Edgar Allen Poe was a prominent figure in the American Romantic Movement. From his dark, gothic works, to his tragic love stories, he was revered for his short stories and poems. One of these stories was The Fall of the House of Usher.

The story begins with the narrator coming to his childhood friend’s house to help him. His friend Roderick Usher is ill and is plagued with mental illness. His twin sister, Madeline, seems to suffer from the same illness. One day, Roderick tells the narrator that his sister had died and that she should be buried in the family tomb. As they move her body to the tomb, the narrator notes her flushed face, but he still continues to help Roderick. Later, as the two are sitting in Roderick’s house, the narrator notes how frightened Roderick is, and tries to calm him down. However, as he begins to read a story for Roderick, he finally realizes that Madeline was alive and that they buried her alive within the family tomb. Suddenly, Madeline enters the room the two are in, and literally scares Roderick to death, and they both die that night. The house begins to crumble, and though the narrator escapes, he turns back and sees the house fallen.

The short story encompasses a variety of twisted elements. For one, Roderick’s love for his sister, Madeline, could be considered incestuous. It’s also believed that their parents, as well as various ancestors, were related to each other. Medically, this causes the offspring to inherit various recessive disorders, many of which can be, at the very least, crippling. Because of their sickening family line, Roderick knows that he will die, alongside the house. He thus creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that unwittingly dragged his sister down with him. Though he tries to end her suffering by burying her alive in the tomb, it had the opposite effect and increased her suffering. What’s more, the house itself symbolized the ruin of the family. Although homes typically represent hearth and warmth to many readers, in Poe’s story, the house was implied to be a literal prison, designed to destroy rather than protect its inhabitants.

The story has inspired a countless number of artistic works. It was adapted into a silent film titled The Fall of the House of Usher in Britain. In the United States, the film House of Usher changes the story quite drastically, with the narrator actually being in love with Madeline. In literature, Poe’s relative, Robert Poe, decided to continue the story with the book, Return to the House of Usher. The short story has also been adapted into short films, theatrical productions, and operatic entertainment.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a dark story of a twisted family that dies within their decadence. Its claustrophobic atmosphere and the allure of the Usher family have put it at the forefront of American gothic literature. The obsessive love between family members and the genetic disposition of the family itself has been marked by dangerous diseases and the like. It’s a story that has fascinated many writers and artists and will continue to do so for decades to come.