Edgar Allan Poe was one of the very first practitioners of the art of the short story. “The Purloined Letter” is widely credited as being the first detective story, after which such famed imitators as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would come. His tales “Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” have survived the test of time, because of their elaborate, occasionally frenzied retellings of stories that involve the emotions of guilt, impending doom and sheer terror. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick Usher is the character upon whom these feelings descend; the effects they have on him, physically and emotionally, make this one of Poe’s most powerful tales.
The House of Usher appears to be based on a foundation of immorality. Near the beginning of the tale, Roderick asks the narrator to help him entomb his sister, Madeline, in the family vault for two weeks before she is sent for burial; apparently, this is a family tradition. The narrator assents, not knowing what Roderick really has in mind. During the rest of the story, Roderick feels a growing sense of agitation during the weeks, which worsens his symptoms of illness: an unusually high sensitivity to sensory input. There appears to be a degree of insanity present as well: Roderick tells the narrator that he believes the house can sense its occupants.
The closer the story comes to revealing that Roderick has actually buried his sister during one of her cataleptic fits, instead of after actual death, the more hysterical he becomes, particularly during the storm, and again after the narrator reads The Mad Trist to Roderick (an odd choice for a book to calm someone down). Once Madeline escapes and returns to the room, both of their illnesses come to a head, as they both die; luckily, the narrator flees before he sinks into the tarn with the rest of the house itself. Ultimately, Roderick’s illness becomes a literal expression of his moral decay. Whether he is the source, or the house itself is, of course, is left for the reader to determine.
