The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe never uses direct language but many small things to suggest it. The story immediately shouts vampire by describing the house as old decrepit, a gothic mansion, the owner being introverted, a traceable lineage, and even having a servant, and mentioning superstitions. And I am quickly brought to the conclusion the owner of the house is a vampire by his seclusion. The mention of superstition let’s us know the narrator is suspicious of something though he never has yet specified what. Maybe I was more acutely aware to these things because I came to the story looking for allusions to vampires. I immediately picture the house as being dark even though it’s never described as such. When he enters the first room he says that even the books and instruments fail to bring vitality to the room, therefore bringing to mind death, and possibly the connection to the undead. The light entering the house through the tall and lofty windows is described as feeble and encrimsoned, the colour of blood. So he continues to carefully construct the image of a vampire. Roderick is greatly changed and his skin is ghastly pale, his hair seems to float, summoning the idea of a ghoul or ghost, and he cannot connect the face to humanity. Animal spirits are said to affect the tone of his voice. Old myths and legends describe vampires as being able to transform into bats and other creatures, generally of the night. His voice is unhurried which I connect to immortality, and hollow I connected to soulless. His illness Roderick describes as a family evil. The use of the word evil seems, again, to allude to vampirism. It seems almost every sentence was weighed and searched for the perfect wording to allude to this with out being abrupt or direct. Usher cannot eat food, and his senses are painfully acute, and he avoids the light. Again the soul is brought up and the malady described as an intolerable agitation of the soul, and the moral of his existence is touched upon. All in all Poe is very direct about what it is. It’s well written and carefully planned out. The term Vampire is such a clear directly diagnostic term to Americans and can be very easily and directly applied with out any use of the word itself or even direct mention of blood or the undead.