Friday, July 17, 2009
The House of Usher
Poe says the atmosphere "reeked up from decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn....dull sluggish, faintly discernible, and leadenhued. " "None of the house had fallen but there was a "wild inconsistency." He uses the house to explain the character of Richard Usher which is gloomy and sad and disoriented. He also uses the furniture saying it was "comfortless and tattered". Richard Usher hadn't left the house in many years and he blamed the house had taken over his spirit and then going on to say that this illness had been in his family for a long time. The painting which he saw showed the dunjon which they would eventually put Madelines body in and yet somehow she would escape just as the light that got into the dunjon without a window or candle. Madeline wasn't dead when they put her in the coffin because it said she had a faint blush upon her bosom and that she was smiling yet they put the lid on and locked her in the dunjon anyways. The house always mimics the character, I think when he went away and saw the house fall Richard Usher went mad and never was normal again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
From what you have said and thinking more about the novel, I get a better understanding of how the house mimics the personalities of Richard and Madeline. Although the house is still up, it appears to be withering away, just like Richard. When Richard talks about his families illness there is an eerie feeling that the house has affected his whole family who has lived there. The foreshadowing of the events that took place in the dunjon with Madeline escaping was something that I hadn't picked up on. Also like we had talked about in class it seems that the collapse of the house on Richard and Madeline would be the final connection between the three. No longer a representation of those living in the house but a part of them as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's RODERICK and Madeline :). Anyways, I didn't really pick up at first when the narrator ( who's name is unknown ) saw roderick painting a pitcure of dungeon as foreshadowing. I'm somewhat oblivious to things like that in literature. I agree though with Spencer's comment about how the destruction of the house symbolized the ending of the Usher family line. The house itself had fallen ill and began to decay and crack, almost like the mindset of Roderick.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading a lot of Gothic this summer I think it is fair to say that in most cases the setting or place where the main characters live will ultimately desribe them in some way. In this story this holds to be true as Roderick is just as torn down as his house is.
ReplyDelete