In Poe 's The Fall of the House of Usher, there are a series of unanswered questions surrounding the Usher sibling pair, the secrecy about them, and even their eventual deaths. Perhaps the more greatly perplexing of these questions however is the set that surrounds the relationship between the two siblings and its importance to the scenes that unfold from such throughout the story. Such as what the actual relationship between the two siblings is. Roderick himself spoke of their connection, but what sort of connection was he referring to? There are plenty of inferences that can be drawn from the text as it is written, but nothing clearly stated. Was their connection, incest or otherwise, partly to blame for their maladies both physical and mental?
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He admitted that she had been his sole companion for years and that her passing would leave him the only remaining, living Usher. It is also, in this same scene, the first and last time that the narrator is able to see the Lady Madeline before her entombment. According to David Roche the physical maladies that beset the Lady Madeline could actually be traced back to her mental health, as he ascertains that the two are psychologically linked. (23) Roche’s supposition on the matter seems to further the claim that the sibling’s illnesses can actually be traced back to incestual relations within the family line, if not even their own. Recalling earlier within the story when the narrator was first speaking on the House of Usher and the family within, he made mention of there be no collateral issue within the family’s genealogy. Meaning that there are never any nieces are nephews in which to inherit- and the house is passed, as the narrator noted, only from father to son. If their illnesses, mental and physical, are linked to one another it stands to reason that their mental issues could be linked to one another through genetic corruption due to the continued incest in their line. Going of the basis that the two of them, as their predecessors were, are also involved with one another in an incestual relationship, it stands to reason that their mental illnesses would play off of the others. Not only in mirroring but also in allowing the others to more personally affect them. Wherein the decline of one would make sense for the other to
He admitted that she had been his sole companion for years and that her passing would leave him the only remaining, living Usher. It is also, in this same scene, the first and last time that the narrator is able to see the Lady Madeline before her entombment. According to David Roche the physical maladies that beset the Lady Madeline could actually be traced back to her mental health, as he ascertains that the two are psychologically linked. (23) Roche’s supposition on the matter seems to further the claim that the sibling’s illnesses can actually be traced back to incestual relations within the family line, if not even their own. Recalling earlier within the story when the narrator was first speaking on the House of Usher and the family within, he made mention of there be no collateral issue within the family’s genealogy. Meaning that there are never any nieces are nephews in which to inherit- and the house is passed, as the narrator noted, only from father to son. If their illnesses, mental and physical, are linked to one another it stands to reason that their mental issues could be linked to one another through genetic corruption due to the continued incest in their line. Going of the basis that the two of them, as their predecessors were, are also involved with one another in an incestual relationship, it stands to reason that their mental illnesses would play off of the others. Not only in mirroring but also in allowing the others to more personally affect them. Wherein the decline of one would make sense for the other to