of the house, is and educated man. He comes from a wealtyfamily and owns a huge house. He seemed to have once been an attractive man in the way the narrator described him to be. However, his appearance deteriorated over time. When thenarrator finally saw Roderick, his appearance had completely altered. The narrator notes varioussymptoms of insanity from Rodericks behavior: in the manner of my friend I was struck withan incoherence and inconsitency...habitual trepidancy, and excessive nervous agitation...Hisaction was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulousindecision...to that....of a lost drunkard, or the erreclaimable eater of opium. Rodericks stateworsens throughout the story. He becomes increasingly restless and unstable, especially after theburial of his sister.Lady Madeline, twin sister of Roderick Usher, does not speack one word throughout thestory. When the narrator arrives to the House of Usher, she goes to her bed and goes into a deadlike coma state. The narrator helps bury her and put her away in a vault, but when she reappears,he leaves the house. Lady Madeline seemed to be portrayed as the ghost of the house in the waythat she passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment, and without haveing noticedhis presence, disappeared. Before the narrator had even arrived to the House of Usher, LadyMadeline appeared to be completely overcome by mental disorder.The three characters are shown to slowly adapt the same mental disease. They all seemto suffer some degree of insantiy. Lady Madeline seems to accept the fact that she is insane andcontinues her life with that knowledge. Roderick Usher appears to realize his mental state andstruggles very hard to hold on to his sanity. The narrator, who is slowly but surely contracting thedisease, wants to deny what he sees, hears, and senses. He, in the end, escapes from the illnessbecause he leaves the house....
