A Companion to the American Short Story

by Alfred Bendixen

plot, we encounter in “ The Fall of the House of Usher ” a story enlivened by Gothic

  tropes. A haunted house, a na ï ve narrator, a domineering villain who is also a relative

  of the person he wishes to destroy, mysterious occurrences that culminate in the return

  of a ghostly character and the collapse of the house, the harried narrator managing to

  escape so he can relate the frightening events to readers. If we recognize that surface

  characteristics and undercurrents of suggestion contribute strongly to a symbolic

  unity, then Poe ’ s art in this story is unquestionable.

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  Benjamin F. Fisher

  Here the narrator is the genuine central character, not Roderick Usher, as casual

  readers sometimes believe. Of course, since the narrator and Roderick have been

  longtime friends, and since Roderick and Madeline are closely bonded, what the nar-

  rator beholds in the others represents his own life/self. Poe deftly manipulates Gothic

  conventions to create a plausible psychological story in which the unifi ed effect is that

  of unrest mounting inexorably to fear. The haunted house of Usher represents the

  warped mindset and likely the physical deterioration of the narrator. That he and

  Roderick have been close friends since childhood, and that he cannot choose but heed

  Usher ’ s plea that they meet again, implies that whatever informs Usher and the house

  (literal and symbolic) likewise affects him. Thus his journey to the Usher mansion,

  through a “ singularly dreary tract of country, ” which affects him with claustrophobia

  ( CW 2. 397), represents a journey through his own depression toward its underlying

  causes.

  Arriving at the Usher home, the narrator ’ s depression becomes more uneasy when

  he looks up and sees the weird appearance of the mansion. The building resembles a

  debilitated human head, replete with windows that resemble ineffectual eyes (and

  vision otherwise), a crack coursing through the middle of the structure, fungi that

  overspread the stone walls, and that look like unkempt human hair. When his gaze

  descends to the inverted vision of the house in the tarn he becomes even more unset-

  tled – because he also sees a mirror image of his own head, which, we comprehend,

  resembles the Usher “ head ” (the mansion and what it suggests) refl ected in the tarn.

  That he does not forthrightly relate this correspondence further hints at his own

  reluctance to have us comprehend directly his own nature. The narrator ’ s emotional

  deterioration (perhaps with accompanying physical degeneration), which resembles

  that of Roderick, is thus well established at the outset of the story, and his emotional

  downward spiral culminates in destruction brought about by fractures in the physical -

  emotional self. The men ’ s psychosomatic disorders produce unpleasant consequences

  since Roderick and his friend are doubles of each other in this story of mirroring.

  After giving us suffi cient information to comprehend his fragile mental condition,

  the narrator ’ s entry into the Usher mansion – through a portal that looks like a

  devouring human mouth – symbolizes his delving into the interior of his own being.

  Although he would have us believe that he is psychically and physically sound, as

  compared with Roderick, we soon divine that he is no more stable than his friend, or

  that if he is when he arrives at the House of Usher he quickly succumbs to torments

  akin to those bedeviling Roderick. The subsequent yielding to fear propels Roderick

  to literal death. Just so, the narrator ’ s kindred downward spiral culminates in what

  could be organic and emotional death brought about by fractures in the physical -

  emotional self – not a pleasant destiny. “ The Fall of the House of Usher ” unfolds

  a classic case of emotional stress producing debilitating physical symptoms. Inside

  the House of Usher the narrator beholds a symbolic drama in which Roderick and

  Madeline ’ s circumstances represent those in his own psycho - physical makeup.

  The Ushers ’ names are richly symbolic of the narrator ’ s plight. To readers in Poe ’ s

  day a literary character named Roderick would immediately have recalled Roderick,

  Poe and the Short Story

  29

  the last great Spanish Visigoth king, a tragic fi gure whose overthrow, which may have

  involved his seduction of the daughter of Count Julian, who consequently became his

  enemy, furnished subject matter for the British Romantic poets, Robert Southey and

  Sir Walter Scott. Poe ’ s Roderick is also presumably the leader of his domain, though

  the unsound domain - house of the Ushers verges on collapse. The collapse in Poe ’ s tale

  is brought about because Roderick Usher attempts to overwhelm his twin (the femi-

  nine component in what should be an integrated, harmonious self), eschewing what

  she represents, to focus instead upon his artistic endeavors. The distortions evident

  in his music (dirges), painting (a tomb), and poetry (madness destroys a once lovely

  house and its inhabitants) indicate how skewed such a dislocation becomes. Clearly,

  Roderick has paved the way for his own illness and death. His perverse course has led

  also to Madeline ’ s circumstances.

  Poe carefully named the Usher twins, and just as Roderick

  ’

  s name indicates

  destruction, Madeline ’ s resonates with related signifi cances – their relationship is not

  so close - knit for nothing. The name “ Madeline ” derives from that of biblical Mary

  Magdalene; it may also mean “ lady of the house ” or “ tower of strength. ” 10 Whatever

  her true nature may have been, Mary Magdalene became associated in folklore with

  sexual promiscuity. Some readers of Poe ’ s story believe that the downfall of the Ushers

  results from brother – sister incest, though the text does not provide convincing evi-

  dence that incest occurred. Madeline is undeniably the lady of the House of Usher;

  therefore, the bizarre qualities she seems to possess are in perfect keeping with those

  in her surroundings. Her escape from her sealed coffi n and imprisoning cellar neces-

  sitate immense strength, an oddity because of her thoroughly debilitated physical

  appearance.

  In addition to implications in her name, Madeline ’ s role is linked with Roderick ’ s

  in another way, though Poe was not heavy - handed in establishing this connection. To

  palliate Roderick ’ s paranoia, the narrator and he read from some of the hypochondriac ’ s

  favorite books. Most are treatises on the interrelationships bonding animal and vege-

  table life (therefore recalling the combination of the Usher mansion resembling a

  human head overspread with hair - like fungi). Gresset ’ s works, poems, treat in Ververt

  the comic adventures of a talking parrot, and La Chartreuse is another comic work,

  though some readers perceive mystical treatment of human frailty in this book ( CW

  2. 419 n.16). The humorous intent in Gresset ’ s text should alert us that appearances

  may be deceptive in the House of Usher, as indeed they prove to be. The last title

  mentioned, as a particular favorite of Roderick ’ s, the Vigiliae … , was long thought to

  be bogus, but in the early 1960s copies of the actual book were discovered in European

  libraries. This mass for the dead from the
second church in Mainz, Germany (1500),

  could be used to ward off vampires. Poe fashioned Madeline Usher as a vampire fi gure

  who was as terrifying as vampires in literary texts typically are, and who was also ter-

  rifying because of what her circumstances suggest in the psychological - physical - sexual

  theme in the story (Bailey, “ What Happens ” ; Mabbott , “ The Books ” v).

  The narrator and Roderick represent the masculine element in the self, Madeline

  the feminine. Very simply stated, Roderick and the narrator attempt to repress (bury)

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  Benjamin F. Fisher

  what Madeline symbolizes. That is, they abrogate the earthy and also the creative

  strengths in the self, preferring to repress or “ bury ” those qualities. Consequently,

  lacking a dynamic creativity, Roderick can fashion in his artistic productions only

  grotesque, frightening results, all suggestive of the imbalance and accompanying

  decay in the house. Roderick and Madeline share a soul with their literal and fi gura-

  tive house, and that bonding extends to encompass the narrator, all rapidly degenerat-

  ing because of repression. Madeline as vampire fi gure is equally appropriate in this

  construct. According to longstanding folklore, vampires are possessed of great strength,

  are also sexually rampant but cannot love, and seek their fi rst victims from among

  family members and loved ones. To some extent, Madeline partakes of these charac-

  teristics, albeit what had been great love for her brother ultimately transforms into a

  (to him) horrifying rebounding force because of his attempts to repress what she could

  contribute to maintain health in the self. Roderick ’ s and the narrator ’ s repression of

  psycho - sexual impulses rebounds upon them, fi rst, with depression. Depression in

  turn blunts any normal attempt to regain dynamic life, so fears mount, eventually to

  explosive levels. No wonder, then, that Madeline ’ s horrifying return is depicted with

  an aura of vampirism. The repressed will make itself known, but in overpowering

  ways, and the realization of such overwhelming force occasioned by release from con-

  fi nement makes the fear of the repressor(s) unbearable.

  Roderick ’ s recognition of these possibilities, combined with his great, if warped,

  affection for his sister, motivate his attempted burial of Madeline in the sub - cellar

  of the mansion. This act symbolizes his desire to bury, or repress (but not actually

  kill), all that she represents, namely creativity in artistic and physical (reproductive)

  ventures. By means of this fracturing of what otherwise might be a balance of the

  psychical and physical in the self, in which masculine and feminine presences live

  harmoniously to promote life, Roderick releases death - dealing forces. His reluctance

  to bury Madeline in the distant family graveyard may be a wish to prevent the doctor

  from exhuming her body and learning the true nature of her malady – a “ malady ” in

  Roderick ’ s estimation because of the evil or threat, to him, that she represents. The

  family doctor, signifi cantly, exits the mansion. Implicitly, his leaving signals a depar-

  ture of the realism and objectivity commonly associated with science. Along with his

  vanishing from the scene goes what in different situations would be healthy life. Of

  course, the narrator ’ s imputing negative characteristics to the doctor may result from

  his own anxiety that the doctor, were he to revisit, could diagnose his, the narrator ’ s,

  own imperfect condition.

  Other signifi cant departures refl ect the narrator ’ s decaying stability and that of the

  Ushers, who represent aspects of his being. The narrator ’ s horse and all the common-

  places that it called up in nineteenth - century life – everyday transportation, great

  intelligence, and strong sexual impulses (folk themes of widespread circulation) –

  likewise fi ttingly disappear. So do the servants. Ultimately, everyday life no longer

  obtains for the characters or the house that resembles them, and vice versa. No wonder,

  then, that Roderick and the narrator both succumb to the fear of fear itself, which

  Roderick thinks will lead to his death. Although the narrator suffers no literal death,

  Poe and the Short Story

  31

  his sojourn in the “ mansion of Gloom ” so works upon him that, like Coleridge ’ s

  ancient mariner, he ultimately cannot choose but to retell the story, employing Gothic

  tropes as outward manifestations of emotional turmoil. This narrator beholds what

  seems to be his own plight in terms of emotional, physical, and sexual health, and

  the vision is so bleak as to inspire terror and fl ight. The same sense of death that

  hovers about the Usher twins overtakes the narrator, who in chronicling the terrifying

  events in the House of Usher provides a warning against the dangers of repressing

  creative impulses – save, for him, that of storytelling.

  At the same time that “ The Fall of the House of Usher ” was in process, Poe was

  preparing an edition of his stories for hardcover publication. In the preface to that

  collection, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque , published in late 1839 but dated 1840,

  Poe responded to those readers who deplored his “ German ” (Gothic) stories rife with

  atmospheres of terror: “ I maintain that terror is not of Germany, but of the soul – that

  I have deduced this terror only from its legitimate sources, and urged it only to its

  legitimate results ” ( CW 2. 473). In “ The Fall of the House of Usher ” and Poe ’ s other

  tales of genuine terror, this intent to treat genuine origins and results of terror, as

  tersely stated, is uppermost, no matter the varied implications readers discern. One

  should keep in mind that “ soul ” may be equated with “ psyche. ” Both are everyday

  synonyms for the human mind, but in classical mythology Psyche was a winged female

  fi gure with a lamp, whose function as a nurturer of creativity is carried over into the

  symbolism of several of Poe ’ s poems and stories. In “ The Fall of the House of Usher ”

  Madeline - as - Psyche is frustrated from nurturing her twin ’ s artistic impulses, perhaps

  also fostering his sexuality though not engaging in actual sex with him.

  Roderick ’ s perverse interference with what should be natural impulses hinders him

  from creating artistic or other life, and so the Usher line must cease to be. Unity

  between masculinity and femininity, deriving for Poe perhaps from biblical and clas-

  sical sources, is broken, thereby creating ennui and, later, terror within the narrator,

  whose own state of being is at one with that of the Usher siblings. In this respect

  “ The Fall of the House of Usher ” adumbrates much that we fi nd in postmodern lit-

  erature and culture, where fragmentation of the self is a paramount motif, one that

  carries along Poe ’ s conception of terror of the soul producing overwhelming effects.

  Therefore, in all respects this story is undoubtedly one of Poe ’ s greatest successes as

  a writer of short stories. The richly symbolic texture demonstrates his championed

  unity of effect. There is also well - wrought allegory in evidence, albeit the allegory is

  not so heavy - handed as to be readily perceived, in Poe ’ s mind a great defect. Poe ’ s

  handling of allegory is als
o consistent with his theories of the short story (

  E & R

  582 – 834), just as it is with his concept of undercurrents of suggestion or meaning as

  features in a fi rst - rate story ( E & R 571).

  Those undercurrents are unavoidable elements in “ The Fall of the House of Usher, ”

  and they provide the literary art in that story. In this piece Poe manipulated conven-

  tions of literary Gothicism so as to create excellent psychological fi ction. His probing

  of issues that continue to be important to us – interactions between the sexes, sexuality,

  the family, artistic creativity – reveal how fraught with ambiguities human nature

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  Benjamin F. Fisher

  may be. Poe ’ s adapting of the haunted castle from antecedent Gothic fi ction, as well as

  the stereotypical inhabitants of such a house, impart a new and energetic life to literary

  Gothicism. That dynamic is wholly consistent with Poe ’ s own conception of the great-

  est in short - story art, albeit the traditional atmosphere of suspense and mounting fear,

  which bring about emotional and physical destruction, is ever - present. Although some

  of the features of the Gothic that I have listed above appear frequently throughout the

  canon of Poe ’ s stories (as well as in his poetry and in his novel, The Narrative of Arthur

  Gordon Pym ), they seem to be exceptionally abundant and artistically integrated in

  “ The Fall of the House of Usher. ” 11 This story, then, may stand as a thoroughly repre-

  sentative short story by Poe, as well as a work of subtle symbolic achievement. This

  latter quality has continued to serve as the mainstay in many other American short

  stories and indeed in short stories in any national or ethnic literature.

  Notes

  1

  Contemporaneous responses to Poe ’ s early

  cited parenthetically within my text as

  stories, in which he was rebuked for too much

  E & R .

  that seemed “ German, ” or horrible, may be

  4

  Woolf , “ Prostitutes, Paris and Poe. ”

  found in Thomas and Jackson , The Poe Log ,

  5

  See Fisher , “ Blackwood Articles à la Poe. ”

  140, 156, 182

  –

  3, 270, 272, 276. See also

  Notable exceptions to those who overlook