The Fall of the House of Usher
Author: Edgar Allan PoeThe narrator comes to the House of Usher to visit his sick childhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick Usher wrote to him that he has a disease of the mind and needs help. The narrator stands outside and watches the vast edifice of the Usher house.
Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and the family was famous for their dedication to all forms of arts – painting, music, literature.
The narrator meets Roderick and finds him ill. Roderick explains that he has become super sensitive to things like sound, light, and taste; he assumes that he will die soon. He also says that his sister, Madeline suffers from catalepsy, a disease that gives seizures. He says that she will die soon and also says that this mansion is sentient, which means it can feel things. The narrator feels the negativity and tries to help Roderick get off this feeling by spending time on the arts.
But one day Roderick tells the narrator that Madeline is dead. The narrator and Roderick entomb Madeline’s body in a vault under the mansion.
One week later, a storm brews up, and both the friends are unable to sleep. They decide to read a book and pass the night. But as the narrator starts reading it aloud, all the sounds start resounding from somewhere down the mansion. Roderick Usher freaks out and shouts that they had buried Madeline while she was still alive, and now she’s coming for him.
The doors open with a bang, and they see Madeline standing there. She jumps on Usher, who gives a painful cry and dies along with his twin sister. The narrator runs away in horror. As he looks back, he finds the House of Usher cracking and sinking into the dark.
