In its essence, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Poe is similar to his other short story “The Black Cat.” However, instead of the narrator, a person of insanity is observed through someone else’s eyes. Both stories possess dark imagery and symbolism of burial behind a wall, which in turn lead to gloom imagery of the Usher house and family that serve as a direct contrast to the narrator.
Both “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat” have imagery of burial behind walls. In “The Black Cat” the narrator uses the wall as a hiding place to put away the body of his murdered wife. It is a cowardly and fearful burial, meant to hide a hideous act. Meanwhile, in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the burial of Madeline was the last farewell to send the woman to her grave. Both burials happened under strange circumstances and caused people discomfort. The entombment in the wall can be seen as an improper burial, and those with belief in the supernatural, such as the narrators or Roderick Usher, could be haunted. However, it is most likely a psychological phenomenon of being overwhelmed by guilt. In “The Black Cat,” the narrator is persistently haunted by a cat whose reality is questionable. In “The Fall of the House of Usher.” There are hints that Madeline was buried alive or that Roderick had something to do with her death judging from his behavior. Both narrators suffer from psychosis in modern psychological terms. The burial in the wall serves as a catalyst to their behavior and anxiety.
From the first lines of the story, Poe establishes the gloomy atmosphere of the Usher house in the narration. “The shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher” (Poe 64). Melancholy served as the expression of the Usher house, as it was in the heart of Roderick. The narrator uses heavy imagery to give a sense of darkness and bleakness to the house, almost overwhelming him at first. Poe writes “…utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation” (64) to give a sense of the eerie atmosphere emanating from the house. Analyzing the mood and colors of the Usher house, scholars state that the imagery presents a connotation for the reader of what awaits inside the house. The house is a direct representation of the lineage of Usher, and perhaps even a reflection of Poe himself (Avelar 174).
The house’s gloomy tone serves as a contrast to the characterization of the narrator. It can be considered symbolic, as the narrator is a small light entering the depths of darkness, and in the end barely managing to escape as the House of Usher plummets into metaphorical hell. The character is not well described, but it is known that he is a childhood friend of Roderick Usher. Through the narration, the man is kind and hopeful. “It was the apparent heart that went with his request…I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons” (Poe 65). The narrator is willing to come and dedicate weeks of his life to spend time with an ill but long-forgotten friend. With dedication, the narrator helps Roderick bury and mourn his twin sister, and attempts to heal the melancholy by reading and singing to Usher. However, the protagonist is always placed as an outsider to the ongoing events, helpless to affect anything, acting as an observer as the events unfold. Finally, the dark atmosphere begins to burden the narrator, and as everything comes crashing down, he manages to escape in horror of events witnessed.
The dark imagery and symbolism of burial within walls directly reflected on the gloomy atmosphere of the house and contrasted with the kindhearted nature of the narrator. A connection can be made between these writing elements that Poe masterfully utilized. In turn, this allows the reader to be immersed in the story and make a psychological analysis of the characters.
Works Cited
Avelar, Mário. “The Colors of Melancholy in Roger Corman’s House of Usher.”The Edgar Allan Poe Review, vol. 11, no. 1, 2010, pp. 174–181. Web.
Poe, Edgar. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Tales. Wiley & Putnam, 1845.