He observes him be less energetic and paler. He goes to the room where Roderick is waiting for him. The narrator further mentions that the inside of the house is as scary and frightening as inside.
With its estate, the Usher family becomes so much identified that people often confuse the inhabitants with the home. Therefore, they formed a direct line of descent with no branches from outside. From generation to generation, only one member of the family survives. He says that though they are an ancient clan, they have never flourished. The narrator then mentions the Usher family. In the letter, Roderick has mentioned that he has been physically and emotionally ill due to which the narrator has rushed to help his friend. The narrator has visited the house because Roderick Usher has sent him a letter that sincerely asks him to give him company.
In front of the building, there is no small crack from the roof to the ground. He also observes that even though the house appears to be decaying, its structure is fairly solid. The narrator noticed the diseased atmosphere and absorbed evil in the house from the murky pond and decaying trees around the house. The house belongs to his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. The short story opens with an unnamed narrator who approaches House of Usher on the dark, dull, and soundless day. Moreover, he buries his sister alive to fulfill his self-creating prophecy. His sickness is suggestive because he is expected to be sick based on the illness in his family’s history. Even though the illness is displayed physically, it is based on the moral and mental state of Roderick Usher. Like the narrator of the story of “Tell-Tale Heart,” the hyperactive senses of Roderick Usher are inflamed by his disease. The emotions are central to the personality of Roderick Usher, who has been suffering from an unknown disease like many of the characters of Edger Allan Poe.
This short story illustrates the ability of Poe to create an emotional tone in his work by employing feelings such as guilt, doom, and fear. The characteristic element of Poe’s work is the presence of capacious and disintegrating houses such houses in the stories symbolize the destruction of the human soul and the human body. The short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is regarded as the best example of the totality of Poe as every detail and element in the short story is relevant and related. In 1830, when the house was torn down, two bodies were found in the cellar cavity. The sources indicate that the owner of the house caught a sailor and his young wife in the house and entombed them in their place of trysting. The house was built in 1684 and was relocated in 1830. The house was located in the Usher estate. Hezekiah Usher House could provide a source of inspiration for Poe’s story. The story is a work of Gothic Fiction and deals with the themes of isolation, madness, family, and metaphysical identities. It was first published in Gentleman’s Magazine by Burton and later included in the collection Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story published in 1839 in American writer Edgar Allan Poe.