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Poe’s Murderous Intentions By Jacqueline Cortez

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Many know of the many stories that Edgar Allan Poe writes with relation to women. From Poe’s poems, my theory is based on the Fall of the House of Usher and the Oval Portrait. Both a peculiar and stories with ending resulting in death. However, my theory of these stories is that the author had the intention to murder the women.

The Fall of the House of Usher is known for how tragically the whole line of the Usher family went down in one collapse. However, the important part is that this place was causing Roderick to deteriorate slowly. The house of Usher had “discoloration of ages” ready to fall apart like these twin siblings were (201). Even the house was full of “gloom” and depressive which shows how Roderick’s mindset is. Roderick mindset was set on the intention to kill his twin sister, Madeline. He wanted to escape from the madness that surrounded him. The narrator described Roderick as rather peculiar, “his temperament…viscous and sullen” (203). It is anger that is growing inside of him. The more he spent time in the house with his sister, the crazier he will become. When he speaks about her with the narrator he said, “her decease,” with a bitterness which I can never forget” (204). The narrator felt the intensity of his bitterness so much that he marked it as a moment in his life where he could not forget. This word was a serious presentation of how he felt. He would spend his days seeing his sister “pass slowly through a remote portion of the apartment,” without noticing other presence walks across the room. She is described just moving around the house indicating her absence as a ghost. She has no emotion. When Roderick sees her, he becomes saddened. This sadness is turning into hate as he “buried his face in his hands” (205). It is as if he is sighing at her existence. When she walks away, he speaks to the narrator about how he feels. The narrator is trying and trying to cheer him up, but his mind is just “darkness, as if [it was a] positive quality” (205). The beginning of the story sets the tone of his intentions, unveiling his true self and his hidden inner feelings.

 

His artistry, his poem, is what came alive and his intentions were seen in depth throughout the poem. His poem symbolized his intentions. The poem begins, “Once a fair and stately palace—Radiant palace—reared its head” is hinted and symbolized as Madeline. This is because the narrator hinted this story as “her throne.” And also, she can be viewed as part of the poem because in the past, women were known to be “fair” (207). Therefore, in the beginning part of the poem Madeline is still alive in the palace or house. Further in the poem it says, “But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch’s high estate” highlight that something entered the palace to attack the ruler. Roderick chooses the word “assailed,” an aggressive and violent word to describe the action towards the ruler. This ruler can be no other than Madeline. And the “robes of sorrow” is Roderick as he was previously described as a very saddened person. Roderick hints to the reader he already thinks of the ruler as dead, “Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him, desolate!” (208). Madeline is still alive as this poem is read but Roderick emotionally places her in a tomb before he does it himself. This shows how is ready to accept her death but even more so—desire it. The symbolic murder continues when the poem says, “And round about his home the glory. That blushed and bloomed. Is but a dim-remembered story. Of the old time entombed” (208). This part of the poem speaks about how the house was once full of life but now is just a “remembered” story. In this story she is already placed in a tomb. He ends the poem in a deadly tone. He says, “A hideous throng rush out forever, And laugh—but smile no more” (208). The “hideous throng” is seen as thoughts that were locked in Roderick’s mind. When there is a “laugh,” it seems to be like a positive laugh but really there is no smile related to this laughter. The meaning of this laugh is tragic because there is no joy but instead an inhumane thinking of murder. When the narrator sees this poem, it is like seeing his confession written in front of him. And Roderick did not mind this.

After discussing different books, one evening, Roderick “abruptly informed [the narrator] that the Lady Madeline was no more.” The word that is important in this sentence is the word “abruptly.” It is import that because abruptly means it happened all of a sudden, without notice that maybe soon she will die. This could only mean that she was murdered which was foreshadowed through the poem. After Roderick told the narrator that she is not longer alive, he already stated of where he was going to preserve the body. Roderick planned the murder and already planned where the body was going to be buried. The narrator described his decision as “led to his resolution by the unusual character” of Madeline. As previously discussed, Madeline did not say a word and only made Roderick miserable. Because of this reason, Roderick decided on the resolution of the murder (210). Roderick’s plan was coming together. And he was going to get the narrator to help him. When they took her to the casket, they “placed and screwed down the lid” (211). The question the reader asks themselves is “Why did the lid have to be screwed down when it can just be closed?” Roderick knew that maybe she might wake up. That is why they screwed the lid down, so that it can not be opened. It is a shameless act that the narrator did not question. Roderick fooled the narrator with his tactic of warmth that he never doubted him. Not only did they screw the box down, but they secured the room with Madeleine with a “door of massive iron” (211). Roderick thought in advance what would happen if Madeline did try to leave. He knew she couldn’t get an iron door open. Even though to Roderick, this could’ve been a relief, this was only the beginning of the downfall.

Roderick began to lose his mind from here. It is the guilt that possessed him and the terror that Madeline might escape. The narrator describes him as roaming “chamber to chamber” (211). Roderick could not get a hold of himself. His nerves were taking over. Roderick was full of “tremulous quaver” (211). It was obvious to the narrator that Roderick is losing his mind. Spitzer underscores that “after he has buried Madeline alive he will be only a victim of his nerves” (355). This is true because the narrator noticed this when he said, “There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive secret” (211). Roderick’s mind constantly and continuously was agitated or annoyed. The narrator knew that these actions of his had a secret, a secret that was being held inside—The secret of murder. He could “hear” Madeline (215). He senses began to become “acute” and he could hear Madeline as if she was alive (215). His guilt haunted him with terror. He was so digested by her that he called the beating of her heart horrible (215). Then once they went to check on where they placed her, she flung the door open, the door Roderick thought couldn’t be opened. She is described with “blood upon her white robes” (216). This blood is not just the blood that was from her trying to escape the vault. But this blood is also from the blood that came from Roderick trying to kill her without being noticed by the narrator. After all, all the narrator focused on was the fact that their characteristics were so alike that only then he realized that they were twins. The story ends with Madeline getting her revenge as she murders Roderick and bring him down with her, a tragic ending to the Usher family.

The tragedy of The Fall of the House of Usher was not only because of Madeline but also Roderick. They were both the reason for the end of their lives. Roderick should have controlled himself toward a family member, though, he already began losing his mind and sanity. Roderick could not help himself, so he devised a plan to kill Madeline to the point of riding a poem with hidden meaning of her murder. The murder of Madeline caused him to lose his sanity more and more. Roderick lived with less peace in his life. Roderick began deteriorating just like Madeline. The narrator watched everything happen, he was a witness to the murder. Roderick’s plans fell through and failed. In the end, murder is never the answer. Murder only ends with guilt and no peace. 

 

Works Cited

 

Spitzer, Leo. “A Reinterpretation of ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’” Comparative Literature, vol. 4, no. 4, 1952, pp. 351–63. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1768751. Accessed 25 Nov. 2025.

Thompson, G.R. “The Selected Writing of Edgar Allan Poe.” Norton Critical Editions. 2004

Jacqueline Cortez

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I am writing with an image using the inspiration of The Fall of the House of Usher. The Fall of the House of Usher is about a narrator who travels to his childhood friends house, Roderick, with an unknown reason. When he comes to the house, he describes the house like it is alive revealing a gothic imagery in our heads. He continues and is invited inside by Roderick. As he conversates, he notices how different Roderick was compared to when he was younger. And his twin sister, Madeline, ill with an unknown disease, who moves around the house like a ghost. These two characters confuse the narrator with what is going on inside the house. Why is the Usher Family like this?

The Red Moon

There are many characteristics depicted in this image, but the red moon’s imagery is especially striking and symbolic. The red moon is also known as a blood moon. This blood moon like the word is like blood of a human which can be related and carries connotation to death, destruction, and horror. This color of red devours the image. And by coloring what is inside the house with red, it signifies a foreshadow of death in the house. Furthermore, the trees, the swamp, and area around the house is all red hinting the fate of the house of Usher.

Before the narrator mentions the red moon, it is important to highlight the sequence of events before its appearance. On this day, Madeline is presumed dead and placed in a coffin in the basement beginning the sequence to doom—an eerie parallel to the red moon begins to glow faintly in the background. Roderick then becomes crazier as if he loses his mind because of the sounds of below which can be like the red moon become brighter leading to its tint across the area around the house. The narrator tries to help him calm down and come back to his senses. But all Roderick hears is noise coming from the basements convincing himself that maybe Madeline is still alive. His descent into madness can be connected to the red moon’s glow intensifying. The tension in the story increases as the two of them go downstairs and there appears his twin sister, Madeline, coming out of the basement door, as if she came back to life, all bloody! But then she falls on Roderick and he dies along with her. So her literal fall is like the “fall” of the bloodline of the Usher Family. Before the house falls along down with them, the narrator manages to escape. As he escapes, he describes seeing a red moon hanging over the night of the fall and death of the house of Usher as if nature mirrors the doom and horror of the inside of the house.

The Doubling in the Swamp

The second part of the image I find striking is the dark reflection of the gothic house in the tarn as if the house had a double which connects to the final part of the story when the House of Usher sinks completely into the tarn, leaving its ruins behind. This doubling of the house also parallel the doubles of the story—Roderick and Madeline—the Usher bloodline is embodied by them. These twin siblings are viewed as doubles of themselves, not only that but also have a fate shared. These twin siblings were always together, after all they were the last two of the Usher bloodlines. However, the more Madeline becomes sick with her unknown disease, Roderick becomes too worried that he became to become insane. It is as if he depended on her to be mentally stable. It is as if one half is not stable then the other half is not stable either. When Roderick hears as if his sister is still alive, it’s like she draws Roderick down to where she is. Finally, when he is closer to where she is, she embraces and falls on him like a fall together to death.

Not only is the doubling parallel found with the twins but also Roderick and the Narrator. Both men are connected throughout the story. Especially because the story begins with the narrator wanting to see his friend after a long time. Roderick embodies anxiety and fear because of his sister. Roderick’s sanity becomes a thing of the past, trying to drag the narrator down with him. The narrator begins to reflect Roderick’s state of mind. But the Narrator continued to pull away and because of him pulling away, he wasn’t consumed into the tarn like the twins were. If the narrator was sucked into the mental state of Roderick, maybe he could have been part of the fall of the House of Usher. The reflection of the house in the tarn brings the doubling concept to life.

The Cloudy Sky

When we look at the cloudy sky, there are thick clouds, the colors are black and white allowing the red moon to be the highlight of doom in the picture. Because of the thick clouds, it depicts chaos and a stormy mood and foreshadows destruction. It is as if nature also knows that doom is at the corner. This depiction highlights that the setting is like chaos inputted for the scene of horror, Madeline coming back to life all bloody horrifies the reader. And her dying with her twin brother horrifies even further.

 The Usher’s House Surroundings 

The house itself is isolated, whether or not Poe explicitly tells us if the story was isolated taken place on an island-like land, its portrayal symbolizes the isolation of the family of the House of Usher. Not only is it isolated, but it is surrounded by the dark outlines of the eerie trees and the reeds in the tarn. These dark surrounding show how the family of Usher became, lifeless and depressed because of mental and physical illness. The houses surroundings show that both Roderick and Madeline were isolated and in a dark place away from everyone. And just now when the Narrator appears is when the sequence of the destruction of the House of Usher began.