Gothic Romanticism: Hawthorne, Poe, and Baudelaire

Gina Poe
S. Hasty
Honors Sophomore English/ Block 4
4th December 2014

The Fall of the House of Usher, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, is narrated by a man who visits the estate of his childhood fried, Roderick Usher. Throughout his experience at the mansion, the narrator portrays a great deal of pessimism. This is expressed from the very beginning through the evaluation of the exterior appearance of the estate, “I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity- an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn--a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.” (Poe 4) During his stay in the home, the narrator learns the sister of Roderick, Madeline, is very ill. The narrator is intrigued by the mysterious woman, but his curiosity doesn't ever become satisfied. The illness of Roderick's sister, who is later to be discovered as his twin, causes him to be very depressed and not as energetic as his old self. Through all his efforts to cheer his friend up, the narrator manages to get a song out of Roderick. The song first expresses happiness in a place, then the place is taken over by demonic figures- causing the place to no longer be happy and causes depression among the inhabitants of the place. After the death of his sister, Roderick becomes consumed with hysteria. One night the narrator can not sleep, along with Roderick. After many crazy things happen, voices are heard and Roderick's sister blew open the doors of where they were freaking out, in a white, blood covered gown. Roderick was attacked by his sister and he died of fear. The narrator flees the house and as he's running away, the house crumbles down into nothing more than rubble. 

Throughout the story, there were many indications that the characters were crammed in the confined space of the mansion. Because of the confinement, it is quite evident the twins were never able to develop as individual people. Instead, they were simply a reflection of one another- never showing their own selves, but the most dominant emotion between the two. Because of Roderick's extreme nervousness and hysteria, this caused his dead twin sister to be a vampire- for she was only reflecting what her brother's primary emotion was.

A common style throughout Gothic fiction works is pessimism. The writers of the works we read displayed this pessimism to a tee. Instead of taking something as a good thing, they express it as a horrible thing. Their conceptions on life in a negative portrayal is what sets Gothic fiction aside from the normal.