Venturing Inside "The Fall of the House of Usher"
If you have made it through Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" without collapsing into your own pit of despair, congratulations. If not, my condolences. Either way, please respond to one or to both of the following questions:
What might the house symbolize?
What is Usher's illness?
As always, defend your response and show me your thinking. Hope you had a relaxing weekend.
What might the house symbolize?
What is Usher's illness?
As always, defend your response and show me your thinking. Hope you had a relaxing weekend.
posted by Kristin L at 11:47 AM
7 Comments:
I believe that Usher's illness is schizophrenia. I agree with Matt that hypochondria has something to do with the illness, but schizophrenia is when someone loses the ability to reason, which Usher himself atones to: “I feel that I must inevitably abandon life and reason together in my struggles with some fatal demon of fear” (10, Poe). In that sentence, Usher also alludes to another part of schizophrenia which is hallucination. Also, my mom (who is a doctor) says that schizophrenia can come in all forms, and the “partially cataleptical character” of Usher’s sister is another such form of schizophrenia. Finally, my mom also says that schizophrenia tends to run in families, and if Madeline Usher has what seems to be schizophrenia, then her brother, twin brother none the less, could very very easily have it too.
I believe the house symbolizes the Usher family. I believe this because in the text it describes how magnificent the house used to appear for any person passing it. "In the greenest of our valleys, by good angels tenanted, once a fair and stately palace - snow-white palace-reared its head"(12). Similar to the family, the House of Usher used to be well kept and slowly went down hill with the decline of each Usher's health. By the time there was only one remaining the house's physical appearance went with that of the mental instability of the person inside. Usher's illness is hypochondria. Similar to Matt, I wasn't sure of the definition so I looked it up as well. So Usher's were constantly telling themselves that there was something wrong causing them to develop illnesses when their bodies were truly healthy. Therefore I also agree with Lizzie by saying they have schizophrenia because they lose ability to reason that with their perfectly healthy bodies.
I think that Usher is mentally ill. I don’t think he is just imagining that he is ill. He is mentally ill because everyone in his family married within the family. In the story it says, “…the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch” (8). The Usher family has always married people in their own family. There is bound to be something wrong if people are marring their siblings. The Usher house might symbolize the decline of the house of Usher. As the family keeps marrying within the family, the Ushers keep getting crazier. The house is also getting less and less pleasant to be in.
Usher may have been said to be hypochondriac, but I do not believe that was the most of his worries. He had many mental disorders as well. Sensory integration disorder is evident in the text where Poe states, " morbid acuteness of the senses," such as, food was unendurable, clothes of a certain texture only, odors were oppressive, eyes were sensitive to light and sounds were filled with horror. Paranoid Schizophrenia is also apparent in the text. "I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in the results." Usher has psychotic depression that is apparent as “abandon life and reason". Traces of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder are present in the statement, "He was enchained by superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which hew tainted..." this is also schizophrenia. OCD is also present while he is fixated with the collection of stones. Usher shows signs of being morbidly fixated which could be a reason why he buried his sister alive, thinking she was dead as she was in a "cataleptical" state. "His ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten," is a sign of manic depression and schizophrenia. Rocking from side to side while the storyteller reads a story is autistic-like; however, it is the only example of this in the story. I believe that Roderick Usher is manic-depressive. I agree with Lizzie A, however I think there was more than just schizophrenia.
I agree with Jesse that Usher went mad. He was trapped inside the house and anyone stuck in a house that big alone would go mad. With no one to talk to it would be very difficult not to. When your home alone your mind wanders and its not hard to imagine people or things in your house. Usher is alone all the time, think where his mind wanders off to. I think that once he was alone long enough he conviced himself that his house was haunted.I really liked this story, even though it was messed up. It made me think of all the people alone in the world and how hard it must be on them, but at the same time Usher is just creepy, and I never would want to be alone in a house with him!
Emily K what an answer! "The Fall of the House of Usher" was a very depressing story. I think that the house represents a dull and dark history of a prestigious family that fell generation to generation. It shows through the tarn (a small lake), as Poe says, "I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down -but with a shudder even more thrilling than before- upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.(8) The family starts out good, but as the generations are taken by disease, the house starts to fall. The narrator uses the tam (a small lake) as a way of seeing the developments of the family of Usher. I am not sure what disease Usher is suffering from, but I think that it is definitely a mental disease. As the disease conquers Usher, the narrator sees the fall of the House of Usher through the tarn. “My brain reeled as I saw the might walls rushing asunder-there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters- and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “House of Usher” (18).
I think that the house symbolized the Usher family's soul and bloodline. I think this because the family is very unwelcoming and friendly just like the house seems to appear. The house didn't always appear this way though. It talks about how the house used to look very nice but as the members of the house started to go down hill, so did the house. The house is old in age and worn down just like Mr. Usher. When the twins do not have kids this means the end of the family line and essentially the end of the house.
Post a Comment
<< Home