LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake
Student Presentation, spring 2001

Reader: Erin Gouner

Recorder: Valerie Siref

8 March 2001

"The Fall of the House of Usher"

by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is a master of the gothic genre that strongly appeared in America during the period known as the American Renaissance. Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Fall of the House of Usher," which is a fictional piece about the destruction of a family and the consequential destruction of their estate. This piece fits into objective 2: To study…the related styles of the "gothic".

Gothic setting: "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher."—page 1461. Poe sets his story in autumn, which is a time when nature is changing colors and dying. Leaves commit suicide by gracefully falling from the trees before the dreary season of winter takes the scene. The falling and death of the leaves, compares to the crumbling house of Usher. Also, Poe chooses his language (words such as dreary, shades, oppressively, and melancholy) to bring the reader into the realm of the gothic.

The setting affecting the mood of the characters: "I endeavoured to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room-of the dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed."—page 1470. The gloomy and dark room is affecting the character’s mood. The setting often brings the characters, and the reader, into the dark and sinister world of the gothic. The darkness of the setting begins to infect the characters mind and makes an inescapable maze of the psychological.

Gothic romance: "Here is one of your favourite romances. I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will pass away this terrible night together."—page 1471. Poe gives the reader a false sense of security by bringing in a moment of relief with the introduction of a romance. However, the sounds in the romance parallel to the sounds of Madeline emerging from the grave. This brings the reader back into the gothic.

Emerging from the grave, twins, and death: "…but then without those doors there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure to the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated."—page 1474. The lady Madeline emerges from the grave to kill her twin brother. There is a moment Poe foreshadows this event, when Usher stares at his twin sisters corpse as they are preparing her grave. Madeline appears in the room as a emaciated, tortured figure to fulfill her brothers worst fears-death.

Valerie Siref took discussion notes. One student commented on the observation about autumn…she commented on the pairing of beauty and death. Also, the pairing of women and nature, which also occurs in "Ligeia." Cleo said that Poe prolongs the death of the women much like Stephen King is known to do. Amy commented on movies starring Vincent Price, and Dr. White asked for reference information on Price. Vincent Price was an actor in the 1950’s, and is known for his roles in horror films, especially his roles in films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Valerie was commented on the eeriness of the narrator being involved in the entombment of Madeline when he only glimpsed her once.