The fall of The House of Usher

Thesis

It expertly combines in a powerful and economical way all of his most obsessive themes, and it brilliantly reflects his aesthetic theory that all the elements of a literary work must contribute to the single unified effect or pattern of the work itself.

Introduction

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is Poe's best-known and most admired story, and rightfully so: The central mystery on which the thematic structure of the story depends is the nature of Roderick Usher's illness (Poe, 136). Although its symptoms consist of an extreme sensitivity to all sensory stimuli and a ...