The Fall of the House of Usher

Roderick Usher writes a letter to the narrator of The Fall of the House of Usher, asking him to visit after the death of Usher's sister, Madeline. The narrator, who is never named, arrives at the house and immediately notices that it feels haunted and bleak, referring to it as a "mansion of gloom." During his meeting with Usher, he cannot help but notice that living in the house has been taking a toll on Usher. He looks ghostly pale and "cadaverous", and his personality jumps from talkative to silent. The two bury Madeline in the dungeon of the mansion. Eventually, the narrator tries to calm Usher down by reading him a favorite story, which completely backfires. Usher begins talking to himself, murmuring about Madeline and the story and that he has been hearing her. As if he is possessed, he points at the staircase, and Madeline of Usher appears. The narrator runs away from the house, which collapses in his wake.

First published in a gentleman's magazine in 1839, The Fall of the House of Usher represents Edgar Allen Poe's signature Gothic style. Characterized by curious and complicated characters, haunted and sinister houses, and the suggestion of the supernatural, Gothic literature is essentially romanticism with a few twists. Gothic literature invokes the Enlightenment belief of chaotic nature and also that the supernatural  realm was attractive yet intended to scare and harm you. The text argues that the world (especially the metaphysical) is inherently chaotic and unpredictable, and therefore cannot be trusted

A swift departure from the Enlightenment, Poe's writing shows no belief that the physical world can be manipulated in any way, let alone controlled. Benjamin Franklin, who was famous for his belief in living in complete independence from the supernatural realm, would not have particularly supporting him.  But Poe also would have had difficulty agreeing with early American writers, such as John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet  and Mary Rowlandson, who believed nature was a gift from God and praised God in both blessings and curses.