Two Critical Interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe's, The Fall of the House of Usher

Two Interpretations of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

Everyone has read "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. It is probably Edgar Allan Poe's most popular short story and has elicited much criticism. It has had many interpretations under the traditional headings of supernatural, natural, and psychological, but many critics have chosen to take even more offbeat approaches.

The main character in the story is Roderick Usher. He has invited the narrator, a boyhood companion, to visit him in hopes that the narrator can cheer him up and attempt to alleviate his problems to some degree. Roderick suffers from what Poe calls "overacuteness of the senses" and Roderick is fearful and deteriorating rapidly. He and his sister Madeline are the last of the Usher line and Madeline has an illness in which she is gradually wasting away. While the narrator is there with Roderick, Madeline dies and they put the corpse in a vault. Roderick's condition worsens and one stormy night the whole story reaches its climax. While the narrator is reading to Roderick from a romance called "Mad Trist" to try to calm him down during the storm, the events of the book begin to parallel what is happening inside the house. Finally, Madeline appears, covered with blood, at the door and falls into Roderick's embrace. This causes Roderick's death and moments after, the whole house cracks on the fissure and falls into the tarn. The narrator flees from the house in terror and tells us this story.