Roderick & Madeline: Incest or Insanity?

             For me The Fall of the House of Usher is a challenge to the mind. It takes us into the supernatural and goes beyond, into madness in a way. I think that Poe's intention is to create a fear deep in the soul. That is why he creates madness in the characters mind, signifying something that lies deep within. He uses a lot of cult like things, for example, the vortex and the "other religion" bible. This gives is sort of a dreamlike state and so I can imagine Poe writing it and getting lost, drifting, into what he is writing since it is such and absorbing story to the mind. When I read the critic on The Fall of the House of Usher it created a sense of confusion in me because I could not agree at all with what the critic wrote, then I calmed down and looked for my own explanation. The critic implies that Roderick and Madeline's relationship was one of incest; the critic mentions that it is expressed in his agitation, songs, manners and "disease" among other things. I tried looking at it form this point of view but with no success. I find too little of her in the story to create so much from it. Maybe looking at it form the Freudian perspective, you could try to squeeze that out of the story. I couldn't do it, and didn't push it. After all, then it wouldn't be my opinion if I did. Now, my analysis on Roderick and Madeleine's relationship is that Madeline is from the start a "ghostlike" character. In one part it is mentioned that she passes by the narrator and Roderick and doesn't say anything, gives no sign of noticing their presence there. Maybe the Freudian theory could be applied to the narrator when he sees her walking by; he seems to go into another state. A face or a physical description of her is never given, so I can imagine her drifting by in her nightgown. Poe completely puts her aside by using sentences such as; "For several days ensuing, her name was unmentione...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Roderick & Madeline: Incest or Insanity?. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 02:51, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/80048.html