The Fall of the House of Usher Themes
Madness
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is the story of a sick man whose fears manifest themselves through his supernatural, sentient family estate. (Sentient means able to perceive things.) T...
Family
“Usher” explores a family so bizarre, so self-isolating, so removed from normalcy that their very existence has become eerie and supernatural. The bond between the featured brother and...
Isolation
This story explores a family so isolated from the rest of the world that they’ve developed their own supernatural barriers to interacting with it. The House of Usher exists in its own reality...
Fear
For Roderick Usher fear itself is worse than whatever you actually fear. In fact, fear is responsible for at least one of the deaths in this story. One possible interpretation of the tale is that t...
Identity
One interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is that it presents a dramatized interpretation of a split-personality disorder. At the least, the tale explores different aspects...