One common characteristic of Romanticism is the importance of the initiative and emotional and rejection of the rational and intellectual. Such is the case in “Usher.” Those who are skeptical in Poe’s Romantic influences would use this aspect of Romanticism to claim that he is not a Romantic because throughout the story the narrator attempts to explain the unexplainable with the rational. An example of this is when the narrator attributes an “iciness, a sinking, a sinking, a sickening of the heart” merely to the “combination of very natural objects which have power of thus affecting us”(Poe/”Usher”). The gothic imagery that fills “Usher” reflects a style of literature that had emerged during the later eighteenth century and was flourishing
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Key to understanding this relationship is the narrator’s description. “I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain”(5). So, while the Usher siblings are genetically close as twins, they are even closer genetically to each other than normal fraternal twins since the entire "Usher race" has become inbred. Therefore, in a sense, the entire Usher family is genetically 'incestual.' The narrator further explains,”A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them”(17). And, it is this aberrant physical, psychological and spiritual union of the twins that in the gothic effect of terror the Usher mansion itself parallels. For, when Madeline collapses from her catalepsy, Roderick becomes so disturbed that his sentience of his twin causes him to mimic Madeline's condition: “...there came a strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a …show more content…
Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances. There are quite a few symbols used in this short story -- some are more easily noticeable than others. The first symbol, and probably the most important, is the Usher's Mansion which symbolizes the deterioration or decline of the Usher family; later on in the story, the collapsing mansion becomes a symbol of the actual fall of the Usher family. Another symbol here is the lake that surrounds and reflects the image of the mansion. This lake symbolizes how the Ushers try to isolate themselves from society and its reflection symbolizes Madeline as Roderick's twin. The bridge that goes over the lake symbolizes the narrator as the only link that Roderick has with the outside world. Finally, the storm represents the mood and the violent and unstable emotions that the characters experience throughout the
Key to understanding this relationship is the narrator’s description. “I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain”(5). So, while the Usher siblings are genetically close as twins, they are even closer genetically to each other than normal fraternal twins since the entire "Usher race" has become inbred. Therefore, in a sense, the entire Usher family is genetically 'incestual.' The narrator further explains,”A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them”(17). And, it is this aberrant physical, psychological and spiritual union of the twins that in the gothic effect of terror the Usher mansion itself parallels. For, when Madeline collapses from her catalepsy, Roderick becomes so disturbed that his sentience of his twin causes him to mimic Madeline's condition: “...there came a strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a …show more content…
Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances. There are quite a few symbols used in this short story -- some are more easily noticeable than others. The first symbol, and probably the most important, is the Usher's Mansion which symbolizes the deterioration or decline of the Usher family; later on in the story, the collapsing mansion becomes a symbol of the actual fall of the Usher family. Another symbol here is the lake that surrounds and reflects the image of the mansion. This lake symbolizes how the Ushers try to isolate themselves from society and its reflection symbolizes Madeline as Roderick's twin. The bridge that goes over the lake symbolizes the narrator as the only link that Roderick has with the outside world. Finally, the storm represents the mood and the violent and unstable emotions that the characters experience throughout the