In Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic horror short story, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ Poe’s prolific literary skills presents a broad range of interpretations for the readers to conclude. Some interpret the story symbolizes Poe’s mental stability at the time, some even interpreted that Madeline and Roderick Usher represent the feminine and masculine sides of Poe (Mambrol), but the meaning remains undetermined and open for clarification. In 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' Poe's ability to foreshadow the impending downfall of Roderick Usher by using the physical state of his surroundings to symbolize his psychological state, creating a melancholy and moody tone in this Gothic horror story ahead of its time. Poe’s technique in writing does not make the characters explicit in their personalities or who they are by maintaining vague. “Poe renders them [the …show more content…
In the story, there is a great amount of foreshadowing and interpretation of the Usher's downfall. At the beginning, of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” it is reiterated of the dull and dark image of the house, “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 (Poe).” Poe’s narrative leaves space for interpretation and foreshadows the fall of Usher, in autumn. There may have been a pun “implied on the word fall (Mambrol)” considering the title of the story. Upon the narrator’s arrival at the House of Usher, the author describes in intricate detail the menacing presence of the Usher house which emphasizes the correlation to the Usher family’s impending doom. The narrator notices the decay of the home despite its structured building and the lack of care in the environment surrounding it, which symbolizes the inevitable fall of the Usher