The Concept Of Madness In The Fall of The House of Usher

Topics:	Gothic Fiction Short StoryThe Fall of The House of Usher
Words:	570
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Updated:	18.03.2022

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Another theme that is used in the Fall of the House of Usher is the fact that madness is a major factor in the story of the Ushers. Many of Poe’s stories deal with the mental struggle-taking place inside someone and how that is affecting the others. In the Fall of the house of Usher the narrator states “In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence—an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy—an excessive nervous agitation”( The Fall of the House of Usher). The narrator is able to notice that something is not right with Roderick, which is especially important, as the narrator has already admitted to not knowing Roderick all that well to begin with. He makes constant comparisons to Roderick’s behavior to that of being drunk and being on drugs.

The narrator is not able to get a direct answer out of Roderick due to how broken and incomplete his sentences are and is trying to piece them together to actually figure out what is going on. It can be implied that the instability that is driving Roderick further and further into madness is not just simply coming for fear but trying to conquer these fears and constantly failing to do so. This is more of a throwback to dark romanticism where a constant theme of that is a character that is trying to become better and make improvements but ultimately failing to succeed in the end. The narrator even describes Roderick as “alternately vivacious and sullen” alluding to the fact that he may be bipolar.

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The Fall of the House of Usher continues to detail Roderick’s and Madeline’s descent into madness with the strange part being that he is aware of what is going on around him and the control he is losing over himself. As the story continues, the reader is able to tell before the narrator can put it together that Roderick has gone off the deep end when he decides that he needs to bury his sister who is still alive in the basement. When the narrator finally catches on and believes that Roderick committing such a horrible and random act is ridiculous but the narrator has been inside the mansion for so long that he has become victim to the hysteria starting to take place in the Usher home. Towards the end of the story the narrator has come to conclusion that Roderick is mad stating “there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes—an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor” (The Fall of The House of Usher).

This is further proven in the narrator eyes when Roderick is telling him that his sister has come back from the grave and his calling the narrator mad for not seeing it saying “'Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart? Madman!'—here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul—'Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door!'” (The Fall of the House of Usher). This makes the reader think about what is going on and look for signs to see if the narrator is actually the one who is crazy instead.

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