Fear In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

In traditional settings, the home is one’s safe haven. It protects one from the surrounding world in a literal sense seeing that it provides shelter from external forces, but also figuratively since a house provides a serene place one is able to find comfort in. The house in The Fall of the House of Usher does neither. In fact, it does the complete opposite. Rather than providing comfort, it elicits fear in both the characters and the reader. The root of this fear stems from Poe’s use of the double within the story, which can be seen throughout, from the very first moment the narrator sees Roderick’s house all the way to Roderick and the house’s demise. Chandler states, "Doubling effects multiply throughout the story until everything becomes …show more content…
This change in definitions can be seen through the analysis of Marcher and May. At the beginning of the story, Marcher’s home was himself. His source of joy and comfort was himself. Marcher spent his whole life waiting for this event to occur thinking it would be some extravagant, defining moment that he could use as a base to build his life off of. . By devoting all his time and energy into the event, Marcher creates a bubble in which he lives. This enclosed bubble becomes his home, when in reality the life he wanted was in front of his eyes the entire time if he had only looked outside his comfort to the people he was surrounded by. The changing definition of the “home” is reinforced by the Marcher’s change in personality as well as the differing personalities between Marcher and May. This idea of differing personalities creates suspense within the text as the reader wonders firstly, what this event will be and when it will come, and secondly, what is holding Marcher and May’s relationship together. Throughout the story, Marcher is perceived by the reader as narcissistic. Freud states one way “we may approach the study of narcissism is by observing the erotic life of human beings, with its many kinds of differentiation in man and woman” (87). Men and women assess their lives differently. By looking at the …show more content…
The changing definition of the home produces a suspenseful, or fearful undertone to the text sparking curiosity in the reader. In The Beast in the Jungle, the idea of the home is transformed from Marcher’s fantasy world to May herself after realizing he wasted his life away. Throughout this transition, the reader is in a state of suspense as he or she waits alongside Marcher waiting for the event to occur, but also wondering what holds Marcher and May’s relationship together. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the doubling of Roderick, Madeline, the narrator, and the house all evoke a feeling of suspense in the reader transforming the home from a place of comfort and security to a place filled with fear and