Moral Vision. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. G.R.
Thompson. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 829-843.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Ed. G.R. Thompson. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 199-215. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. G.R. Thompson.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 57-60. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Philosophy of Composition. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
Ed. G.R. Thompson. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 675-683. Print.
Psycho. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. Perf. Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, and Vera Miles. Shamley
Productions, 1960. Film.
Secret Window. Dir. David Koepp. Perf. Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, John Turturro. Columbia
Pictures, 2004. Film.
Spurzheim, Johann G. The Physiognomical System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. The Selected
Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. G.R. Thompson. New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 2004. 743. Print.
Wilbur, Richard. The House of Poe. The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. G.R.
Thompson. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004. 807-822. Print.