The Fall of the House of Usher

E38356

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a classic Gothic short story that explores themes of madness, decay, and the supernatural through the eerie decline of an aristocratic family and its crumbling mansion.

Aliases (1)

Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Gothic fiction work
horror fiction work
short story
author Edgar Allan Poe
countryOfOrigin United States
firstPublicationDate 1839
firstPublishedIn Burton's Gentleman's Magazine
genre Gothic fiction
horror
psychological fiction
hasAdaptation The Fall of the House of Usher (1928 film)
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960 film)
The Fall of the House of Usher (opera)
hasCharacter Madeline Usher
Roderick Usher
unnamed narrator
influenced Gothic horror literature
language English
literaryForm prose
literaryMovement Romanticism
mainCharacter Madeline Usher
Roderick Usher
motif crumbling house
incest implication
living burial
mirror imagery between house and family
narrativePerspective first-person
narrator unnamed first-person narrator
partOf Edgar Allan Poe's tales of the grotesque and arabesque tradition
setting decaying mansion
isolated countryside
structure frame narrative elements
symbol cracks in the mansion
the house of Usher
the tarn (dark lake)
symbolizes decline of an aristocratic family
psychological disintegration
theme death
decay
entombment
family degeneration
fear
isolation
madness
the supernatural
tone eerie
melancholic
oppressive atmosphere

Referenced by (5)

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