In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the central theme of fear is presented. Fear is an overwhelming force that has disastrous consequences when not overcome. Throughout the story, this theme is developed by the setting of the “mansion of gloom” and by the descriptions of Roderick Usher’s sufferings (294). Roderick is a “bounden slave” of fear and battles with a mysterious illness that may stem from his inbred genes (299). His failure to overcome his fears causes his mental and physical conditions to deteriorate and ultimately leads to his demise. I chose to represent this idea because of how strongly I could detect the fear of Poe’s characters through his descriptions; the ominous characteristics of the decaying
