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Sara Johns Eschenburg Nancy Hanson English 1102 92 December 4, 2011 The Art of Terror within The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe In The Fall of the House of Usher Poe skillfully weaves a tale of terror, perversion, and psychological malady that transcends our most terrifying nightmares. Immediately one is overcome with a growing sense of ominousness, as there is no doubt about the nature of this tale; it is the quintessential horror story. This exemplary masterpiece of Gothic literature plays on the biggest fear of humanity, the fear of fear itself. Poe employs many literary devices within this work to emphasis the disaster and misery that looms on the not so distant horizon. Using tone, symbolism, and setting Poe keeps one eagerly turning pages with an ever-increasing sense of urgency and dread, for as we know, nothing good can come of evil. Poe carefully selects every word in Usher, constructing sentences and phrases that add to the overall effect and sets the tone of this tale. Using alliteration and rhythm, he accentuates the feeling of foreboding from the opening line: During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher (Poe).

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The entire work is almost lyrical, as if it is the words of a dirge, predicting of the ultimate demise of the house and its inhabitants. Poe continues setting the tone by means of the strange circumstances through which the narrator finds himself at the House of Usher. He had not spoken to Roderick in many years and it implies that while he is his closest acquaintance, the narrator knows very little about him, just as the reader learns very little of the narrator during the entirety of the tale. This emphasizes the complete and total sense of isolation of the House and it inhabitants. It appears as if the House, as well as the family line itself, is insulated from society because of the wickedness that exist within its walls, as well as the minds of those that reside inside. It is alluded to that Roderick and Madeline are the product of an incestuous relationship as the entire family lay in the direct line of descent and they themselves may be lovers (Poe). The very nature of Rodericks illness itself is a constitutional and a family evil, as if it were a punishment for the sins of the perverse or just the result of a genetic anomaly due to the illicit act of inbreeding (Poe). The unnatural relationship of the twins is symbolic of the lack of separate identities from one another as well as that of the House. Roderick and Madelines powerful connection is perhaps a more psychosomatic manifestation or that they represent different components of the same psyche ( Zimmerman 58). Roderick is the representation of the physical and Madeline of the psychological. This would be palpable as their maladies are of the opposite nature. Rodericks illness manifests as severe and debilitating mental instability and Madelines is the physical equivalent. While he is a diseased mind within a sound body, she possesses a sound mind within a corrupt body. The physical description of the House mirrors the image of Roderick himself, Wilbur states that the "House of Usher is, in allegorical fact, the physical body of Roderick Usher, and its dim interior is, in fact, Roderick Usher's visionary mind" (Wilbur 107).

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To further support this mirroring of Roderick and the House one must look at The Haunted Mansion, the poem within Usher. Strandberg states that in addition to the initial description of the House in its ill repair, especially the barely perceptible fissure, being a representation of Rodericks precarious psychic condition, the poem within the story, The Haunted Mansion only solidifies this allegory (2). We see the beautiful and splendid estate and its king, become corrupt by evil things, in robes of sorrow, in the same manner that mental illness has devastated Rodericks mind (Poe). We are afforded a very vivid and illustrious description of Roderick, both physically and mentally. The narrator leaves no detail of his physical appearance to the imagination: [a] cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten (Poe). Described in nearly every paragraph of Usher is Rodericks very fragile and rapidly deteriorating mental state, he is described as being alternately vivacious and sullen in his speech as well as his demeanor (Poe). Poe makes it perfectly clear that he is completely and utterly mad. While in stark contrast of the description of Roderick, Poe revels little about Madeline beyond the nature of her illness and the physical similarities that she and Roderick share.

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However, one comes to deduce that she possesses the characteristics that her brother lacks. Whatever he is not, she is. This actually lends itself to the sense of horror that one feels while reading Usher. Imagine how terrifying it would have to be to be completely dependent upon a person who is not wholly in control of their mental functions? This is especially true considering that he may have intentionally entombed her alive, as is implicated by the narrators observation of the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip (Poe). This possibility makes it even more disturbing is that Roderick most likely recognized that she is not dead, but rather in a cataleptic state. Would not one want to be absolutely certain that a person is deceased before entombing their body? Despite these obvious possibilities, he places her in a secure coffin in the most fortified room in the house. Add to this his heightened senses and the fact that he is able to hear her in her tomb days before she actually escapes, leads one to believe that he left her there with the intention of murdering her. At this point one may contemplate the reliability of the narrator. While he comments that Roderick states that due to the nature of her illness, Madeline is to be entombed within the walls of the house, however, after viewing her and seeing that she was very lifelike in her appearance why did he allow a mentally unstable person lock her in a coffin within a dungeon? Would not one suggest that she be allowed to remain within her rooms to verify she is no more (Poe)? In his initial description of his trepidations about the House and the eerie nature of its appearance which he parallels with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium, coupled with the aforementioned, leads one to begin to believe that he is possibly under the influence of drugs or has been drawn into Rodericks mental instability (Poe).

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However, it is much more likely that Poe intentionally used an unnamed narrator, which seems to be of sound mind upon his arrival, but as the storyline progresses and the plot thickens he begins to doubt his own facilities, to further elevate the readers anticipation and feelings of terror. Through this method of framing, he allows the reader to become part of the story by identifying with the narrator. This intensifies the feelings of panic and foreboding as if one is literally trapped within the House and begins to emulate the feelings of the narrator. This becomes much more apparent towards the climax of the story, the narrator finds himself beginning to indulge in Rodericks wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions (Poe). It becomes evident to the narrator that Roderick with his unceasingly agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive secret as he is becoming more despondent and preoccupied than usual (Poe). This was particularly true upon retiring to bed late in the night of the seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady Madeline within the donjon and he found himself unable to sleep and instead paced frantically around the room. This is a normal response considering his surroundings and his curious companions, an entirely deranged man and the supposed corpse of his sister directly below his bedchamber. Add to this the storm raging outside, the gloomy interior of the House, and the sheer isolation and it is quite understandable that he would be anxious, however, as he grows more uneasy so does the reader. All of these elements are a form of foreshadowing to build the readers anticipation and increasing sense of dread. When Roderick appears at his door with a species of mad hilarity in his eyes --an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanour, rather than being more pensive, he welcomes this interruption of his own growing fear (Poe). One would have to be on the verge of complete and utter madness to be put at ease by someone that is so obviously deranged. As the

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narrator begins to read to Roderick, to try to calm his fears he begins to hear strange noises inside the House that coincide with the story he is reading. At first, he is certain that it is nothing more than his own fears and continues the story. However, shortly thereafter, he hears a low and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating sound, now he knows this is not a trick of his mind and his level of terror is prominent (Poe). The tension is growing and the reader, the narrator, and Roderick know that something horrifying is about to happen. While he showed little outward appearance of hearing the sound, Roderick has turned his chair to face the door, and appeared to be mumbling under his breath as he rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway (Poe). Nonetheless, the narrator begins to read the story again and not more than a second after reading the narrative of Sir Lancelot defeating the dragon and dropping his shield to the floor, he became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation (Poe). The narrator is terrified and leans in to hear the words that Roderick is murmuring; "Not hear it? --yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long --long --long --many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it --yet I dared not --oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! --I dared not --I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them --many, many days ago --yet I dared not --I dared not speak! And now --to-night --Ethelred --ha! ha! --the breaking of the hermit's door, and the deathcry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield! --say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not

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hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart? MADMAN!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul --"MADMAN! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR!" (Poe). In this moment, all realize the full gravity of the situation and are struck with a sense of complete and utter horror and revulsion. Madeline had been in the tomb ALIVE and Roderick had known for at least several day. The manifestations of every persons worse nightmare realized. However, one is unable to stop reading and carries on knowing that something horrible is just beyond the next sentence. Poe so completely engrosses one into the story that no matter how disturbing or repugnant the revelation one is unable to put down the work. Through his brilliant use of literary devices and careful word choice, he is able to render one so engrossed they are filled with a sense of urgency and a growing feeling of dread and fear. He is without a doubt, the master of the macabre.

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Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. www.thepoemuseum.org Accessed December 5, 2011. Strandberg, Victor. "The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, 1839." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Gale. 1999. HighBeam Research. 4 Dec. 2011 <http://www.highbeam.com>. Wilbur, Richard. "The House of Poe." Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays (Robert Regen, ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. Zimmerman, Brett. "Phrenological allegory in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"." Mosaic (Winnipeg). University of Manitoba, Mosaic. 2010. HighBeam Research. 5 Dec. 2011 <http://www.highbeam.com>.