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The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe goes to a great extent to explore transcendental beliefs and related philosophy. Traditional transcendental philosophy ideally hints at an elevation upwards into unity and oneness with heaven. From the introduction, however, the reader is readily invited to the symbolism, the allusions and dark overtones that hint at the ordeals of death, transformation and a potential afterlife. The opening paragraphs provide subtle hints about reversed transcendental hierarchy in their description of the time setting of the story.
It is during the autumn, a period that can be seen as a transition period between the abundance of “life” in summer and the coming “death” in winter. It thus generally occurs to the reader that Allan Poe in this short story refutes conventional views of a static and upward transcendence and instead inverses it in the story to a downward spiral that defines the eventual transformation from flesh to the Godhead through the 'autumn' that precedes the death (winter).
The downward transcendence is first developed in the plot of the story from the clear references of the state of decomposition and eventual decline.
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Sensorial information is readily applied in the description of the story’s setting. With reliance on sullen descriptive terms, Poe establishes an eerie setting that hints at the grim nature of death and decay. The day that the story opens in is “dull, dark and soundless.” (Poe, 99). Further, the author descriptively adds that the clouds were hanging rather oppressively low (99).
When the attention is shifted to the unnamed narrator in the story, the bleakness of the area he enters is soon brought to the attention of the reader. The Usher dynasty is then juxtaposed onto this setting by the statement, “there was… an unredeemed dreariness of thought… that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher” (99). When the interpretive focus is placed on the provided setting and the connection made to the Usher family in the scope of downward transcendence, it emerges that the author seeks to appeal to the reader’s senses and create a world that is menacing in every sense of gothic tales (Spitzer, 355). The house is in disarray and state of decline, the surrounding landscape is not maintained and there is some form of geological fissure threatening the existence and continued stand of the once splendid mansion. The described scene contrasts with the novel depiction of wealth (McGhee, 59). On a downward trail. Poe presents the Ushers in a downward spiralling through ill fate into poverty. All these instil into the narrator a sense of negative inclination in feelings.
When the narrator was visited by a childhood friend, it is expected that he would harbour warm feelings. He, however, feels quite the opposite. He has menacing thoughts and feelings that inspire into the reader's feelings associated with downward transcendence. This is against the traditional upward transcendence that would have been expected from such an encounter. This is further emphasised by the narrator stating that “as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I knew little of my friends” (Poe 100). There is an immediate show of the deterioration of relations and ties to the rest of society. The narrator abandons Roderick Usher in the building as it collapses. This happens in the death of all things when they are eventually forgotten.
The author avails to the readers a momentary view that is in opposition to downward transcendence when he presents the case of Madeline Usher. She is seemingly presented to be on the upward transcendence, unlike Roderick Usher (McGhee, 60). However, we notice that little is said of her while she was alive. Her upward path seems to start on a downward spiral into decay when she falls ill and her disease is described as one that is killing her slowly. In the scenes that she is presented, the narrator speaks nothing to her. Further, she also fails to notice his presence in the room. This ideally alienates her from the described world and places her in some form of the unknown spiritual realm.
Contrasted to the case of Madeline Usher, Roderick Usher is presented as suffering a great deal. Terribly. He is not doing well with his disease as presented by his utterance, “In this unnerved, in this pitiable, condition I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, fear” (Poe 103). Here, a rational and idealistic mind is felled into decay and potential insanity in the continuing display of downward transcendence. Poe thus stresses that transcendence is destructive in nature and does it specifically by spiralling Roderick Usher into eventual insanity. However, Tungesvik,(99) argues that the impending destruction on the house of Usher is a form of foretold event that cannot be overcome or be helped.
Madeline’s ghostly state in the text is representative of the contrasting views to destructive transcendence. She is first introduced as a form of an angel in the building. She is presented as moving “slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared,” The narrator regards her with an astonished look, yet he is not afraid of her. He is unable to explain this feeling. He is in some form of stupor that forces him to watch her retreat. It is here that it becomes clear that beyond the brief description of her illness and the first death, there is nothing more that is mentioned about her when alive (Zimmerman, 55). She thus represents the idea of the afterlife despite the eventual downward spiral that comes with death and decay.
Poe’s ideas of a different form of transcendence leave a sense of completion in the long run. The story presents the Usher siblings embracing in death with the mansion crumbling upon them. Poe tries to bridge the gap between life, death and the afterlife. However, he argues that to get to this, everything sets on a path of downward transcendence. Thus, Poe disputes the idea of man's nobility and that oneness with the universe is realized with an upward motion. He instead fronts the idea of downward transcendence that he goes ahead to prove in the text.
The Reversal of Transcendental Philosophy in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. (2020, Nov 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-reversal-of-transcendental-philosophy-in-the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher-essay
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