“The Fall of the House of
Usher”
By: Edgar Allen Poe
Published: 1839
Edgar Allen Poe
• Born in 1809 in Boston,
Massachusetts to two itinerant
actors.
• Father died in 1810 followed by his
mother in 1811.
• Edgar, his older brother William
Henry Leonard, and his younger
sister Rosaline were taken in by
John Allen, a wealthy merchant,
and moved to Richmond, Virginia.
• The family lived in England from
1815 – 1820, where Edgar
attended school.
Edgar Allen Poe: Continued
Above:
University of
Virginia
Right: Cadet
Building at
West Point
Military
• Enrolled in the University of
Virginia in 1826.
• Entered the U.S. Army soon
afterwards and was located to
Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina.
• After leaving the Army, Poe moved
to Baltimore to reside with his
brother and aunt.
• In 1830, Poe entered the West
Point military academy.
Edgar Allen Poe: Continued
• In 1836, Edgar, age 27, married his
then 13 year old cousin Virginia.
• Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847.
• Poe developed numerous relationships with
different women which caused his
attempted suicide.
• Became engaged to a woman and shortly
before the marriage was kidnapped. Shortly
after the kidnapping, Poe died.
• He was buried next to his wife in
Baltimore.
Relevant Historical Information Impacting the Text
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Panic of 1837
Battle for Texas during the 1830s
Slave rebellion of 1831 led by Nat Turner
Numerous physical and government battles over American soil
with Native Americans fought during 1830s.
– Trail of Tears begins in 1832
• 1833: South Carolina VS Andrew Jackson Nullification Crisis
Characteristics of Poe’s Style and Genre
• Insane male characters
• Beautiful, but dead or dying female characters
• Plots involve extreme situations such as live burials, physical
and mental torture, etc.
– Believed that only in extreme situations could people show true
nature
• Employs the emotion of (lost) love as a catalyst for terror, burdened
by the sheer terror of the human soul facing deal
Anti-Transcendentalism
Anti-Transcendentalist authors shared a
darker view of nature and life.
Three Principles of Anti-Transcendentalism
1. Nature is indifferent, unforgiving, and
often unexplainable.
2. People possess the potential for both
good ad evil, but focused on the
destructiveness of the human spirit
rather than its potential for good.
Gothic Literature
Gothic writers saw in the
individual a potential
for evil.
Both genres stemmed from the Romantic
movement in literature and the reactions
against rationalism.
Believed that imagination led to the
threshold of the unknown.
3. Truths of existence are elusive.
Themes of hypocrisy, puritan guild, sins of fathers, effects of guilt and
anxiety/inward torment, dangers of self-absorption, sin among
respectable, universality of sin, effects of knowledge of the individual.
Roderick Usher
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Major Characters
Main character/ protagonist
Product of a lonely, inbred family
Suffers from insanity,
Roderick’s illness worsens as
Madeline’s situation worsens
• Represents mental instability due to
isolation
• Death signifies the end of the Usher
house and family line
• Afflicted, dark, lonely, weak,
dependent, reclusive, dreary,
depressed, chaotic, etc.
The Narrator
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Unnamed throughout entire story
An objective witness to the Usher family’s history
and present events
Represents rationality in a house of unstableness
Rational, reasonable, sympathetic
Madeline Usher
• Twin sister of Roderick Usher (also product
of a lonely, inbred family)
• Her suffering causes Roderick’s suffering
•Madeline, Roderick, and the house all share
the same qualities
Setting & Mood
• The story is set in an isolated, large mansion owned by the Usher family
located on an empty countryside. (Specific date is not mentioned.)
• Begins at dusk as the narrator first approaches the house; most
important scenes happen at night.
• Mood is set in the opening scene through the narrator’s detailed
descriptions and is carried on throughout the story as dark, desolate,
empty, scary, gloomy, isolated, evil, etc.
Symbols
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Eyes
Fissure
Twins/lake’s reflection
Decaying mansion
Bridge over lake
Red moon
Storm
The narrator as stability
Topics
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Sanity versus Insanity
Isolation causing madness
Fear
The impact of literature on life