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

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The story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a narrator who is going to visit his friend, Roderick, upon hearing about his worsening mental health. When he visits his friend, he discovers the family's curse and witnesses the end of the Usher line. In an attempt to cheer up his friend, the narrator engages Roderick in various activities such as reading, painting, and making music. One such dirge created by Roderick, “The Haunted Palace” is not only symbolic of the Usher line but is also symbolic of the change of Roderick. At the beginning of the story, Roderick's mental health is stable. In the poem, it states, “Spirits moving musically / To the lute’s well-tun’d law, / Round about a throne, where sitting / Porphyrogene!” In this scene, there are wanderers that seeing spirits that are moving …show more content…

The poem, states” But evil things, in robes of sorrow, / Assailed the monarch’s high estate; / (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow / Shall drawn upon him, desolate!).” The evil spirits come and attack the peaceful life of the king. In the story, it states,“ His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and objectless steps. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue- but the luminstates, ousness of his eye had utterly gone out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterized his utterance.” Roderick has started to change. Both of the quotes connect because the poem is saying that the evil spirits came and ruined the harmony of the kings' life, which is “thought (Roderick)”. This means that Roderick has started to go crazy and in the story, Roderick is changing negatively, which means he is slowly starting to go crazy. During the story, Roderick is going