The Differences in the Fall of the House of Usher and the House of Usher

Mrs. Matthews Juniors H. English November 02, 2012 The short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and the movie, the House of Usher, are two very unalike pieces of work. The House of Usher is a poor representation of “The Fall of the House of Usher,” for not staying true to the real production by Edgar Allan Poe. Although the movie has a few noticeable similarities, Hollywood loses the true value and the plot of the original short story. The House of Usher creates a whole new story, that takes the name of the story, but ruins the masterpiece already done by Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher,” is one of the popular horror stories written by Poe. And it’s remarkable plot, is lost in the production of the House of Usher .

In the short story the plot is rather simple, Roderick and Madeline Usher are the last of the Ushers who are suffering from incurable diseases. Roderick suffers from “a morbid acuteness of the senses,” while Madeline suffers from “.. a settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, or frequent although transient affections of a partly cataleptical character.. This disease gives her a deathlike look, making her body lose its feeling, and loses consciousness. Madeline falls into her deathlike symptoms and is thought of as being dead. Roderick and his friend, carry her into the dungeon and keep her there in her coffin. Where she then awakens and frees herself. Covered in her own blood, she kills Roderick by being too frightened by the sight, and the unnamed narrator flees the house. Whereas in the House of Usher there are only a few of these events that take place.

In both the movie and short story the Ushers have a incurable, unidentified disease in which dooms them to their horrible deaths. However, Roderick somehow believes he is being controlled by the house he lives in and believes he must do the same things his family has done and to die in the same house he lived in his whole life. Due to his disease, he hears every little noise, its like a piercing to his brain. The disease is mainly mental, and gets tormented by his fear, and predicts this fear will be the death of him.

The producer of the House of Usher had to make the changes to the short story because he needed the people to understand the story from a different point of view, and to understand the meaning behind Poe’s story. Poe tried to connect The short story of sickness, horror and death Poe relates this story to his life from his mother(s) and wife who died from the incurable disease of tuberculosis, and connects it to the Ushers who cannot escape their deaths just like those