Term Papers on The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Imagery And Parallelism

Term Paper Title	The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Imagery And Parallelism
# of Words	1552
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.21

The Fall of the House of Usher: Imagery and Parallelism

     In his short story "The Fall of the House of Usher", Edgar Allen Poe
presents his reader with an intricately suspenseful plot filled with a
foreboding sense of destruction.  Poe uses several literary devices, among the
most prevalent, however are his morbid imagery and eerie parallelism.  Hidden in
the malady of the main character are several different themes, which are all
slightly connected yet inherently different.
     Poe begins the story by placing the narrator in front of the decrepit,
decaying mansion of Roderick Usher.  Usher summoned his childhood friend, the
narrator, to his home by sending a letter detailing  only a minor illness.
After the narrator arrives and sees the condition of the house he becomes
increasingly superstitious.  When the narrator first sees his host he describes
his morbid appearance and it arouses his superstition even more.  Over a period
of time the narrator begins to understand his friends' infliction, insanity.  He
tries in vane to comfort his friend and provide solace, however to no avail.
When Roderick's only remaining kin, his sister Madeline dies, Rodericks insanity
seems to have gone to a heightened level.  Shortly after his sister's death,
Roderick's friend is reading him a story.  As things happen in the story,
simultaneously the same description of the noises come from within the house.
As Usher tries to persuade the narrator that it is his sister coming for him,
and his friend believing Roderick has gone stark raving mad, Madeline comes
bursting in through the door and kills her brother.  The narrator flees from the
house, and no sooner does he get away than he turns around and sees a fissure in
the houses masonry envelop the house and then watch the ground swallow up the
remains.
     In "The Fall of the House of Usher" Poe introduces the reader to three
characters; Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher, and the narrator, whose name is never
given.  Lady Madelin, the twin sister of Roderick Usher, does not speak one word
throughout the story.  In fact she is absent from most of the story, and she and
the narrator do not stay together in the same room.  After the narrators arrival
she takes to her bed and falls into a catatonic state.  He helps to bury her and
put her away in a vault, but when she reappears he flees.  Before she was buried
she roamed around the house quietly not noticing anything, completely overcome
by her mental disorder.
     Roderick Usher appears to be an educated man. He comes from a wealthy
family and owns a huge library.  According to the narrator, he had once been an
attractive man and “the character of  his face had been at all times remarkable”
(Poe, 126).  However , his appearance had deteriorated over time.  Roderick's
altered appearance probably was caused by his insanity.  The narrator notes
various symptoms of insanity from Roderick's behavior.  Roderick's state worsens
throughout the story as he becomes increasingly restless and unstable,
especially after the burial of his sister.  He find himself unable to sleep and
also finds that he hears noises.  All in all he is a severely unbalanced man
trying to maintain an equilibrium in his life.
     In contrast to Roderick, the narrator appears to be a man of common sense.
He seems to have a good heart in that he comes to help a friend from his
childhood.  He, like, Roderick also appears to be very educated and very
analytical.  In his observations of Usher he concludes that his friend suffers
from an acute mental disorder.  He looks for natural explanations for the odd
things that Roderick senses.  Criticizing Usher for his outrageous fantasies,
the narrator claims that Roderick is “enchained by certain superstitious
impressions, in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted”(Poe,125).  The
narrator's tone suggests that he cannot understand Usher.  However he himself is
superstitious.
     The three characters are unique people with different characteristics, but
they all eventually suffer...

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