The Fall of the House of Usher Chapter One Passage Analysis Essay

The narrator of the story who is unarmed approaches Roderick's house on a soundless, dark and dull day. From the story, I have recognized that the narrator in his boyhood was a great friend to the old Roderick Usher. It can also be noticed that Usher was previously a gloomy and mysterious man. The narrator notices a change in Roderick's house, from the narrator's observation it is like the house had absorbed diseased and evil atmosphere because of the murky lake and ponds and decaying trees around the house. All the things that the narrator observed contradicted all that he knew of Mr. Usher previously (Poe, Edgar Allan, 1). The narrator noticed other changes in the surrounding of the house that he had not left before. Individual stones around the house were disintegrating; the structure of Usher's wall is relatively solid as a distinctive crack hard made its way from the roof of the building to the ground at the front outside surface of the building. The narrator had gone to visit Roderick because he wrote him a letter as a longtime friend informing him that he was feeling emotionally and physically ill. Therefore, the narrator was rushing for his assistance. The narrator mentions in the story that Usher's family was an ancient lineage, though it has never grown or flourished. He went on saying that only one member of the family had survived from one generation to the next generation. This, therefore, contributes to the formation of a direct ancestry line with no branches distributed in other places of the village or outside. With the solitary lifestyle, the physical and emotional sickness, few or no ancestral family to associate to, makes him so lonely and sad hence create a sad mood in the story.

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At the beginning of the story, we notice the use of the words representing sad mood like the compound being cold, sickening of the heart, fearful, frightening, and gloomy house, sickly and unpleasant atmosphere from the outside. These words show the difficult situation in the house that its inhabitants were facing. From the outside appearance of the house and compound, one could obviously discern the hard situation that Usher was passing through. These words that suggested the sad mood in addition to the flashback of the content of the letter of Roderick, relatively communicates the whole struggle that the narrator's friend has gone through overtime (Poe, Edgar Allan, 2). The word fear as used by the narrator seemed contradictory and had two meanings in the story. It is like the narrator feared that it is like Usher had died according to his situation as was expressed in the letter. It could also mean that the narrator feared his life from staying is such a pathetic environment with the decaying trees, murky water bodies around and the condition of the house feared Usher. He tells us that on seeing the horrible white skin and light that originated from Roderick's eyes, he developed fear. As the narrator goes inside the house with fear, he found that the inner side of the house was just as spooky as the outside. Although with the help of Usher's servant he made his way through the long entrance to Roderick's room where he was resting. Just as the narrator had thought of before getting into Ushers room he found him worse than before. He found Roderick less energetic and paler than he once was before. Usher informs the narrator that he has suffered from fear, nervousness that is heightened senses. He also indicates that even Usher himself was afraid of his house sinking.

Sadness intensified in the story when the only surviving relative in the lineage of Roderick Madeline his sister who could help him also fell sick. She was suffering from catalepsy the irreversible loss of control of the limbs. The narrator spends several days with Roderick trying to cheer him up and encouraging him that he will be well soon; however, the several problems he was passing through. Later own the sister to Usher Madeline died and he decided to bury her in the temporary tombs below his house since he feared that the doctors might dig her up and use her in medical examination as her sickness was strange.

The image of sadness continues in the book and helps in the development of the story. The passage does not symbolize the entire work of the short story but a microcosm that gives a little picture of what is taking place in the piece of work. The sentence makeup of the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" is short and choppy hence creating rhythm and flow of the story (Evans & Walter, 137). The story is built of well-organized short paragraphs that with transition sentences creating consistency in the story. Punctuations are correctly used in the passage with the important and striking points for emphasis put in parenthesis and hyphens used in connecting sentences. Some words like sadness have been severally repeated in the passage as it forms the content word of the story that creates the theme of the story. It has been repeated in many instances of the passage to emphasize the sad mood of the passage. The passage made of three types of writings within it descriptive arguments that are observed when the narrator vividly gives the picture of the condition of the house and the compound and the situation of Usher. The passage also employs dialogue type of writing when Roderick was talking to the narrator explaining his situation to him. And lastly uses narration in most of the instances when the narrator narrates what is happening in the story. The paradox evident in the story is the situation of fear in the narrator, he claims that he is Roderick's best friend, but when he traced his way to him, he tells that he was afraid when he saw the light originating from Usher's eyes. This is a situation that should not exist between strong friends as they need at most during their difficult moments, therefore, should not fear them; however the situation they are in. We are left at suspense of what caused the diseases and the sufferings that Roderick suffered as he used to be well before.

The passage makes us think of or perceive the characters of the narrator as fearful, loving, loyal and wise on the other hand it makes us think of Roderick as loving, open minded, introvert and patient (Timmerman& John H,239 ). The passage has involved colors and physical descriptive words that appeal to the senses. The colors are used to tell us more about the murky water bodies, the dark floor, and the physical description has been used to give more information about Roderick and the status of the wall and the compound. The speaker in the poem is the boyhood friend to Usher who narrates the story. The narrator appears to be omniscient because he knows everything happening in the story and is capable of discerning future events in the story.

Several metaphors have been used in the passage; these include root metaphor used by both the narrator and Usher to explain the way the interpreted reality and how they perceive the world. Therapeutic metaphors employed by the narrator to transform the thoughts of Roderick and visual metaphors used mostly used by the narrator to represent Roderick, and the image of the house and the surrounding compound (Roche, David, 22). The object can be used to represent some of the things that they resemble them in appearance. Murky water and dark floors traditionally connote vulnerability of persons. A story with multiple symbols in work calls for an allegorical understanding that is beyond the literal meaning.

Works Cited

Evans, Walter. "" The Fall of the House of Usher" and Poe's Theory of the Tale." Studies in Short Fiction 14.2 (1977): 137.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. Vol. 661. Prabhat Prakashan, 1973.

Roche, David. "The" Unhealthy" in" The Fall of the House of Usher": Poe's Aesthetics of Contamination." The Edgar Allan Poe Review 10.1 (2009): 20-35.

Timmerman, John H. "House of Mirrors: Edgar Allan Poe's" The Fall of the House of Usher"." Papers on Language and literature 39.3 (2003): 227-244.