The Fall of the House of Usher Essay

The Fall of the House of Usher Essay

The Fall of the House of Usher is an intriguing story and each character represents a separate aspect of human psychology. The house is actually the mind, which is stuck in a state of depression that controls the fate of its inhabitants. Due to its structure, characters cannot move and act freely. The mind consists of three different parts. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator portrays the conscious mind, while Roderick Usher represents the unconscious mind; therefore, leaving Madeline as the soul.

“I fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness…” (Poe 320). The narrator portrays the conscious mind. He is fully aware of Roderick Usher and the mental disorder in which he beholds. Although he does not quite understand exactly why he was called to help his friend in need, he understands specific mental functions happening amongst Roderick. Throughout the story the narrator tends to catch on to what is happening and becomes more conscious of his surroundings. “Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained sufficient presence of mind...” (Poe 327). The narrator is mysteriously trapped by the lure of Usher’s attraction and therefore cannot escape until the mind’s depression collapses.

“But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder… a sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence” (Poe 328). Roderick Usher represents the actions of the unconscious mind. The hidden beliefs, attitudes, and fears he has interferes with his everyday life. His heightened senses begin to drive him wild as if the glimpse of light, the taste of food, the smell of a flower, throws off his train of thought. Dark, gloomy, bitter; he’s stuck in a state of depression almost impossible to overcome. He begins to distance himself from the outside world, knowing only of what he reads in books of philosophy. After burying his disturbed twin, Madeline, as if what he thought was her death, he soon realized that the constant voices in his head were coming from her. “Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door!” (Poe 328). There in the doorway stood his fear. The fear that he buried his beloved twin alive. In