The Fall of the House of Usher

Freudian Concepts

        According to Freud, everyone has three zones of mind; the id, the ego, and the superego. Each character in the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, represents one of the zones of mind. The first character, Roderick, represents Freud’s id; he is imaginative and is often able to draw conclusions even before the events happen. For example, he expected his own death with horror and that’s exactly what happened. He also built a grave from the very beginning and ended up burying his sister in it.

        On the other hand, his sister Madeline is a reflection to his repressed ideas or the replacement of his inner self. Madeline represents the primary desires such as fear; thus, she was the cause of her brother's death. The last character is the narrator and he represents the superego because he portrays the reality which comes against the feelings and desires of the id. The narrator seems to be realistic because he always tries to convince Roderick that his ideas are wrong.

        The story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a representation of Edgar Allan Poe mind, which seems to be in an intrapsychic conflict at the time of writing this story. He seems to be trying to find the zone of mind that suits him by having a combat between id vs ego or ego vs superego. He does this by signifying each of the characters in the story with one of the zones of mind.