The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
The
story begins with the unnamed narrator arriving at the house of his
friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant
part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help.
As he arrives, the narrator notes a thin crack extending from the roof,
down the front of the building and into the adjacent lake.
Although
Poe wrote this short story before the invention of modern psychological
science, Roderick's condition can be described according to its
terminology. It includes a form of sensory overload known as
hyperesthesia (hypersensitivity to textures, light, sounds, smells and
tastes), hypochondria (an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a
serious illness) and acute anxiety. It is revealed that Roderick's twin
sister, Madeline, is also ill and falls into cataleptic, deathlike
trances. The narrator is impressed with Roderick's paintings, and
attempts to cheer him by reading with him and listening to his
improvised musical compositions on the guitar. Roderick sings "The
Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he
lives in to be alive, and that this sentience arises from the
arrangement of the masonry and vegetation surrounding it.
Roderick
later informs the narrator that his sister has died and insists that
she be entombed for two weeks in the family tomb located in the house
before being permanently buried. The narrator helps Roderick put the
body in the tomb, and he notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some do
after death. They inter her, but over the next week both Roderick and
the narrator find themselves becoming increasingly agitated for no
apparent reason. A storm begins. Roderick comes to the narrator's
bedroom, which is situated directly above the vault, and throws open his
window to the storm. He notices that the tarn surrounding the house
seems to glow in the dark, as it glowed in Roderick Usher's paintings,
although there is no lightning.
The
narrator attempts to calm Roderick by reading aloud The Mad Trist, a
novel involving a knight named Ethelred who breaks into a hermit's
dwelling in an attempt to escape an approaching storm, only to find a
palace of gold guarded by a dragon. He also finds, hanging on the wall, a
shield of shining brass on which is written a legend:
Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;
Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win.
Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win.
We won't be a spoiler and tell the rest of it. If you haven't read it, read it now!
