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seems to present her as a ghostlike figure. Lady Madeline had the tendency to roam the house, not

taking notice to anything, or anyone. According to the narrator, Lady Madeline “passed slowly

through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed [his] presence,

disappeared. At the narrator’s arrival, she goes to her bedroom and falls into a catatonic state.

The narrator, after the decision that she is not waking up, helps bury and put her away in a vault,

however, with her reappearance, he flees. It becomes apparent that Madeline had fallen to the

mental disorder which seems to plague the House of Usher.

Roderick Usher, the old child hood friend of the narrator, and head of the house, plays a

rather distinctive role in the story. He comes from a rather wealthy family in which he now stakes

claim to the family money. Roderick, as the narrator tells the reader, had once been an attractive

man. However, his appearance deteriorated over time. At first meeting with Roderick, the

narrator spoke of the radical change in his friends appearance, to the point in which “I doubted to

whom I spoke.” Roderick’s altered appearance probably was caused by his insanity. The narrator

notes various symptom from which he bases his opinion that Roderick is not mentally sane:

excessive nervous agitation. His actions were alternately vivacious and sullen, his voice varied

rapidly from a tremulous indecision. Roderick’s state worsens throughout the story. He becomes

increasingly restless and unstable, especially after the burial of his sister. He is not able to sleep

and claims that he hears noises. Generally, Roderick is an unstable man, his capability to remain

sane is far gone at the point in which he is introduced.

The narrator, although he remains nameless, appears to be a man of common sense. He

shows his good heartedness in going to help an old child hood friend, whom he has lost contact

with prior to the letter sent by Roderick. With his arrival to the house, he observes Usher and

concludes that his friend has a mental disorder. He looks for natural scientific explanations for

what Roderick senses. The narrator’s tone throughout the story suggests that he cannot

understand Usher. Oddly enough, it becomes obvious in the beginning of the story that the

narrator is superstitious. When he looks upon the house, even before he met Roderick Usher, he

observes “There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition. ”

When he and Roderick go down to bury Madeline, he speculates that she may not be completely

dead yet. However, rather than mentioning his suspicion to his friend, he remains silent and

continues the burial. The narrator comes across as more of a practical man, trying to dismiss

strange occurrences as coincidence, or natural occurrences. For example, when Roderick claims

that there are ghosts in the house, the narrator feels fear too, but he dismisses Roderick’s and his

own fear by attributing them to a natural cause. In the end, this fear finally overcomes him.

The three characters of course are unique people with distinct characteristics, but they are

tied together by the same type of mental disorder. All of them suffer from insanity, yet each

responds differently. Lady Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane and continues her

life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears realize his mental state and struggles very hard

to hold on to his sanity. The narrator, who is slowly but surely contracting the disease, wants to

deny what he sees, hears, and senses. Unlike the other two characters, however, he escapes the

insanity that is, The House of Usher.

In The Fall of the House of Usher has an unusual conflict occurring. Unlike most stories,

the conflict does not fall between to animate objects, instead it falls between man, and a inanimate

object, a house. Although the conflict is not coming from the house itself, however, more the

supernatural beings which inhabit it. They do, however, reflect themselves upon the house. In this

case, the house and its beings which inhabit it, reign over the characters.

In the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe explores the inner workings of the

human imagination but, at the same time, cautions the reader about the destructive dangers which

can result from it. When fantasy suppresses reality, as in Roderick’s case, what results is madness

and the decay of mental stability. Madeline’s return and death reunites the twin natures of their

single being. The focus of this story is the narrator’s reaction to and understanding of these

strange events. To look into the dark imagination where fantasy becomes reality is to evoke

madness and loss of stability. The narrator has made a journey into the unknown world of the

mind and is nearly destroyed by it.

The Masque of The Red Death

The story covers a period of approximately six months during the reign of the Red Death.

The action takes place in the deep seclusion of the main charactor, Prince Prospero?s castle, in

which he has invited the higher standing people of his village. Here these people will stay until the

Red Death has passed the town by. In party, food, wine and dancing, they will all live, while the

lower class townspeople die. The masque takes place in the imperial suite which consisted of

seven, very distinct rooms.

This story has no characters in the usual sense

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