Katja's Literature Journals

Katja
ENGL 48A
Journal # 15, Poe
November 16, 2006


"There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with an oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage." (1543)

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher offers the possibility of a multitude of readings and at the core of all of them is the tormented mind of Roderick Usher. Here, the narrator observes the extent and depth of Usher’s suffering.

Roderick Usher is clearly a prisoner of his mind. He suffers paranoia, alternating periods of mania and depression and hypersensitivity. Whether his terrible state results from disease (genetic, mental, physical, spiritual), guilt or drug use is open to discussion. Poe writes about a "terrible influence which for centuries had moulded the destinies of his family" (1542), suggesting perhaps an inherited disorder or illness. Usher also seems throttled by guilt, an obvious cause of which would be some type of sexual deviation, such as incest. One could also argue that Usher is gay, "struggl[ing] for the necessary courage" (1543) to come out.

Another source of guilt is his failure to carry on the Usher name. His sister’s death leaves him "the last of the ancient race of the Ushers" (1538), something that would weigh heavily on the mind of a young aristocratic male. Yet another issue in the text is opium abuse, mostly suggested by Roderick’s shifting behavior. This, too, is a likely deficit in Usher’s distressingly unbalanced checkbook.

Poor Roddy carries many burdens in this story. He can hardly tolerate the state of self-revulsion he is in; indeed he is collapsing in front of our very eyes. Nowhere can he find the courage he needs to ‘fess up; not even in his oldest and most enduring friend. Cast aside like so much human garbage, Roderick is the pinnacle of martyrdom and the poster boy for the downward spiral.