An Analysis of Usher’s Personality in

The Fall of the House of Usher from

the Perspective the Internal and External Causes

從內(nèi)因和外因角度論《厄舍府的倒塌》中主人公厄舍性格形成原因

課 程：美國(guó)文學(xué)史及選讀

學(xué) 號(hào)：201130850232

班 級(jí)：11級(jí)英語2班

姓 名：

I. Introduction

1. A Brief Introduction of Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe（1809-1849）was an American poet, an editor, a literary critic and a fictional writer. In his whole life, he wrote a large quantity of poems, short stories, and literary criticism. He was known as the father of modern short story, father of detective story, father of horror story and the father of psychoanalytic criticism. His status in poetic field was equal to Robert Frost and Whitman and in novelistic field, he was considered to be as important as Mark Twain and William Faulkner(劉麗娜，2007). All his works spared no efforts to achieve the theory called “Unity of Effect”. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature because of his outstanding talents and unique writing techniques.

The Fall of the House of Usher was one of the most successful short stories of Allan Poe, who made every detail in the short story to serve the horror and melancholy atmosphere.

2. Summary of The Fall of the House of Usher

The story described that when the narrator received a letter from Usher in an earlier time, he decided to visit Usher and gave Usher a hand on an autumn day, and then the author began to describe the following things happening inside the House of Usher.

The narrator told us the whole story in three parts. The first part was about what the narrator saw along the way to the House of Usher and the horror outside environment of the House of Usher. And the second part was about the horror inside of the House of Usher. The narrator tried to draw paintings, read poems, play stringed instruments with Usher in the House of Usher in order to relieve his sufferings. What’s more, in this part, Usher’s twin sister, Lady Madeline was said to have died

but suddenly arose from the coffin, which was the climax of the short story and gave us a sense of horror. And the last part told us that the Usher and his twin sister died and the House of Usher fell. Finally the narrator was scared to run away from the House of Usher.

3. A Brief Introduction of Allan Poe’s “Unity of Effect”

The “Unity of Effect” is Poe’s most famous literary theory. He believed that all good literature must create a “Unity of Effect” on the reader and this effect must reveal the truth or evoke emotions instead of expressing some political or philosophical problems(劉麗娜，2007). He tried to establish a kind of effect in his works, and then to write to seek this kind of effect. He believed that quality works should be brief and focus on a specific single effect. In order to achieve this effect, he believed that the writer should carefully use the words and see to it that every detail in the short story should serve the whole atmosphere of the story.

In The Fall of the House of Usher, the horror and melancholy atmosphere could be inferred from the terrible environment, images and so on.

This thesis tries to analyze the main character of the short story, Roderick Usher, to show how the author to achieve the “Unity of Effect” from the perspective the internal and external causes.

.

II. the Illustration on Roderick Usher’s Personality in the Fall of the

House of Usher 1. The Personality of Roderick Usher Roderick Usher was a sensitive, melancholy and morbid character. The narrator described the Roderick Usher’s appearance in this way:

“He had the same pale thin face，the same eyes，large and clear，and the same

thin lips and soft hair．But now his skin was too white，his eyes too large and bright，and he seemed a different man．He frightened me．And his long wild hair looked like a ghostly cloud around his head(The Fall of the House of Usher).” Usher had an extremely morbid face with his hair in a mess, which terrified and frightened the narrator. As we all know, one’s appearance is the embodiment of one’s spirit. It could be inferred that Usher was melancholy and morbid.

2. The Internal Reasons Accounting for Usher’s Unpleasant Personality

Usher couldn’t control his emotions appropriately. Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: id, ego and super-ego. Id represents the instinctual desire. Ego tries to find a balance between id and superego. Super-ego represents the conscience, social norms, individual ideals and spiritual goals(柯杉杉,2010). Usher tried to balance himself among the id, ego and super-ego. He wanted to express his love to his sister but he couldn’t do it because of the moral principles. He wanted to die, but he couldn’t do it either, because he had a responsibility for his family. In the end, he couldn’t follow his own instinctual desire and killed his sister and himself.

3. The External Reasons Accounting for Usher’s Unpleasant Personality

Firstly, due to the horror and melancholy environment he lived in, a sense of inevitable gloom pervaded Usher’s spirit. For example, in the beginning of the short story, the narrator described the Usher House as “a dull and gloomy place”, “a mystery all insoluble”, a “melancholy” house with “dark and intricate passages”, and a mansion of “insufferable gloom” (劉麗娜，，2007). As the shades of the evening drew on, we can feel a sense of horror in this desolated environment. It can be predicted that the owner of the house could be an isolated man or a somewhat melancholy man.

An American poet and critic, Richard Wilbur had pointed out that the condition of the House of Usher symbolized the spirit of the owner. To some extent, the House of Usher was the body of Usher and the dark outside of the House is the gloomy spirit of the owner (劉新茂, 2009) .The horror external environmental descriptions revealed the dark and melancholy spirit of the author. It also fitted to the gloomy mood of the story.

Secondly, his family’s background and traditions resulted in his tragedy of life. Just as the third paragraph described:

“I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament…” and “in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of decent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain (The Fall of the House of Usher).”

It could be concluded that Usher’s family was not a very pleasant one. He was the only male character in his family and had a sense of sensibility because of the whole atmosphere of his family. And in the latter part of the passage, the narrator told us that his only sister, Lady Madeline suffered from terrible disease, Usher buried his sister before she died in order to alleviate her sufferings, but his sister arose from the coffin one night, which added the sense of horror of the story. Usher thought his life was meaningless that he kept a negative attitude to life and to this world. To some extent, his psychology was morbid and twisted because of his lonely and isolated life. Because Usher was lack friends and relatives, he was so meaninglessly to live alone in this world that he chose to die as well.

Lastly, Usher, an embodiment of author’s life and values, had the same miserable ending with author. As is known to us all, Allan Poe was born in a poor family, and his parents died when he was a child, later his wife died early. Due to his miserable experience, some of his characters he wrote were pessimistic, hopeless and morbid. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the Roderick Usher was resembled with author himself not only in appearance but also in experiences. (袁 竹、林玉鵬，2009)

III. Conclusion

Due to the internal and external causes, Usher ended his life tragically. Meanwhile, the spirit of Usher collapsed completely and the House of Usher fell as well. The gloomy, melancholy, mysterious and horror environmental descriptions paved the way to show the tragic destiny of Usher. And the tragic destiny of Usher is the inevitable result of these horror descriptions. We could see that Allan Poe spared no efforts to show us a sense of horror, mysterious and melancholy.

Bibliography

劉麗娜. 論愛倫·坡的美學(xué)理論及其在《厄舍府的倒塌》中的體現(xiàn)[D]. 桂林: 廣西師范學(xué)院.

吳偉仁.《美國(guó)文學(xué)史及選讀》[M]北京:外語教學(xué)與研究出版社, 2007: 136-162 . 袁 竹、林玉鵬.《厄舍古屋的倒塌》中羅德瑞克的變態(tài)性格分析[A]. 合肥: 合肥工業(yè)大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)（社會(huì)科學(xué)版）, 2009(4): 89.

劉新茂.從弗洛伊德精神分析人格理論解讀《厄舍府的倒塌》中主人公厄舍的精神分裂.徐州：徐州工程學(xué)院外國(guó)語學(xué)院, 2009.

柯杉杉.弗洛伊德理論下的《厄舍府的倒塌》人物內(nèi)涵分析[D].北京: 中國(guó)人民大學(xué), 2010.