Category: Blog: “The Fall of the House of Usher”

Angel Oquendo

Professor Kwong

ENG 3407

9/12/19

Critical Response

In both gothic stories, Castle of Otranto and The Fall of the House of Usher deal and mention paintings. The authors of these stories seem to be heavily affected by paintings in their lives to the point to write stories mentioning them. In Castle of Otranto, There was a painting made by Alfonso of his son, Theodore that was adored and evaluated for hours by the some of the women of the story, Matilda and Isabella. In The Fall of the House of Usher, there are also paintings, paintings created by a mentally unstable man by the name of Roderick Usher. Like the painting of Theodore in Castle of Otranto, the paintings that Roderick Usher produces are so realistic that it made himself “shudder” and exclaim about how they are as “vivid as their images before me”. Although these paintings are beautifully realistic, it is scary to Roderick as much as it is beautiful. The painting is uncanny to Roderick and affects him mentally and physically. He creates his paintings when he his hurting and concerning himself about his health. 

On page five, Roderick goes to create a painting and it starts with an ominous white tunnel that is shaded along the edges to make it seem like it is so far underground that it has never seen the light of the sun. The tunnel is low hanging with smooth white walls. Light rays are beaming through the tunnel but it is unclear as to where the light is coming from. 

“A small picture presented the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and without interruption or device.”

The Roderick Usher Painting I will be referencing is “The Girl Who Knew Too Much”.  The narrator speaks of Roderick’s ever downward spiraling mind. The loss of his sister is too much for him to bare and he starts believing he sees her and that she is coming for him. The painting “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” creates the parallel of both Roderick’s delusions and his sisters knowledge of just how cursed the family is. In “The Fall of the House of Usher we see this when the Narrator says“Not hear it?—yes, I hear it, and ​have​ heard it. Long—long—long—many minutes, many hours,
many days, have I heard it—yet I dared not—oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!—I dared not—I dared not speak! ​We have put her living in the tomb!​ Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared not—​I dared not speak!​ “. The quote makes you see the picture of Roderick looking around speaking of the cries or noises of his sister, believing that she has been buried alive and has come back to get him. His painting “The Girl Who Knew Too Much” shows a girl that seems to be coming out of the wall determined to be heard, perhaps a lonely girl in search of companionship from her brother, her best friend. Calling out to the person she needs to listen to her, to save her. But also I see it as a warning to Roderick, that he needs to be very careful because he too is cursed to have this same fate crumbling into non existence. 

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens….. I know not how it was but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; …. I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows”.

As the author of “The Fall of the House of Usher” started this literature by painting the setting in our mind as we read. The opening was very dark, dull and filled with nothing but something all at once. Then went on by saying the first glimpse of the building was very distasteful rather extremely unpleasant. The house is gloomy and filled with unimaginable and unexplainable mystery. I interpreted this piece of literature, as the author is using the description of the house as a metaphor for America. He describes the house as a simple landscape.. bleak walls.. and the vacant eye like windows. One aspect of America the narrator could be referring to is American politics. In essence, autumn days are filled with bright colored leaves and a bright sky; however it was written as a dull and dark day. This could be relating to the corrupting president candidate that we currently have in office and the fact that he has us in pure darkness as a nation. Afraid to go outside for we as people of the United States should be deported. He then went on by saying first sight of the building a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded his spirits. I thought about the White House and all that Trump is doing to bring our country down. Hearing the word America, is not what it once was. The narrator touched on the vacant eye-like windows, for this could be the metaphor of the madness that is currently taken place in our country. For our president is not thinking of his people, he is thinking of solely all the wrong topics and is causing him to have a vacant eye on all the topics he should be focusing on.