Mirroring in “The Fall of the House of Usher”
In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, the ambiguous narrator confines himself to helping an old friend which leads to the despise of both men. Roderick Usher, who is mentally sick, requests the narrator to stay with him in his sinister looking mansion with Roderick’s sister Madeline. Concurrently the house Roderick is living in is falling apart like Roderick’s health and family. Roderick himself seems parallel in ailment and condition to his dying sister Madeline Usher. Swept in the mystery of the Usher’s the narrator is ensnared by House Usher and dies as the house of Usher falls on him. Throughout the spine crawling physiological thriller, Poe uses reflection …show more content…
It can be stated that “Edgar Allen Poe thrived on claustrophobic elements” (Snodgrass,). Frequently Poe alludes to other works surrounding claustrophobic atmospheres and uses mirroring to enhance the fear. Strategically the short story begins in autumn which mirrors the title of the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and the story ends with the house and House Usher actually falling. To walk into a home with paintings that resemble the state of Roderick’s mind and Madeline’s body and to hear the story of the decaying family of incest, scares the narrator but compels him to stay. Even simple things like the reflection in the tarn spooks and nets the narrator, “And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy — a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me” (Poe). Mirroring is a success in exploiting claustrophobia in the narrator and reader. It isolates the reader from safety as the narrator avails oneself to inescapable
In the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, the ambiguous narrator confines himself to helping an old friend which leads to the despise of both men. Roderick Usher, who is mentally sick, requests the narrator to stay with him in his sinister looking mansion with Roderick’s sister Madeline. Concurrently the house Roderick is living in is falling apart like Roderick’s health and family. Roderick himself seems parallel in ailment and condition to his dying sister Madeline Usher. Swept in the mystery of the Usher’s the narrator is ensnared by House Usher and dies as the house of Usher falls on him. Throughout the spine crawling physiological thriller, Poe uses reflection …show more content…
It can be stated that “Edgar Allen Poe thrived on claustrophobic elements” (Snodgrass,). Frequently Poe alludes to other works surrounding claustrophobic atmospheres and uses mirroring to enhance the fear. Strategically the short story begins in autumn which mirrors the title of the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and the story ends with the house and House Usher actually falling. To walk into a home with paintings that resemble the state of Roderick’s mind and Madeline’s body and to hear the story of the decaying family of incest, scares the narrator but compels him to stay. Even simple things like the reflection in the tarn spooks and nets the narrator, “And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy — a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me” (Poe). Mirroring is a success in exploiting claustrophobia in the narrator and reader. It isolates the reader from safety as the narrator avails oneself to inescapable