"The Wife of Usher's Well" is a typical folk ballad. It uses all of the standard characteristics in some way. In this essay, I will analyze the plot and theme of the story within the ballad. I will then discuss the characteristics that make the poem a ballad.
The ballad begins with a woman who lives in Usher's Well and has three healthy sons. She "sent them o"er the sea" for a reason not suggested by the poem, and we are to assume that her sons died when it says "her three sons were gane" and "her sons she"d never see." The boys" mother then wishes that "the wind may never cease, Nor fashes in the flood" until her sons come home in "earthly flesh and blood." One may interpret this wish to be a spell.
She seems to get her wish "When the lights are lang and mirk" on Martinmass, and she has a feast prepared "Since my three sons are well." What she does not realize is that they must leave with the morning light because if "we be missed out o" our place, A sair pain we maun bide." This statement can be interpreted that they have come back from the afterlife to satisfy their mother's wish but are only able to stay while it is dark, and it is the major shocking aspect of the story. .
At the end of the poem, the youngest of the three brothers says goodbye to his mother, his land, and "the bony lass, That kindles my mother's fire." The lass (girl) may be a woman that he was in love with or simply a maiden of the house. The plot conveys the overall theme that when calling on the supernatural like the mother does with her wish, you may get results, but they may not be what you expected.
The story of the wife of Usher's Well is told in a mixture of narration and monologue of different characters. This method of telling the story allows for the reader to use his or her imagination when reading the part of the narrator who is objective and impersonal. The first person to speak is the mother of the boys when she makes a wish that her boys would come back.
A great example of this anima is in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher.... Usher soon dies of fear and Madeline dies right after. ... He takes the cat in and his drinking leads him to start to resent that cat as well. ... Instead of going after the cat, he decides to look for a hiding place for his wife. ... The whole time he is getting rid of the body, he refers to his wife as "it....
Setting is also an important characteristic is Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". The images he gives us such as how both the Usher family and the Usher mansion are crumbling from inside waiting to collapse, help us to connect the background with the story. well his father died/dissapeared when poe was a very young child, then his mother died and he was taken in by the allan family (hence Edgar ALLAN Poe) he didnt get on with his new father and they rowed alot. he married his cousin but had no children. his wife died and this affected him deeply. ... She played the role 6 or 7 n...
We had never before been so attentive to our duty, our Friday assembly- -Stephie, brought close to tears by a sitcom husband arguing with his wife, appeared totally absorbed in these documentary clips of calamity and death- (Delillo 64). ... In "The Fall of the House of Usher,"" Usher is hyper-conscious of his own past and the madness of his ancestors and understands the inescapable nature of his demise. ... Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost'- ("Usher- 235). ... It is Usher's fear of the sensual experience of death that paralyzes him, considering that he suffers "from a ...
For the first time in his life things were starting to go well. ... Virginia Clemm Poe's wife died in 1847 of tuberculosis and in doing so shattered his heart again (World Book). ... (Buranelli 38) Despite the overwhelming pain that Poe felt, do to the death of his wife he was still able to find relief. ... In the story "The Fall of the House of Usher,"" Poe presents himself through the morbidly witty Roderick Usher. ... Usher was also a man who saw his insanity but struggled to grasp at his sanity. ...
The narrator of the story, "The Black Cat," would not gouge out the cat's eye and then hang it from a tree as well as he would not kill his wife if he were sane. ... The motif of madness is also used as a means of ravage of the mind which could result in death as it is portrayed in, "The Fall of the House of Usher.... "3 Besides frightening subjects like death, disease, dark setting, haunted locations and others, characters who exhibit madness4 are the gothic elements incorporated in number of his stories, like for example in, "The Fall of the House of Usher,"...
In turn, these vassals would enhoeff the land to other men, who would then pay homage to him as well. ... The system worked so well for the kings and his people since he could not demand monetary tribute from his subjects, as money was scarce, but land was plentiful and always in supply. ... Charlemagne ushered in a new era of Feudalism with the idea of giving away not only land, but also Ämter (Position titles) and even rights to certain trades as fiefs. As the years went on and wars were waged, even kings became vassals of other kings, such as when Richard the Lionheart of England tried to ...
When Macbeth and his wife are re-united they are both highly charged with nervous energy and excitement. Macbeth and his wife at first do not speak in sentences. Their speech is syncopated and highly charged emotions tell the audience all is not well. ... Shakespeare makes it known that the relationship between Macbeth and his wife is beginning to disintegrate almost immediately. ... The repetition of knocks increases the tension more so, Lady Macbeth appears agitated and ushers her disturbed husband to his chamber, where they can rid themselves of the signs of their horrific acts. ...
"My good friends, matters cannot go on well in England until all things shall be in common; when there shall be neither vassals nor lords; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves. ... I pass over the little regard that citizens and relations showed each other; for their terror was such, that a brother even fled from his brother, a wife from her husband, and, what is more uncommon, a parent from his own child. ... While it could be argued that the plague was the straw that broke the (Late Middle Ages) back, one could also argue that the Plague wiped the slate, ushering in a new ...
She was pretty, well-behaved, and every young boy wanted her. ... But Daisy was not the innocent wife she made herself out to be either. ... Jay went over to the Buchanan's one afternoon, and Daisy ushered her husband out of the room because the phone was ringing; she then began to kiss Gatsby wildly while her husband was in the other room. ... Wilson goes off the deep end when Daisy kills his wife. ... Wilson the gun and told him that Gatsby was the man responsible for the death of his wife. ...
