Edgar Allen Poe is one of the greatest poets. He’s scary, weird, and wrote some insane tales. Virtually all of Edgar Allen Poe’s stories concerned themes of human perversity and involve the technique of ratiocination. Most critics believe that “The Fall of the House of Usher” reflects both characteristics. I agree, in this short story a man comes to visit his friend Roderick. Roderick and his sister are very ill. Their house is falling apart and this man has come to try to fix it, but that is not what happens.
Human perversity is basically explained as human will and human corruption. Edgar uses this clearly all through his tale, One that sticks out in my mind is when Roderick Usher buries his sister,, Madeline, in the walls of the house. You can tell she struggled to get out as there was blood on her robe and she was not dead at the time he buried her. I consider this to be human will. Poe also uses corruption in this tale. The idea that Madeline came back to life to take revenge on her brother is corrupted.
Then when the Usher House falls down on both Ushers giving Roderick just enough time to get out. This is not so much corruption, but if you look at it in a different way. it could also be human will. Another form of corruption in this story is that all of the Ushers were descendants of each other, which means they were inbreeds. The second characteristic that Edgar uses is Ratiocination, which means explanation of justification.
In the “Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe uses explanation at the beginning. He tells about the Ushers lives, their illnesses and their family. He explains also about the Fissure in the wall of the Usher mansion. How if just a little more it would collapse and how it had been neglected for so long. In conclusion I feel Edgar uses both characteristics, human perversity and ratiocination in the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
