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The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
The Fall of the House of Usher is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of
an unnamed narrator’s visit to his old boyhood friend, Rodrick Usher, after receiving a letter from
the latter, asking the narrator to pay him a visit as he was ill. The journey towards the House of
Usher, as the locals call it, was gloomy, with the day being “dull, dark, and soundless (3).” When
the narrator came within view of the mansion, he saw the eye-like windows that stared at him
blankly, as if they were vacant, empty of a soul. In this first part, Poe uses foreshadowing to drive
the readers in anticipation of something is not right. For example, the house itself, as the narrator
describes it, as both decaying and solid at the same time, no major part of the fine masonry has
come off even if fungi spread across the exterior, as if in some sort of limbo between fixed and
broken. This can be considered as foreshadowing the state of the other characters, such as Rodrick,
who’s letter gave “evidence of nervous agitation (4).”
Subtle foreshadowing was used by Poe to allude some details from the reader, by using
different elements that are narrated by our narrator. By giving us an unreliable narrator, that seems
to also have his own problems distinguishing fiction from reality, we readers also began to deduce
what is real and what is just the product of the narrator's imagination or should I say superstitions.
And these events are laid down perfectly by Poe, that as the plot rises, the more we question the
differences between metaphors and the actual real events, as the narrator himself becomes more
agitated on what he is witnessing, both on his friend, and on the house.
But note that foreshadowing is not exclusively for the readers, but also for the characters
in the story itself. Such as the narrator recognized a foreshadowing of his friend’s distress on

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whatever illness he has. And to Rodrick, as he “entered, at some length, into what he conceived to
be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which
he despaired to find a remedy - a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, which would
undoubtedly soon pass off (9).” Later, it would be revealed that it was only his fear that brought
him to that state of madness, his anticipation of the ‘inevitable’ has pushed him further into a prison
in his mind. Just because he expects that illness to strike him, his nervous mind pushed him to
suffer from “a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could
wear only garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were
tortured by even a faint light, and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed
instruments” (9), making him create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which further pulled him down
towards madness.
Rodrick Usher’s mental issues worsened as the other Usher, Madeline’s physical illness
came to a tipping point. Here, Poe demonstrated his use of doubles, the twins each representing
different aspects of a human, the physical and mental state, and both of them double the house, the
mansion that signifies their family, the House of Usher becoming a synecdoche of both the physical
house and their ancient family, which lived there and there alone for so many centuries.
Disallowing them to branch out to the world, isolating themselves from the whole world, often
reproducing through ancestral means, which explains their illnesses (5).
And that is what’s great with Poe’s stories, as they are considered as ‘total’, every little
detail is never left out. From the subtle hints, such as Lady Madeline’s ghostlike movements that
foreshadowed her return from the grave, to the larger ones such as the fissure that may just be a

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THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER The Fall of the House of Usher is a story written by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of an unnamed narrator’s visit to his old boyhood friend, Rodrick Usher, after receiving a letter from the latter, asking the narrator to pay him a visit as he was ill. The journey towards the House of Usher, as the locals call it, was gloomy, with the day being “dull, dark, and soundless (3).” When the narrator came within view of the mansion, he saw the eye-like windows that stared at him blankly, as if they were vacant, empty of a soul. In this first part, Poe uses foreshadowing to drive the readers in anticipation of something is not right. For example, the house itself, as the narrator describes it, as both decaying and solid at the same time, no major part of the fine masonry has come off even if fungi spread across the exterior, as if in some sort of limbo between fixed and broken. This can be considered as foreshadowing the state of the other characters, such as Rodrick, who’s letter gave “evidence of nervous agitation (4).” Subtle foreshadowing was used by Poe to allude some details from the reader, by using different elements that are narrated by our narrator. By giving us an unreliable narrator, that seems to also have his own problems distinguishing fiction from reality, we readers also began to deduce what is real and what is just the product of the narrator's imagination or should I say superstitions. And these events are laid dow ...
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