There is a remarkable unity of structure in Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher." Every element in the tale is inextricably linked with the central image of the house itself and is thus linked, and ultimately identified with, every other element: including the Usher family, Roderick, Madeline and the narrator. Everything presented in the story evolves from the unity of this central symbol, expanding throughout the story, only to collapse back into oneness at the end of the tale.

The story begins with the narrator's arrival at the House of Usher. As the narrator observes the house he considers what he knows of its inhabitants. The narrator captures the evolution of the Usher family. This family produced only one male heir in each generation, with the family mansion passing to that heir. As a result, the surrounding villagers began to perceive the house and the family as one. The reader is led to believe that the family built the house and the house evolved from the family. "Roderick Usher was convinced that his whole surroundings, the stones of the house, the fungi, the water in the tarn, the very reflected image of the whole, w

The longer the narrator associates with Roderick, the more he realizes "the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation of gloom" (Poe 1161). After Madeline's death and interment, Roderick begins to change. The narrator observes:

Poe's dramatic conclusion to the story portrays the unity of the tale in a symbolic fashion. Just as Madeline and Roderick started life as one egg inside their mother's womb, in the final breath of life, they collapse as one in death. But Poe is not done. As Madeline and Roderick become one, so does the House of Usher become one with them. For without an Usher descendent, the house could not remain. The total unity of the story is complete.

"While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread-and yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps"(Poe 1161).

As Roderick explains his fears to the narrator, the narrator begins to experience those same fears himself. He begins to share the illusions that Roderick experiences as

In a sense, the narrator has become Roderick . In this strange and gloomy atmosphere, with madness and death surrounding him, the narrator's mind, if not already mad, is very near it. Richard Wilbur goes so far as to suggest, "The extreme decay of the House of Usher-a decay so extreme as to approach the atmospheric-is quite simply a sign that the narrator, in reaching that state of mind which he calls Roderick Usher, has very nearly dreamt himself free of his physical body, and of the material world with which that body connects him" (266). If we can believe that Roderick and the narrator are one, sharing madness, and the House of Usher evolved from the Usher family as one, then the narrator and the house are one.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2186
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)