The Three Unique Characters of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher

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The Three Unique Characters of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher

In Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the three characters are the unknown narrator, the narrators old time friend Roderick Usher, and Roderick’s sister Madeline Usher. The three characters are unique people with distinct characteristics, but they are tied together by the same type of “mental disorder”. They all suffer from insanity but they each respond to it differently. Roderick and his sister seem to have a spiritual attatchment, and the narrator begins to get sucked into it.

The narrator is called for help by his old time friend Roderick Usher. There is a split feeling in the narrator’s mind between the rational and the supernatural. When he first arrives to the house, he sees a face in the tarn, a split crack in the house and the double image of his own face on the image of the house. Unlike Roderick, the narrator appears to be a man of common sense. He seems to have a good heart in that he comes to help a friend from his boyhood. Being educated and analytical, he observes that his friend Roderick has a mental disorder. The narrator tries to find scientific explanations for what Roderick senses, but when he can’t find one, he criticizes Roderick for his fantasies, and claims that Roderick is “enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenated”. The narrator tries his hardest to help but he can’t because he ...

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