h is able to erode the physical reality or the matter. Thus, the spiritual or the mental dominate and mold the physical reality in an occult way. The action of the mind over matter was a common concern for both Poe and Hawthorne and, as it shall be seen, it is realized in different ways in the two texts. Death does not come from the body and does not represent the mere disintegration of the matter; it is the spirit which slowly dissolves, taking the body with it in its falls. On the other hand, both texts also emphasize the actual link between the characters and the physical context they are in, the closed world that surrounds them. Therefore, the opposite direction for this fatal influence is also perceivable: the closed, claustrophobic space encapsulates the spirit and cuts short his flight. The house in Poe's tale and the small village in Hawthorne's novel act as constrictive, tyrannical forces which gradually compel and bend the spirits of the two main characters. Thus, in both texts there is a close and complex relationship between the inside and the outside spaces, which act on each other through devious influences. The syndrome of dilapidation is practically transmitted from the inside to the outside and thus the external space itself becomes a prison. Therefore, it would not be an overstatement to assert that the tales have their own mystique of space: the inner circle of the mind expands until it comprises the outside space as well and the tragic hero becomes enshrined in the prison-like environment as a spider caught in his own web. In the two stories, the inside of the mind becomes an outside reality which paradoxically encloses and devours the main personages.
             In The Fall of the House of Usher, the effects of the dilapidation which are seen in the house and in its surroundings resemble closely the gradual mental fall of Roderick Usher. The tale, as many other short stories of Poe has is a structural masterpiece...