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Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is about the fine line that exists between reason and madness. The narrator represents the reasonable individual of sound mind and judgment who falls prey to the evil, otherworldly influences of a diseased place. The line between sanity and insanity is a popular theme in Gothic fiction, as is the story’s plot structure. Often, a protagonist in Gothic fiction receives a letter inviting them to visit a long-lost friend or relative. The location is remote, and there is often an ailing relative living deep within the house who remains unseen. The protagonist experiences progressively stranger feelings and events, and they must decide if these experiences are real or a figment of their imagination.
Gothic narratives that follow this plot structure force both the protagonist and the reader to confront the limits of their sanity when faced with unexplainable, terrifying events. The protagonist’s task is either to escape (often saving a young woman in the process) or to succumb to madness themselves.
Death is always a central theme in Gothic literature, and in this case, the story contains various kinds of death. At the beginning of the story, death is imminent: Madeline dies early in the story, and Usher’s worsening health imply that the family line, which has been dwindling for generations, is nearing its end.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
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Berenice
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Hop-Frog
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Ligeia
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Tamerlane
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The Black Cat
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The Cask of Amontillado
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The Conqueror Worm
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The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
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The Gold Bug
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The Haunted Palace
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The Imp of the Perverse
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The Lake
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The Man of the Crowd
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The Masque of the Red Death
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The Murders in the Rue Morgue
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The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
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The Oval Portrait
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The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe