Sunday, February 27, 2011

What are some parallels in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

As befitting a gothic tale, Poe uses many parallels to
construct this masterful story of horror and dread. However, two of the most striking
that, to me, are central to the story and its impact are the parallel between the House
of Usher and its inhabitants, and the parallel between Roderick and his twin-sister,
Madeline.


When we are first presented with the House of
Usher, the description immediately establishes a link between the setting and the people
within it. The House is described as follows:


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Its principal feature seemed to be that of an
excessive antiquity. The discolouration of ages had been great... In this there was much
that reminded me of the specious totality of old woodwork which has rotted for long
years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance form the breath of the external
air.



Images of rotting and
disintegration abound, just as in the description of the house's owner, Roderick Usher,
who is described as being half-dead, with a "ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now
miraculous lustre of the eye." Both house and owner are in a dilapidated, half-dead,
rotting state.


Note too how another parallel is established
between Roderick and Madeline concerning their description. For Madeline, too, is
described in terms that present her as half-dead/half-alive, which ironically leads to
the confusion (or deliberate mistake) of her entombment whilst still
alive.


The joint death of these twins therefore, seems to
be fitting, as does the destruction of the House of Usher at the end of the tale as the
narrator flees the site of such terror. It appears that a bond united the ancestors of
the House of Usher with the House itself so that they shared a similar fate - in life
and in death.

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