Poe- Fall of the House of Usher

Many people know Edgar Allan Poe to be a dark author.  Many of his texts have a melancholy feel to them.  Poe, himself, may have even suffered from depression.  But aside all of the things that make Poe Poe, he was an amazing writer.

Fall of the House of Usher is a great short story.  It is even a little creepy.  With all the different aspects in the story, it may be hard to figure out what is going on.  The first time I read the story I thought the family was incestuous.  The next time I read it, I realized disease was among the two siblings.  I had to do research to figure out what diseases might be mentioned in the story.  The last time I read the story, I questioned the narrator's sanity.

To know that the sister was possibly buried alive and do nothing about it, why?  While reading, I thought Roderick was simply crazy.  I have read this story twice before reading it for today in other classes.  I never understood the layers of complexity Poe uses.  One really has to take their time to read through the text carefully and peel back the layers to see the narrator is the one who has lost his mind.

At the very end of the story, the narrator is running away from the House of Usher because he believes he has just seen Madeline and Roderick die.  He runs away!  The two siblings die upon impact of Madeline attacking Roderick.  This in itself hints at disease but, the narrator acts so strangely that one is left with the question of what really happened.