Gothic Style of Writing In 'The Fall of The House of Usher'

The story is around the Usher family and it arises by the narrator visiting his childhood friend who needs his help as he is sick. He describes the house as ancient and broken-down and there lived Roderick and Madeline who seems to be mad. Madeline gets really ill and doctors answered with no cure for this disease and soon Roderick says the speaker that she died and she has been buried in a dome. After a few days it happens to be Madeline who returned from the dome when there was a heavy storm and she collapses on her brother and it kills him. Things going around, the narrator goes away from the mansion but looks back to see the mansion sink and break down. Poe uses gothic elements to build the plot by supernatural, mystery and strange characters to attract audience.

There are a few key themes that highlight the entire plot and its meaning:

Deterioration could be one of the themes as the physical appearance of the mansion is described as falling apart and it’s condition as getting worse, also the condition of Roderick and Madeline portray the condition as the house. Both are suffering strange disease and are behaving strangely which describes the outer and internal condition of the mansion and ultimately it leads to the tumble of the mansion and passing away of siblings. Poe emphasizes death and decaying in the plot as they are the ultimate truth of life and a hidden destiny of every human. Fear and madness are part of the theme too as it feeds on them. The narrator seemed afraid of the mansion and notices that there’s something ominous in the house and gets frightened by the mirror image of the house.

It also involves the gothic style of writing to depict death and madness occurring in nature and humanity and it’s shown by the house getting decayed and falling apart and gothic madness is clearly seen by Rodrick and somewhere in the speaker as they both experience madness by external disease and internal perspective respectively. The story itself is an example of in what way time changes and it can wear away goodness and beauty and also includes the differences in reality or fantasy. The plot remains mostly blur in many situations which makes the characters confused between both which is basically their psychological illness that they experience such terror.

ConclusionEdger Allen Poe in the story tries to show the darkness of the mind that can come in a solitude life by bringing terror and fear in the plot and show the readers the truth in humanity and how mental illness, the death of a beloved person and a solitude life can kill. It shows the individual’s mindset and personality decaying and due to the increasing madness by the characters, the narrator also starts to lose his mind. He has depicted the character’s psychological health and the connectivity with the mind and the body in every single person and in the story, Rodrick and her sister are twins and connected deeply and even after her death, he remains dependent and suffers the breakdown and also creates links among the uncanny and real world.