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Discuss  the  concept  of  duality  and  ‘the  double’  in  Poe’s  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  
Usher”  in  relation  to  both  the  Psychological  and  the  Religious
...
 
Poe  was  a  literary  artist  in  the  greatest  sense  and  ‘as  a  craftsman  intended  the  
story  to  do  what  it  does,  to  arouse  a  sense  of  unearthly  terror’2;  such  that  one  
cannot  read  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher  (Usher),  without  attempting  to  
decipher  the  meaning  behind  the  emotions  it  conjures
...
 Assessing  the  extent  to  which  the  
theme  of  duality  exemplifies  the  psychological  and  religious  undertones  of  the  
text  will  provide  the  gateway  from  which  it  will  be  argued  Poe  uses  duality  
uniquely
...
   
 
The  psychological  aspect  of  Poe’s  work  is  undeniable,  and  Usher  was  one  of  a  
number  of  tales  published  between  1838  and  1840  to  have  a  psychological  
theme
...
 Because  of  the  vast  
psychological  analysis  of  the  text,  this  essay  will  focus  primarily  on  the  
relationship  between  Roderick  Usher  and  sister  Madeline  and  how  their  
relationship  echoes  the  psychological  themes  of  doubling  and  the  uncanny
...
 Thus,  it  can  be  argued  that  Roderick  and  Madeline  in  their  ill  
                                                                                                               
1  Benjamin  F
...
 
2  J
...
 Bailey,  “What  Happens  in  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher?””  in  American  Literature  
35,  no
...
 

 

  

2  

health  are  representative  of  the  uncanny  and  psychological  decline;  ‘the  ‘double’  
has  become  a  vision  of  terror’4
...
 This  notion  is  
demonstrated  in  the  text  when  the  perplexed  narrator  exclaims,  ‘surely,  man  had  
never  before  so  terribly  altered,  in  so  brief  a  period,  as  had  Roderick  Usher!’5
...
 
 
Consequently,  it  can  be  reasonably  argued  that  Poe  used  characters  Roderick  and  
Madeline  as  twins,  as  doubles,  to  depict  a  sense  of  expected  normalcy  but  this  
was  challenged  by  their  unusual  behaviour  and  sense  of  unease  or  threat,  thus  
depicting  them  as  the  uncanny
...
 As  Herrmann  notes,  
horror  reaches  its  peak  at  this  point  in  the  story  because  the  reader  is  compelled  
to  question  why  Roderick  is  seemingly  aware  of  his  sister  being  alive,  as  though  
he  was  ‘labouring  with  some  oppressive  secret’7;  this  knowingness  gives  rise  to  a  
sense  of  internal  bond,  a  union  more  mysterious  than  that  of  simple  twins8
...
 Rather,  it  is  likely  that  Madeline  was  the  intended  
double  of  Roderick  and  constitutes  toward  the  uncanny  in  the  story,  as  Freud  
notes,  this  would  be  fitting  because  like  Madeline,  the  uncanny  is  the  harbinger  
of  death9
...
     
5  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”,  accessed  26  March  2015,  
http://www
...
org/files/932/932-­‐h/932-­‐h
...
 
6  Israeli,  Noam
...
"  Journal  of  the  Society  for  
Existential  Analysis  16  (2005):  378-­‐389
...
 
8  Claudine  Herrmann  &  Nicholas  Kostis,  “The  Art  of  Duplication”  in  SubStance  9,  no
...
 
9  Sigmund  Freud,  “The  ‘Uncanny’”
...
 However,  although  the  two  are  
introduced  as  twins,  as  the  story  progresses,  one  may  start  to  see  Madeline  as  a  
manifestation  of  Roderick  himself10  and  this  gives  rise  to  another  psychological  
notion  of  doubling  in  Usher
...
 Stein  summarises  this  interpretation  
effectively,  he  says  that  Madeline  is  a  visible  embodiment  of  the  alter  ego  and  
that  she  represents  the  emotional  or  instinctive  side  of  her  brother’s  
personality11
...
 However,  as  Falk  argues,  although  Roderick  is  aware  of  his  
mental  deterioration  the  reality  is  that  Madeline  and  him  cannot  function  
individually  nor  exist  without  one  another  as  separate  parts  of  the  psyche12
...
 Folk  comments  on  this  notion:  
 
‘Having  buried  the  anxieties  of  space  and  time  that  threatened  the  ego  and  thus  
released  the  ego  from  the  continuing  necessity  of  struggle,  Roderick  is  truly  
defenceless,  and  he  soon  collapses  to  the  floor,  coupled  in  death  with  the  very  
anxieties  he  wished  to  expel’13
...
 
11  William  Bysshe  Stein,  “The  Twin  Motif  in  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher””  in  Modern  
Language  Notes,  74,  no
...
   
12  Annemarie  Falk  &  Tim  Lanzendörfer,  “Dualism  in  Edgar  Allan  Poe’s  “The  Fall  of  the  
House  of  Usher”,  8
...
 1  (2009):  
57-­‐72
...
 Character  Roderick  intends  to  isolate  
himself,  his  ego,  with  the  belief  that  this  will  eradicate  the  fear,  terror  and  
anxiety  associated  with  the  alter  ego  Madeline
...
 Again,  Falk  
summarises  this  notion  seamlessly:  
 
‘From  the  unstable  particles  that  comprise  the  walls  of  the  House  of  Usher  to  the  
chaotic  makeup  of  Usher’s  mind  itself,  Poe’s  universe  is  a  fearful  place  because  of  
the  ego’s  isolation  and  defensive  claim  of  unity’14
...
 
Rather,  irrespective  whether  Madeline  is  either  the  twin  or  manifestation  of  
Roderick  they  are  animate  being(s)
...
 Rather,  the  use  of  
capitalisation  for  the  House  demonstrates  the  unsettling  suggestion  that  the  
House  itself  is  living  with  the  twins  living  within  it
...
 Rather,  when  
Roderick  and  Madeline  die  ‘the  house  must  ultimately  collapse  as  well’15
...
 It  is  reasonable  to  argue  that  the  
doubling  both  external,  taking  the  form  of  uncanny  and  terror,  and  internal  
taking  the  form  of  split  psyche,  indicate  the  psychological  interest  of  Poe
...
 Rather,  it  seems  that  Poe  believes  a  unified  
identity  cannot  be  achieved  by  rationality  and  thus  depicts  the  terror  of  this;  in  
                                                                                                               
14  Jeffrey  Folks,  “Poe  and  the  Cogito”,  69
...
 

  

5  

Usher,  ‘Poe’s  heroes  suffer  from  a  war  between  their  own  faculties
...
 The  latter  section  of  this  essay  will  
further  address  the  concept  of  duality,  with  reference  to  the  religious  influences
...
 In  order  to  assess  critically  the  notion  of  religious  
duality  in  Usher  various  points  are  to  be  considered  namely,  the  influence  of  
Descartes,  the  reference  to  religious  texts,  and  the  nature  and  presentation  of  the  
House
...
 Descartes  distinguished  between  the  mind  and  the  body,  viewing  
the  mind  as  that  from  which  rationality  could  be  derived;  he  believed  that  
although  the  body  is  significant  ‘it  is  hardly  worth  mentioning-­‐  when  compared  
with  what  my  mind  contains  within  itself’18
...
 This  
duality  of  the  mind  and  body  arguably  influenced  Poe  and  writing  in  the  post-­‐
enlightenment  period,  therefore  it  is  unsurprising  that  Usher  contains  the  notion  
of  rationality
...
 Conversely,  Poe  developed  the  contradictions  found  within  the  
human  mind  and  to  this  end:  
 
‘The  further  Poe  delved  into  the  contradictions  of  the  human  mind,  the  more  
evidence  he  found  not  of  a  transcendent  force  of  unity  and  arrangement,  as  

                                                                                                               
16    Annemarie  Falk  &  Tim  Lanzendörfer,  “Dualism  in  Edgar  Allan  Poe’s  “The  Fall  of  the  

House  of  Usher,  9
...
 
18  René  Descartes,  “Meditations  on  First  Philosophy”,  accessed  2  April  2015,  
http://www
...
com/pdfs/descartes1641_1
...
 
19  Jeffrey  Folks,  “Poe  and  the  Cogito”,  57
...
 

 
Thus,  it  is  reasonable  to  argue  that  Poe  used  the  religious  notion  of  duality  but  to  
his  own  purpose,  similar  to  the  psychological
...
 Using  characters  
Roderick  and  Madeline,  Poe  pushed  the  understanding  of  duality  to  its  end,  he  
used  them  to  demonstrate  that  ‘the  self  is  divided  into  body  and  mind  and  that  
the  two  conflict  but  remain  ultimately  related’21,  Roderick  could  not  survive  
without  his  twin  Madeline,  his  rationality  could  not  achieve  unity
...
 
 
However,  Poe’s  focus  on  duality  can  be  viewed  as  influenced  by  religion  in  
various  other  aspects  of  the  text
...
 and  good  
versus  evil’22,  religious  concepts  of  dual  nature
...
 The  
House  is  described  as  having  ‘no  affinity  with  the  air  of  heaven’23  thus  depicting  
the  House  as  evil
...
 The  light  that  the  characters  need  is  precisely  the  
Enlightenment  and  rationality  that  Poe  is  portraying  as  terror,  a  unity  and  an  
identity  that  is  unobtainable,  as  the  text  reads,  ‘no  torch  or  other  artificial  source  
of  light  was  discernable’24
...
 
21  Annemarie  Falk  &  Tim  Lanzendörfer,  “Dualism  in  Edgar  Allan  Poe’s  “The  Fall  of  the  

House  of  Usher,  1
...
library
...
edu
...
php/SSR/article/view/131,  162
...
 
24  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”
...
 
 
Carr  convincingly  argues  that  a  biblical  reading  of  Usher  cannot  be  evaded  and  
that  there  is  a  deliberate  dichotomisation  of  a  dual  ‘underworld’  and  ‘upper  
world’  and  godlessness  that  pervades  inside  the  House25
...
 Of  particular  interest,  her  argument  follows  that  the  various  lower  
rooms  of  the  house  depict  the  unease  of  the  soul  and  consequently,  Madeline  is  
buried  in  the  vault  lowest  in  the  house,  where  she  belongs
...
 
From  this  it  can  be  noted  that  Poe  uses  duality  between  light/darkness,  
good/evil  in  a  way  that  can  be  read  as  innately  religious  in  its  connotations
...
 duplication  can  emanate  only  from  evil’28
...
 Rather,  as  Hoeveler  notes,  
Roderick  and  the  narrator  are  described  as  reading  together  texts  such  as  
“Ververt  et  Chartreuse”  and  “Heaven  and  Hell”  and  thus  ‘it  seems  statistically  
unlikely  that  Poe  would  have  randomly  selected  for  his  use,  a  text  that  had  as  its  
core  a  reference  to  a  buried  pagan  god  and  his  twin  sister’29
...
 However,  here  it  is  reiterated  that  his  use  of  both  themes  serves  to  
inform  readers  of  his  larger  purpose  of  demonstrating  the  failure  of  reason  and  
                                                                                                               
25  Annabel  Carr,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”,  166
...
 
27  Annabel  Carr,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”,  170
...
 
29  Diane  Hoeveler,  “The  Hidden  God  and  the  Abjected  Woman  in  “The  Fall  of  the  House  

of  Usher””  in  Long  Studies  in  Short  Fiction,  29,  no
...
 
 
Religious  overtones  may  be  further  noted  in  Usher
...
 This  can  be  supported  
throughout  text,  particularly  as  Madeline  dies,  there  is  an  ‘exceeding  density  of  
clouds’  and  ‘frequent  and  violent  alterations  in  the  direction  of  the  wind’  and  
following  the  aforementioned  notion  of  light/darkness,  there  was  ‘no  glimpse  of  
the  moon  or  stars’32
...
 However,  it  may  be  argued  that  it  is  a  further  example  of  
subconscious  religious  influence  on  the  text  of  Usher
...
 Again,  this  argument  is  relatively  vague  and  
possibly  lacking  in  evidence  directly  from  the  text,  however,  holds  some  weight  
in  regards  to  the  concept  of  religious  duality,  mirroring  and  reflection  and  is  also  
noted  in  Carr’s  analysis
...
 This  betrayal  of  
the  Holy  Ghost,  Carr  suggests,  precipitates  a  cataclysmic  ruination  of  both  the  
Usher’s  and  their  House
...
 
31  Thomas  Atkinson,  “Religion  in  Poe’s  The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher:  Deconstruction,  
Psychoanalysis  and  Symbolism”,  accessed  25  March  2015,  http://www
...
mmu
...
uk/e-­‐
space/bitstream/2173/313181/1/Tom_Atkinson_Revised_Masters
...
 

  

9  

standing  but  about  to  collapse’  which  links  directly  to  analysis  that  Poe  was  
writing  to  highlight  that  reason  could  not  provide  a  stable,  unified  identity
...
 However,  what  has  been  demonstrated  is  that  although  both  
psychological  and  religious  conceptions  of  duality  are  identifiable  in  the  text,  
they  are  unlikely  conscious  and  more  likely  a  product  of  Poe’s  context,  namely,  
the  Enlightenment  period
...
 
 
Given  that  Poe  uses  duality  to  display  the  inadequacy  of  reason  it  is  unsurprising  
that  the  mental  state  of  the  narrator  deteriorates  throughout  the  story
...
 When  character  Roderick  is  ‘listening  to  some  
imaginary  sound’  with  ‘mad  hilarity  in  his  eyes’,  the  narrator  is  presented  as  
rational,  the  one  who  leads  him  away  from  this  disillusion  ‘with  a  gentle  
violence’33
...
   As  Carr  
notes,  the  narrator  begins  to  recognise  the  greatest  threat  to  order,  the  uncanny
...
 
Walker  also  comments  that;  
 
‘On  the  night  of  the  catastrophe  the  narrator  experiences  the  same  depression  
and  terror  which  had  oppressed  Roderick  throughout  the  tale,  and  it  becomes  
                                                                                                               
33  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”
...
 
35  Annabel  Carr,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”,  168
...
 

 
 This  is  precisely  the  point  at  which  Poe’s  use  of  duality  to  depict  unstable  
identity  becomes  evident
...
 Rather,  Poe  uses  duality  and  
doubles  to  demonstrate  how  a  unified  identity  and  understanding  of  the  human  
condition  cannot  be  achieved  using  reason,  and  he  creatively  does  this  by  
capturing  the  reader  into  identification  with  the  narrator  who  progressively  
deteriorates  just  as  the  characters  before  him  do;  ‘the  reader  is  primed,  seduced  
and  then  utterly  unnerved  by  a  gently  revealed  horror  that  perplexes  as  much  as  
it  repulses’38
...
 
However,  Poe  uses  duality  to  his  own  end,  he  ‘achieves  insights  into  the  
mysteries,  processes  and  terrors  of  the  human  personality  without  draining  our  
shared  inner  life  of  its  basic  mystery’39
...
 Such  that,  the  use  of  duality  in  the  text  is  
simultaneously  to  make  us  aware  of  the  terror  of  the  human  condition  but  also  to  
enlighten  us,  to  ‘illuminate  the  interior  of  the  self,  the  powers  and  processes  of  
the  mind-­‐  and  frequently  the  destructive  and  irrational  powers’40
...
M
...
4  (1966):  585-­‐592
...
 
38  Annabel  Carr,  “The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher”,  164
...
 2  (1970):  245-­‐262
...
 

  

11  
‘Roderick  is  the  author  of  his  own  madness,  just  as  Poe  is  the  author  of  

Roderick’s  vision  of  cultural  decay  and  historical  meaninglessness,  and  just  as  we  
are  authors  of  our  own  readings’41
...
 However  as  
Hoeveler  notes;  
 
‘Make  no  mistake;  we  cannot  pretend  that  such  an  act  has  significance  beyond  
the  one  that  we  ascribe  to  it
...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                                                               
41  Diane  Hoeveler,  “The  Hidden  God  and  the  Abjected  Woman”,  393
...


 

  

12  
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