Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of the fall of the House of Usher in the gothic style we expect from Poe. Poe is known for his gothic style, but there’s also a southern element to his writing. Poe might have been raised in Boston, yet he is a Southerner. Poe is a postbellum southern author who demonstrates the birth of the critical spirit in Southern Literature. Although his writings do not reflect a southern feel, they have a gothic influence that is worthy of examination. Ellen Glasgow is a Southern writer who was active in the postbellum period. She uses the same gothic themes in “Jordan’s End”, which Poe used in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, to illustrate the beginning of the Southern critical spirit.
The Fall of the House of Usher’s story and style are almost identical. Both stories are about the mental decline and isolation of the last member of a line of family. They also have a gothic feel. Poe had a different intention in his writings when compared to Glasgow. Poe’s writing displays cohesion in the gothic aspects of the story. This suggests that Poe only intended to create a single work of horror. The fact that the story is set in Virginia is just a coincidence. The Companion to Southern Literature authors state that Poe “records little that is clearly Virginian”. It is the gothic beauty/terror that is highlighted (Flora MacKethan Todd 942). Poe has an eloquence only a Southern gentleman could achieve. Glasgow’s use of Gothic elements is a criticism of the Old Southern style of living, rather than focusing solely on its beauty and terror. Poe creates gothic literature to be eloquent or otherworldly. Glasgow uses the gothic style as a way to examine the Old South’s fall and its people. Glasgow’s work has a distinct southern flavor, thanks to the local color and mention of the Civil War. Father Peterkin’s dialect allows Glasgow to include southern literature more freely without disrupting the story. After learning the Virginian pronunciation of his family name, the narrator reflects upon Father Peterkin’s unique dialect: “The names was invariably pronounced Jurdin by every class; but I’d already discovered that in Virginia, names are rarely said as they’re spelled.” (359). Glasgow is able to establish a southern element through Father Peterkin dialect.
Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, a poem by Poe, is a great example of this theme. This isolation affected how southerners lived in the Old South. Roderick USher and Alan Jordan, who lived in the Old South’s rural areas, were restricted by mountains and river boundaries. In the rural Old South, socialization was very difficult due to distances from neighbors and large cities. Poe describes Roderick Usher’s isolation. I had also learned that the Usher stem, as time-honored and venerable as it was, never had any lasting branches. Poe’s intention is to convey that the Ushers are a small group. Ushers are all descendants of the same lineage. There have been no deviations from this lineage. Glasgow says that the Jordans are so isolated, they practice intermarriage and have inbred. Inbreeding leads to mental diseases in the Jordan men. They have also never expanded beyond their immediate family line, as the Ushers did. Father Peterkin’s character from “Jordan’s End”, describes the Jordans as “jest running to seed”(Glasgow 359). Glasgow argues that inbreeding’s grotesque nature is due to the isolation of the Old South and the way of thinking of the people. The author of a literary critic explains: It was pride and ethnocentrism that caused families like the Jordans’ to inbreed. Southern aristocracy’s decline was due to their way of living, thinking, and refusal to acknowledge the changes in society. (Ross Glasgow), like Poe, uses southern aristocratic people to illustrate the decline of these types of people in Old South. Glasgow uses the Jordans as a symbol to show the decline of a way of life in the South.
Poe, like Glasgow, uses symbolism throughout their stories to help them achieve the desired effects. Poe uses symbols in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in order to describe the home of the Ushers. Poe describes his house in such a way as to be consistent with its gothic construction: the discoloration was great. A fine web of fungi hung from the eaves, covering the entire exterior. All this happened without any unusual dilapidation. The masonry was still intact, and it appeared that there was a huge inconsistency when comparing the perfect fit of the parts with the crumbling of the stones. Poe describes the contradiction of the Usher house falling apart while defying the passage of time. This is because Poe’s character Roderick Usher also has the same inconsistency. Poe uses a house to represent Roderick Usher. Poe writes about Roderick usher as follows: “I gazed on him with an awe and a pity feeling” (106). Poe employs this symbolism in order to weave the story together. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe notes that “critics” have been noticing “The Fall of the House of Usher’s” carefully-structured structure for years” (Hayes 179). Poe’s main aim is to create an unified work of literature. The names of both stories have symbols. The title “The Fall of Usher’s House” is a double-meaning story. It tells of the decline of Usher Family Line, and the house represents the Ushers. Poe uses a literal connection to make the Ushers and their house one and the same. The house and family Usher are united in a way. Poe states that Roderick USher died on the floor and also that the walls in the house “came torn apart” (116). Poe again uses symbols in his writing to bring together each element. The symbolism of “Jordan’s End,” which also includes the title, is dual in nature: “It’s both a name that refers to a crumbling southern mansion as the primary setting of this story and a reflection of the decaying status of the Jordans” (DelFattore-Cassidy). Poe’s association between the Ushers’ family and Usher House continues in “Jordan’s End.” It is also evident through the similarities of Alan Jordan’s look and that of Jordan House. Glasgow describes Jordan’s End: I guessed that, as forlorn and bleak as it seemed at first sight, Jordan’s End may have once had charm and distinction. The Georgian house was quite impressive. I liked the proportions. I also loved the beautiful design on the front doorway. The whole building was in dire need of repairs. Alan Jordan was described in the same way (360). His fingers, moving restlessly and plaiting or unplaiting a plaid fringe, were plaiting it. “As distraught as Alan Jordan was, his dignity still came from the mere perfection of his physical appearance” (364).
Poe’s connection of family and home in his story and Glasgow’s is similar, demonstrating a strong coherence. Glasgow, on the other hand, uses symbolism more abstractly. The decline is the old Southern way of living after the Civil War. Some critics believe that Glasgow’s book is a commentary on the demise of southern tradition. The end of the Jordan line of family and the old Southern way of living have many parallels. Father Peterkin speaks directly of the parallels that Glasgow draws between the Jordan Family, the South in pre-Civil War times and post Civil War. Father Peterkin said, “I could remember away back yonder that old Mr. Timothy Juddn was the most proud man in this part; but after war things started to go downhill.” (359). Glasgow uses Father Peterkin’s words to draw a link between the Jordans family and southern culture. She makes this connection to help readers see the parallels between the decline of the old South and the collapse of the Ushers. Glasgow suggests the Jordans were functioning well before the war. The way of thinking has collapsed after the Civil War. Civil War marked the end of what was once prosperous. Glasgow’s short-story ends with ambiguity. It can also be viewed as a parallel of the Jordan Family Line and the Old South. Alan Jordan left Jordan a fully-filled bottle of pain medications. When he returned the following day to Jordan, he found the bottle empty and Jordan dead. Glasgow doesn’t explicitly say how Jordan died, which makes his death ambiguous. The doctor can be compared to the North in the Old South as an external influence in Jordan’s life. This could imply that Jordan was killed by the doctor, and the external force that brought about the fall of South was the North. Alternately, one could argue that someone in Alan Jordan’s household took the painkillers to kill him. This would imply the Old South broke down because of internal forces like inbreeding.
Glasgow uses the same styling that Poe established with “The Fall of the House of Usher,” to draw parallels between the fall of an aristocratic southern family, and the end of the America South’s antebellum years. Glasgow’s “Jordan’s End”, a story that is more southern-inspired than “The Fall of the House of Usher”, includes the overtly Southern essence in order to better connect her audience with the Jordan family. Glasgow creates a critical spirit through her comparison of Poe’s story to the Jordan family. The Fall of the House of Usher is not a story that reflects a lot of southern qualities, but the gothic styling of the short story displays the unity Poe’s work is known for. Poe wrote before the South was able to develop a critical culture. Glasgow uses Poe’s literary style to illustrate the decline of the southern states as represented by a family of aristocrats.
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DelFattore Joan Cassidy. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. 2nd Revised edition (2001). 1-5. Literary Reference Center is a source of information related to literature. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. Flora Joseph M. Lucinda H. MacKethan Todd W. Taylor The Companion on Southern Literature. LSU Press published a book in 2002. Glasgow, Ellen. “Jordan’s End.” The Norton Anthology of the Literature of the American South. Ed. William L. Andrews. W.W. Norton released the book in New York in 1998. 357-68. Print. Kevin J. Hayes is the author. The Cambridge Companion of Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge University Press first published the work in 2002. Poe, Edgar Allan. “The fall of the House of Usher.” Norton Anthology of the Literature of the American South. Ed. William L. Andrews. W.W. Norton published the edition in New York in 1998. 103-16. Print. Ross, Dale H. Jordan’s End. Literary Reference Center is a source of information in literature. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
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