Character Analysis in the House of Usher

Poe meticulously details, from the opening paragraph through to the last, the development of the narrator's initial uneasiness into a frenzy of terror, engendered by and parallel to Usher's terrors (Wilbur p. 91). - The narrator attributes his fantasy to his subjective perceptions. We the readers never do know what is real, what is a dream or the product of mutual hysteria. "Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building" (Selected Works p. 200). - There is a split consciousness in the narrator's mind between

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Themes in the House of Usher

What is the significance of the close resemblance of Roderick Usher and his sister? Are the two the product of, and guilty of, incest? Did Roderick Usher intentionally try to murder Madeline, and did Madeline actually return from her tomb vampire-like, to claim her brother's life? Is the physical house actually "alive" and by some preternatural force of will controlling the destinies of the Ushers? Or is the story not a tale of the supernatural at all, but rather, a work of psychological realism? What then is the precise role of the narrator? And can the work

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