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Main Theme of The Fall of the House of Usher - Paper

Main Theme of The Fall of the House of Usher

Main Theme

The central theme of "The Fall of the House of Usher" is terror that arises from the complexity and multiplicity of forces that shape human destiny. Dreadful, horrifying events result not from a single, uncomplicated circumstance but from a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances. In Poe's story, the House of Usher falls to ruin for the reasons listed under "Other Themes" (below

Other Themes

Evil

Evil has been at work in the House of Usher for generations, befouling the residents of the mansion. Roderick Usher's illness is "a constitutional and family evil . . . one for which he despaired to find a remedy," the narrator reports. Usher ...

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narrator implies there has been marriage between relatives:

I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain.

Later, the narrator describes Madeline Usher as her brother's "tenderly beloved sister¨Chis sole companion for long years." He also notes that Roderick Usher's illness "displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations."

Isolation

Roderick and Madeline Usher seal themselves inside their mansion, cutting themselves off from friends, ideas, progress. They have become musty and mildewed, sick unto their souls for lack of contact with the outside world.

Failure to Adapt

The Usher family has become obsolete because it failed to throw off the vestiges of outmoded tradition, a failing reflected ...

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Main Theme of The Fall of the House of Usher. (2011, June 22). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Main-Theme-of-Fall-House-Usher/99757
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PAPER DETAILS
Added: 6/22/2011 12:06:32 PM
Submitted By: mikelin
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 978
Pages: 4

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