Supernatural In Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is a man of mystery, sorrow, and has an obvious natural gift for writing literature. The combination of these three things together, creates some of the best pieces of writing and poetry ever written. Since Poe’s literature was first published, there has been an ongoing dispute about whether the narrators in Poe’s works were driven by insanity or by supernatural forces. To side with one in particular is quite difficult; the reason being is Poe leaves his writing for the reader to interpret solely by using one’s imagination, and nothing else. It seems that the textual evidence and foreshadowing all point to supernatural forces as the cause for the narrator’s psychotic behavior. One of his most prominent pieces of literature,

Within this quotation, everything is described as being dead and looking as it contains little to no life. This death-like, eerie feeling ties into the idea that the remaining two Ushers have been turned into lifeless, bloodsucking creatures. Not only do the house’s surroundings appear to be lifeless, but the house as well seems lifeless and filled with dread. The narrator describes the house “as a mansion of gloom” (Poe 1). With his first step in the house, he immediately felt unwelcomed and uneasy. The first room he enters he describe as being dark and having little light.The little light that is entering the room is altered in color and turned into an encrimsoned low light. Being polite, the narrator does not question the boarded up windows and remains

Roderick Usher explains Lady Madeline’s disease to the narrator by describing what the physician believes it is. The narrator tells us that she experiences “a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character” (Poe 6). Those are the symptoms of Lady Madeline’s disease, but it is not officially diagnosed as a specific disease or disorder. The physician describes Lady Madeline’s disease as a wasting disease. The reason why her body is not retaining any nutrients, is because a vampire needs blood to survive, blood of which Lady Madeline has been deprived. Not only has she been deprived of blood, but it also stated her symptoms include a “calapetical character,” and what that means is she suffers from catalepsy. Catalepsy makes a person’s reactions extremely slow and as if they are almost in a near constant sleepwalk, as in Madeline’s case. The reason why catalespy relates to a vampire, is because vampires are unliving, usually tired and they sleep a large amount. From the evidence presented, it is quite obvious that Lady Madeline is in fact a vampire. If this has not proven Madeline is a vampire one more solid piece of evidence will. In the past, in the time of Poe’s life, it was common to bury bodies alive. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” this seems to happen to Lady Madeline. What is unclear, is