t he saw himself this way. For instance, Lady Madeline shared some of the same characteristics as his beloved wife Virginia. At the time that he wrote “House of Usher”, she was dying. Physicians could not explain the severity of her illness, just as with Lady Madeline in the story. Also, the fact that Roderick was so eerily close to his sister suggested it was not just a brotherly-sisterly love that they shared. Again, Virginia was Poes’ cousin, which was a cursed love affair from its conception. It is not a mere coincidence that Usher is so deathly sick and one step closer to the grave because of the illness of his beloved Lady Madeline. Clearly, Poe is expressing through this story the torment he suffered while his wife was dying. I believe he included that Usher and Madeline were twins to dramatize the closeness, which he and Virginia shared. “ A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts murmured a few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them” (1277).As the story draws to a conclusion, Usher (Poe) is tortured by a sound of “feeble” movements. He knows that it is his sister but he ignores it for many days. He does not want to come to terms with the gruesome truth that he has buried her alive. This, I believe, symbolizes Poe’s helplessness in the demise of Virginia’s health. Virginia was malnourished and could not receive proper medical attention because he could not afford it. Usher hearing the sounds of Madeline in a living tomb, was a mirror image of his inadequateness and the guilt he felt over losing her. Just as Usher sent Madeline to an early grave, Poe had done the same for Virginia, who was only fourteen when she passed away.At the height of the transcendental e...
