The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

Table Of Content

• How did Lenore, Madeline, and Roderick all die?
• Character descriptions
• Poe's Stories
• Every Death in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ Explained
• Discover More Horror
• Every Death in the Fall of the House of Usher Explained - Netflix Tudum
• Limited Series – The Fall of the House of Usher
• thought on “A Summary and Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’”

Having only recently been thrust into the life of the ultra-rich, Perry’s goal is to make life one big party, and he’s hoping to use his family’s money to achieve just that. Extremely cunning and biting, Camille L’Espanaye runs the PR for the family. She’s made her life’s work not only about spinning bad behavior into good press, but also collecting files filled with every dirty secret of those closest to her. As the eldest, Frederick Usher is the natural heir to his father’s company, but out of all of his siblings, he’s the least equipped to do so.

How did Lenore, Madeline, and Roderick all die?

Accordingly, commentaries on social injustice, morality, and utilitarianism proliferated in the mid-19th century. Poe conceived of his writing as a response to the literary conventions of this period. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” he deliberately subverts convention by rejecting the typical practices of preaching or moralizing and instead focusing on affect and unity of atmosphere. Contemporary readers and critics interpreted the story as a somewhat sensationalized account of Poe’s supposed madness.

Who Is Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher? All About Carla Gugino's Character - Esquire

Who Is Verna in The Fall of the House of Usher? All About Carla Gugino's Character.

Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Character descriptions

After Roderick gives Auguste his final confession, Madeline bursts through the door of the basement and strangles her brother to death — the same way their mother killed their father. Auguste stands outside in horror, as Verna stands atop the wreckage. After Leo (Rahul Kohli) wakes up from a bender with bloodstained hands to find his boyfriend Julius’ (Daniel Jun) cat stabbed to death in their living room, he knows he’s in trouble.

Poe's Stories

But as we know from the start, there’s no point in getting overly attached to them, as grisly fates are assured for all. It’s not so much the “what” as the “why” that the audience and Dupin need to be answered. As Roderick nears the conclusion of his story, which jumps back and forth between his early years working at Fortunato and the events that led up to each of his children's deaths, he finally arrives at the fateful night that changed everything, New Year's Eve of 1979.

Every Death in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ Explained

It's the how and the why of their deaths that plays out over the course of Mike Flanagan's new horror anthology series, now streaming on Netflix. Siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built a pharmaceutical company into an empire of wealth, privilege and power; however, secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty sta... Roderick and Madeline’s trauma begins when their devout mother, Eliza (Annabeth Gish), dies at home, and the twins bury her in a homemade coffin in the backyard. Eliza claws her way out and exacts vengeance on William Longfellow (Robert Longstreet) — her married boss, CEO of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, and Madeline and Roderick’s neglectful father.

Discover More Horror

It’s important that Roderick and Madeline are cruel, selfish creatures—less so how they got that way. What’s more interesting is to watch how the fallout of their decisions fell on Roderick’s many children, all torn apart by some of Poe’s most memorable creations. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting, diction, and imagery combine to create an overall atmosphere of gloom. The story opens on a “dull, dark, and soundless day” in a “singularly dreary tract of country.” As the narrator notes, it is autumn, the time of year when life begins to give way to old age and death.

Every Death in the Fall of the House of Usher Explained - Netflix Tudum

But things aren't always as they seem; the final episode takes us inside everything that lingers, bringing everything full circle. Presenting vintage Poe stories filtered through Mike Flanagan's deliciously dark lens, The Fall of the House of Usher will get a rise out of horror fans. ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ can also be analysed as a deeply telling autobiographical portrait, in which Roderick Usher represents, or reflects, Poe himself.

“There is a lot about my job that I love, but there are moments like these that bring me no joy,” Verna tells her in her bedroom after a conversation that found Lenore telling Roderick that it wasn't too late to use Fortunato and the family's largesse for good. Keep in mind that Lenore still had this pureness of mind after seeing her mother burnt within in inch of her life by acid (thanks to Prospero's foolish orgy party) and then tortured by her father, who himself had just been brutally killed in a ridiculous freak accident. BY THE TIME you reach the final episode of The Fall of the House of Usher, the latest of Netflix's horror limited series from writer/director Mike Flanagan, there have been a lot of scares, a lot of violence, and a lot of lore. But, still, a few lingering things remain that need to click in order for the series—based on the collected writings of Edgar Allen Poe—to really all fall into place. Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood) attends a joint funeral for a number of his adult children, and in a montage of press coverage, we see how a series of “freak accidents” has wiped out his entire bloodline. The Usher patriarch then sits in a dilapidated mansion with Carl Lumbly’s Auguste Dupin (based on Poe’s famous recurring character who is considered the first detective in fiction) and offers him a confession.

The narrator helps Roderick put Madeline's body in the tomb, whereupon the narrator realizes that Madeline and Roderick are twins. The narrator also notes that Madeline's body has rosy cheeks, which sometimes happens after death. Over the next week, both Roderick and the narrator find themselves increasingly agitated.

Only, as evidenced by the noises coming from the basement, Madeline wasn't quite dead. In 1979, Italian state channel RAI loosely adapted the short story, together with other Poe's works, in the series I racconti fantastici di Edgar Allan Poe.[33] It was directed by Daniele D'Anza, with Roderick Usher played by Philippe Leroy; music was composed by pop band Pooh. The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline, bloodied from her arduous escape from the tomb. In a final fit of rage, she attacks her brother, scaring him to death as she herself expires.

You’ll recognize a number of famous faces from projects like The Midnight Club, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, and more in this wicked horror series based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In exchange for this protection, both Roderick and Madeline had to consent to the bargain that at the end of Roderick's life, just before he was fated to die anyway, his entire bloodline would die with him. Roderick and Madeline would also have to die at the same time, leaving this world the same way they came into it. The siblings agreed to the deal, left the bar, and soon after became convinced that the whole thing had been a shared delusion. To secure their fortune — and future — two ruthless siblings build a family dynasty that begins to crumble when their heirs mysteriously die, one by one.

A “playboy” with a drug for every occasion, Leo welcomes the ability to numb the pain of his reality, but his drug use has started to become a problem for his boyfriend, Julius. Incredibly intelligent, driven, and calculating, Madeline has always been the brains behind Fortunato. Whenever her brother falters, she’s always there to give him a push, making them a formidable duo. While she loves Roderick, her unrelenting drive and desire for success wouldn’t hold her back from stepping over him, if need be. Once Roderick and Madeline were the only ones left in the bar after a long night of drinking, Verna revealed to the twins that she knew what they had done. But, if they agreed to her terms, she could guarantee that they would not only get away with Rufus' murder but also rise to control Fortunato's billion-dollar painkiller empire and never be convicted of a single crime.