... his chair and is muttering to himself. Finally, the narrator goes over to him and listens to what he is saying. Roderick reveals that he has been hearing these sounds for days and believes that he and the narrator buried his sister alive and that she is trying to get out. He yells that she is standing behind the door. The wind blows the door open and ... of fear. The narrator flees from the house. As he does, the entire house cracks along the zigzag break in the frame and crumples to the ground. Commentary In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting to enhance th...

• Word Count: 1485
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... to Roderick's strange fascinations and pursuits, the narrator is pushed closer to the edge of completely losing his sanity. Following the entombment of Roderick's beloved and dying sister Madeline, Roderick's mental stability falls apart and the narrator becomes infected with his friend's superstitions and hallucinations, which leads the narrator into his final descent of madness ... For example, as he flees from the House of Usher, he leaves a "...wild light... a gleam so unusual" (Poe 14) unexplained, showing that he no longer tries to explains things, but only accepts and fears them....

• Word Count: 1351
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate