The Fall of the House of Usher

 Roderick in “The Fall of the House of Usher” allowed himself to fall victim to his own mind, allowing it to haunt him. His continually deteriorating condition was not mirrored by the physical appearance of the house; rather, he himself mirrored the house. That is, the house did not mirror Roderick but instead Roderick mirrored the house.
The house is described as being a 'mansion of gloom' and dilapidated. The building itself is described as beginning to crumble. It is overgrown with weeds and decaying, with a fissure running down the center of it.
Similarly, Roderick is described as looking broken and sickly. He is very pale, almost 'cadaverous' looking, and even his hair is untamed. 

It was put into Roderick's mind early on that he was under a curse. Regardless to whether there was a curse or not, Roderick allowed this concept to follow him throughout his daily life – to haunt him. Roderick allowed the idea of his ultimate fate to eventually consume him, and instead of succumbing to his fate, in the end he succumbed to his own mind.

In losing sight of reality and allowing his judgment to be clouded by the idea of a curse, Roderick slowly allowed himself to lose to the depth's of his own mind. While he knew his sister had a medical condition, he had, by the time of the narrator's arrival, convinced himself that his end was drawing near. Because of this, he chose to bury his sister alive, without regard to whether she was actually dead. However, a part of Roderick knew that he may have been mistaken, and that part only fueled his decline further.

His mind became more and more muddled with the idea that his sister may be alive and the noises he was hearing that proved she was. Roderick did not; however, allow the thought that his sister may still be alive to overwhelm him, and, in the end, did not go to check as to whether this was the case or not. The sounds and thoughts about his sister haunted Roderick, but only because he allowed them to do so.
In this way, it is Roderick who is allowing himself to mirror the house, rather than the house mirroring him. He allows outside influences to eat away at his mental state and, eventually, succumbs to it. His lack of strength as a character allows him to fall victim not to the house, but to his own deluded ideas about the house and the curse surrounding it and his family. Roderick is a character who is manipulated and changed by the ideas of what is around him, rather than having his own strength of mind to overcome the obsticles thrown in his way.

Finally, Roderick fell to his own haunting. It was not the house that haunted him, although it's condition may have provoked him into thinking it was, but instead it was Roderick's own mind and perceptions that haunted himself. It was not the house that caused Roderick to prematurely bury his sister, it was Roderick who did so. Roderick, who's mind was caught on the idea that he was doomed from the beginning, brought about his own fate. And, in the final scenes of the story, Roderick falls victim to his mind in one final instance. His sister, who was not dead, finally escaped her tomb and gave Roderick what his mind had been trying desperately to create until that point – A ghost. Although she was not actually dead, Roderick's fright upon thinking she was a ghost brought about his own demise, followed shortly thereafter by his starved and suffering sister.  

A Welcome.

In this blog I hope to analyze characters beyond their basic appearance. While I do believe in the existence of ghosts, most literature relating to the subject contains characters with inherent personality flaws and psychological problems that may well factor into their perception of being haunted. I intend to analyze these characters and present explanations beyond the basic idea that these stories are about hauntings. The presence of a ghost, especially in the works that I will examine, has deeper meaning. Their presence is tied to something else, and, in the case of the works I will look at, is a direct correlation to the characters in question.

Beyond this, many characters have traits that leave them as unreliable narrators. I would like to look at how their own bouts with life may have left them with scars, and how those scars may lead them to believe that their problems go beyond themselves. I'll look at what may be affecting them psychologically, and analyze how their own minds may be causing them to be haunted, that is, by themselves. I will then analyze whether the perceived haunting goes beyond the characters in question, or lies expressly with them.