Isolation In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe is arguably one of the pioneers of American Gothic style and he is known for his dark outlook on humans and their nature. “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is a prime example of Poe’s usage of Gothic elements to convey a certain theme. The story revolves around the last two remaining members of the Usher family, and it shows their demise through an unnamed narrator’s point of view. Through his use of lonely characters, Poe explores the theme of Isolation and its effects on the human mind. The narrator serves as an observant who presents the reader with the depressing details of the Ushers condition. In “The Fall of The House of Usher,” Edgar Allen Poe uses imagery, allusions, and metaphors to portray isolation and its effects.

As soon as the narrator reaches the house, his observations create an atmosphere of loneliness and despair around the Usher family. He describes the house’s features “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 the soul” (Poe 1). The gloomy setting uses imagery to portray the secluded mansion of the Usher’s. The decay represents their isolation driving them insane, and the vacant windows create a sense of hopelessness. Poe includes the dreary house to demonstrate the burden of isolation on the human mind. The Usher families isolated lifestyle is out of the norm for the narrator, therefore, it makes him feel miserable. As he enters the house, the narrator finally reunites with Roderick Usher. Roderick is described as “ghastly pallor of the skin”, and “the silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded.” (Poe 4). The vivid description of Roderick’s appearance shows the harmful effects of separation and disconnection from the outside world. Although he has a sister, they do not have a close relationship and live separately in the house. His exhausting look indicates that he is emotionally disturbed and cannot take care of himself. In addition, the narrator mentions that Roderick’s “eyes were tortured by even a faint light,” to prove that Roderick’s loneliness is driving him crazy and is a cause of his

However, the most important part of the story is the house, and Poe uses metaphors to compare it to the insanity of Roderick Usher. When the narrator first arrives, he mentions a crack in the house “which, [extended] from the roof of the building in front, and made its way down the hall in a zigzag direction” (Poe 3). The crack in the house represents the unstable mind of Roderick Usher, and it indicates that his lineage is close to its end. The literal damage to the house due to its isolation and decay demonstrates the damage in Roderick’s mind. Similar the house, his mind is slowly weakening, and soon he is going to lose control over it. After the story hits its climax, and the plot escalates, the narrator in fear, runs away from the house. As he looks back, the narrator witnesses “a fierce breath of the whirlwind [and] the entire orb of satellite burst at once upon [his] sight” (Poe 15). The House of the Ushers comes crashing down, and so does their bloodline. Their isolation from the world caused their downfall and now none of them remain standing. Poe uses this tale’s dark outcome to portray isolation and its effects in the Gothic