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What Does The Haunted Palace Symbolize In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

714 Words3 Pages

Mental illness, incest, pure horror, and maybe even vampires, “The Fall of the House of Usher” has very perplexing symbolism and metaphors that can be hard to decipher. The symbolism in his stories reflects his horrific past in a unique way for each piece. By using imagery and symbolism in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe creates very controversial topics to be discussed by the reader such as what Poe meant with the imagery he used to describe the appearance of The House of Usher, Roderick and Madeline's supposed mental illness, and "The Haunted Palace". To begin with, there is a great deal of symbolism in "The Haunted Palace". "The Haunted Palace" is a song that Roderick writes in "The Fall of the House of Usher". It contains a very elaborate story of how a ruler, whose name is Thought, has a beautiful palace which is destroyed by regret is now full of death and despair. The song shows part of the transformation in saying: And all with pearl and ruby glowing Was …show more content…

Throughout the song, the readers hear of a golden and glorious palace that is tenanted by angels and has spirits whose job as solely to sing, but then evil spirits come into it and destroy the palace. The palace in this song represents the human body, specifically the head, of Roderick Usher and it is introduced as radiant and glorious. As seen in the above quotation, the door is described as "And all with pearl and ruby glowing" in which pearl represents teeth and ruby represents lips. That also leads to the next line, where “A fair palace door” represents a mouth and is constantly singing and full of life. "Two luminous windows" (Poe 3) are also mentioned in this song represent Roderick's eyes. The song also says that the ruler's name is Thought which leads to more evidence of this being about a mental struggle that the speaker is having. Clearly, Poe uses symbolism in “The Haunted Palace” to represent Roderick Usher and the emotions he is

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The depressing mood in “The Fall of the House of Usher” also insinuates fear in the opening paragraph by describing the atmosphere and appearance of the house. Poe uses “dull, dark and soundless” (Poe 1) descriptive words to describe the atmosphere around the Usher house. He explains the “clouds [hanging] oppressively low” (Poe 1) and the sense of “insufferable gloom” (Poe 1) coming from the house. Poe employs this to set a melancholy tone and prepare the reader for the gloomy description of how the usher house appears, which the reader will find expected. The usher house is personified as a person by its “bleak walls…vacant eye-like windows…rank sedges…

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