Silent Movie (1928)

Cover Art

         This image is very interesting to the eye.  It really gives the reader a summary of the story without actually giving away any of the details.  The mansion is shown, reflected in a mirror image beneath it.  The mansion is very spooky looking on its own however the black mass in the background exemplify this spookiness.  Moreover the depiction of the mansion almost looks like it has eyes and a mouth, thus personifying the mansion as Poe does within the short story itself. This image consequently portrays important aspects of the story such as the idea of the doppleganger as well as the idea that the house is in and of itself an important character to the story.

Parts of a Whole

"The Usher family and the Usher mansion are analogous, - stained with time, used up. crumbling from within, awaiting collapse. Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline, identical twins, are almost two faculties aof the same soul, and they can be interpreted together as the soul of which their mansion is the body. All three decline together, and the inference is that the disappearance of one means the disappearance of the others, which in fact is what comes to pass. The Fall of the House of Usher is a mosaic of incidents, psychological attitudes, symbols, all cemented into place in a unified structure according to the prescription of an exacting and skillful art. Poe's theory of the short story demands unity of effect, and here he achieves it as nowhere else. (Buranelli p. 78,79)." - (http://watershedonline.ca/literature/Poe/pousher5.html)


There is a lot of evidence backing up the aforementioned idea that in Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, it is easily inferred that the house, Roderick and his twin sister Madeline are intertwined and form one being that lives, breathes and dies together.

The Connection of Roderick, Madeline & the House

"The two are twins and thus look identical to each other. And then, Lady Madeline survives being buried alive, as though she can not die without her twin brother dying as well. She then somehow, maybe psychically, finds Roderick who dies with her, as the mansion collapses over them; their death bringing an end to the family and, as though psychically linked, to the family mansion." - (http://bibliographies.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/the-house-of-the-fall-of-usher/)


The connection between Roderick, Madeline and the mansion in which they live is undeniable.  The House is personified and given its own character.  Roderick and Madeline are portrayed as two parts of a whole.  As the excerpted quote describes, the three lived together, deteriorated together and finally died together as one.