Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall Of the House of UsherBy Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher was writen by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839 and features dark American Gothic tones. It tells the story of the narrirator who visits this old friend, Robert Usher and his sister. The narrirator discovers that Roberts sister, Maldeline, is dying of disease and has little time to live. Leading up to her death Robert falls into a deep depression that the narrirator trys to break him out of. When his sister dies Robert asks the narrirator to bring her casket down to a copper vault to be sealed deep within the manor. The night after the narrirator is woken up by Robert after hearing screaming and moans. To calm down Usher he reads him his favorite story, but is inturupted by Madeline, who is still alive and escaped her tomb. She grabs Robert and the Narrirator runs as fast as he can to escape the house. As he leaves he turns around to find the house crumble into a pile, signifiying the end of the Usher line.

Summary

Edgar Allan Poe

Born in Boston in 1809 his mother died when he was a young age and his father deserted him, he was taken in by John Allan a wealthy Virginian merchant. John Allan paid for Poe's education but refused to pay for Poe's gambaling debts, forcing him to drop out. In 1827 he joined the army and wrote his first volume of poetry. A few years later he published his second volume of poetry, in 1830 his step father helped him get into West point but was later expeled for academic violations.Later he wrote for several magazeines but after writing a third volume of poetry he still had little money or fame. He did receive some popularity with the pubishing of "The Raven" but still could not escape poverty. He died in 1849, two years after his wife passed, alone and depressed.

Theme

American Gothic-Show dark tones and leaves the reader with more questions than answersMadness-Robert is going insane from the pain of losing his sister and the pain of being aloneIsolation-The brother and sister are alone for years at a time