Mind Over Matter: The Power of the Mind in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allen Poe uses his characters in “The Fall of the House of Usher” to caution against permitting the imagination to be taken too seriously. Through his characterization of Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, and the narrator, Poe exemplifies the consequences of such an action.
Roderick Usher allows his imagination to control his reality through his mental state of being. He believes himself to be afflicted by “a constitutional and a family evil…a mere nervous affection…a morbid acuteness of the senses” (120). Roderick Usher will only allow himself, per this affliction, to eat, wear, and smell certain things. The narrator at numerous points admits that he thinks of Roderick as a hypochondriac. He realizes how Roderick is enslaving and endangering himself through acceptance of this belief; even Roderick believes the condition will kill him. Roderick also holds superstitions about the House of Usher, believing it to hold some type of mysterious power over him. Th...