The Macabre & Creepy Edgar Allan Poe group discussion
The Fall of the House of Usher
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Discussion anyone????
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Gary
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Nov 03, 2012 12:10PM
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Yeah, I was just thinking of reading this one again. One of my favorites. Very complex story. I'll try to read it today and post some comments.
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What do you make of the narrator? Do you think he experiences to some extent the mania that Roderick experiences? Reading again, I noticed how agitated he seems, and he has a difficult time articulating how awful things within the confines of the house. The scratching sound of Roderick's sister....creepy stuff. Do you think she is a ghost?
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The waking up of the sister,and the way it's described is definately creepy. I think what really creeps me out about POE is the language of his stories. He builds tension, ever so slowly, steadily, steadily, from the very first sentence,and you are hooked to continue. He goes into tangents, which you're thinking what is going on.....???? and yet it builds the tension, the suspense to push you to the end. When you read his stories aloud, the language, the prose, the poetry of his words ,and the sounds draw you in....snares you.... hook line and sinker...Poe is capturing you, snagging you, and never lets you go....dear reader. He decides when he is through with you!
I also think the cracking up of the characters, is definately related to the "cracking up" of the house,and it's all part of the atmosphere that POE skillfully gets his readers involved in. The house is in decay, in disrepair, and seems to be experiencing insanity, like the brother and sister's shaky relationship,and they are in decay,and disrepair, aren't they? Isn't that Poe's point?
His stories may be morbid, his stories may be gory, but man!! The man certainly put his readers in the middle of the story in such a way that you feel you are a part of it....standing right there watching the story unfold to the freaky bitter endings.....He is the master in my opinion.
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What I particularly notice also is how much the house is "alive." Poe has so many elements to make the house a living and breathing entity, which gives it a real supernatural flair. I do think Poe leaves room for interpretations and that is what makes reading this story such a rich experience. I've heard a few possible scenarios about the sister of Roderick. Maybe she is just a figment of both of their imaginations, as she is just part of Roderick, his "twin" if you will.
I could totally see how the entire house is a metaphor for the decay of the Usher name and the narrator's terrible state at the end. Wow!
The way Poe constructed this story is amazing. I can always pick up new things with each reading.
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You bring up also the idea of us being affected by the narrator's point of view, which is an interesting aspect. It is a bit of an unnerving read. To some extent, the narrator appears to be completely rational, so these bizarre occurrences with his sister being buried prematurely and the house dissolving into nothing seem so real to us. Looking at the story, we have to say that something just doesn't make sense.
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Could it be your unclear pronoun usage has me confused?
"His sister"...."His" refers to Roderick, not the narrator, right? Am I gonna have to read it again? I just looked at it...just now...the narrator is not Roderick.....
I do think that the reader is affected by the narrator.....I think the reader is affected by the narrator in all of Poe's stories, even his narrative poem , THE RAVEN.... would you agree?
I don't think Roderick Usher is the narrator. An unnamed narrator visits Roderick Usher. Yes, I agree that the narrator affects the reader's perception and mood. The Raven is such a lyrical poem. Love it.
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Perhaps, the greatest haunted house story ever written; or - at least - up until Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" or Matheson's "Hell House".
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Hill House is a great book! I have not read Hell House.
My read is different from others, apparently. I see it as a story about the fall of the gothic tradition. At the time, the haunted house story was a cliche, a good fifty years after the genre first appeared. A lot of contributors here use the term "creepy," but you can also call some of what goes on in this story "campy." In this way, Poe is critiquing his own genre, as if he'd grown tired of it by this time. Certainly, Poe was a writer of ideas over plots, as can be seen from his reviews of Hawthorne and his essay on his own craft decisions in "The Raven." The Usher family is dying of inbreeding, much like a genre ends up copying itself over and over until it becomes a joke. In the end, the house splits in half and falls into the pond that reflects its own image. This demise is a lot like that of Narcissus, who drowns because he falls in love with his own image reflected in the water. At any rate, neat story, whether you take it as a metaphor or at face value.
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Kelly, that is an awesome take. I love it. I know there was a metaphor in there somewhere. I can completely see that point you make about a tired genre that needed a bit of a new direction.
Franky wrote: "Kelly, that is an awesome take. I love it. I know there was a metaphor in there somewhere. I can completely see that point you make about a tired genre that needed a bit of a new direction."Thanks, Frank and Gary!
So, I'm currently reading House of Leaves and for some reason, it is reminding me of The Fall of the House of Usher. I guess because the distorted form of the narrative is sort of blending in with the distortion of plot itself and the make up of the house. Well, that and all the craziness too.
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