The Fall of the House of Usher Identity Quotes Page 1
Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
| Quote #1 The writer spoke of acute bodily illness--of a mental disorder which oppressed him. (3) |
Notice that Usher is afflicted by a mental illness while his sister is afflicted with a physical illness.
| Quote #2 I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. (1) |
This reflection is the first instance of doubling we see in the text. The motif is repeated in the inverted relationship between the Usher twins.
| Quote #3 Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn. (5) |
This crack reveals that something is wrong in the Usher family, and of course foreshadows the collapse at the story’s ending.
