Incest in House of Usher

of Incest in The Fall of the House of Usher ' by Edgar Alan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher ' is a short story written by Edgar Alan Poe and first published in 1839 . The genre of the can be described both as mystics and as psychological thriller , or even as a horror story , although it 's plot appears to be pretty simple at the first sight . The Fall ' touches several themes , which are usual for Poe 's writing , including fear of loneliness , fear of death , flaws and human weaknesses . On the

other hand this is Poe 's perhaps most profound investigation of the of incest and tabooed vicious love to the closest relatives . This aims to investigate the theme of incest in the Fall of the House of Usher ' and trace Poe 's idea on the subject and it 's consequences

The story opens when an anonymous protagonist receives a letter from his close friend named Roderick Usher in which he asks to come and support him in his illness . The narrator arrives to a distant part of the country to find his Roderick lost , lonely and almost insane . The surrounding of Usher and his old family house also bear a spirit of absurd . As Poe wrote : I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house , and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul . This literary technique is traditional for English Gothic literature of the time : the scene itself is mystical and acts almost as a character of the story . Usher even calls the house a member of the family ' underlining it 's role in the events that follow

Roderick describes his disease as acute bodily illness - of a mental dis which oppressed him . Poe wrote his story before invention of modern psychiatry , however , one can easily notice , that Roderick suffers from chronic depression caused by oppressing emotions of fear and guilt As the story develops a reader comes to know the reasons of Roderick 's sickly state

Upon arrival to Usher 's house the protagonist learns , that Roderick has a twin-sister , also suffering from even worse form of illness . She appears only once as a ghost-like figure in the corridor and leaves without saying a word . It seems that Roderick really loved his sister as she was his sole companion for long years - his last and only relative on earth "Her decease " he said , with a bitterness which I can never forget "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail ) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers

Roderick and the narrator spent time together talking and discussing Roderick 's abstract paintings , until one day Madeline , the sister of Roderick , dies and they carry her corpse vault deep beneath the house where she is to be entombed . Roderick asks the...