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Archetype and Reality in

"The Fall of the House of Usher"
Colin Martindale
.
University of Maine
.

The parallelism at the climax of "The Fall of the House of Usher" between "The Mad Trist" of
Sir Launcelot Canning and the return of Madeline from her crypt is often taken merely as a
somewhat clumsy literary device which, as Allen Tate (1) implies, rather spoils the effect of the
tale. Similarly, the narrator is usually consigned to the residual category of literary device. But a
careful analysis of what seems to be the symbolic theme of "Usher" shows that both narrator and
"The Mad Trist" are not only integral parts of the tale but that their interpretation in terms of
myth and depth psychology is essential to a full understanding of it. In his "Philosophy of
Composition" Poe enunciated the doctrine of the unity of a work of art: nothing should be
superfluous, the individual elements should all resonate with each other. Even if Poe was, as
seems likely, not fully conscious of the symbolic implications of his tales, we may expect this
unity to operate below the surface as well as on it. Thus, the meaning of the two elements for
which an explanation is sought should follow from the central theme of the tale and should,
moreover, enrich our understanding of this theme.
Richard Wilbur has written a persuasive explication of "Usher" as an allegory of regression (2).
He shows a great deal of insight into regressive phenomena, but his interpretation of "Usher" as a
symbolic voyage toward comparatively healthy creative or poetic withdrawal and regression
seems to be only very approximately correct. Regression is indeed central to "Usher," but the tale
seems really to be one of an unsuccessful attempt to escape from a regressive state of
consciousness, to reach a more mature or differentiated level of ego development. Wilbur argues
that the physical house of Usher serves as a symbol of a human personality, and he introduces a
good deal of evidence to support this contention. Poe invites us on a fairly explicit level to make
such an equation by his injection of the poem, "The Haunted Palace," with its systematic
comparisons between palace and human head and mind. The movement from rule by rational
thought to madness described in the poem, paralleled by the constant downward movement of
descriptions in "Usher," as well as the decayed quality of the House of Usher and the desolate
"atmosphere" it exudes, supports [page 10:] the notion that the house symbolizes a psyche in the
process of disintegration.
If the House of Usher stands for the personality as a whole, we may see the occupants at least
partially as different aspects of this personality (3). Jung argues that the two basic aspects of the
self--conscious and unconscious --tend always to be symbolized as male and female figures
respectively, often as brother and sister or mother and son (4). The characteristics of the pair and
of their relationship are dependent upon the level of ego development or regression which they
symbolize. At the most mature level of development the unconscious is symbolized as a
benevolent "anima" figure which aids a strong and independent hero. At a less mature level,
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where the ego is still weak and subject to being overwhelmed and dominated by the unconscious,
the latter is symbolized by "Terrible Mother" figures which on some level seduce and destroy a
vulnerable hero such as Hippolytus, Pentheus, or Oedipus. Madeline, as evidenced by the
inexplicable, numinous awe she engenders, is clearly such a symbolic figure; she seems to be a
proto-anima figure rather closer to the Terrible Mother than to the anima per se.
If we move to the personal, as opposed to the archetypal, level in order to analyze Usher, this
interpretation of Madeline makes sense; the former exhibits a number of traits which suggest
existence on a regressive level of consciousness where a great deal of dominance by what is
usually called the Unconscious could be expected. His situation resembles that of subjects in
sensory deprivation experiments where social isolation and stimulus restriction induce
regression.5 Significantly, we are informed that Usher has not left his house for a number of
years. He shares with such subjects both hypersensitivity and a tendency toward physiognomic
perception. These are good indices of regressive states of consciousness, and we may assume
that this is what they indicate in Usher's case. Given this, he could be expected to be in close
contact and even confusion with usually unconscious processes as concretely symbolized by the
image of Madeline.
The arrival of the narrator introduces an opposite force into the unitary regressive atmosphere of
the house. On his arrival he passes on the staircase a "sinister" physician and thus replaces him
on the upper floor. We are indeed informed that he had been summoned to serve as a sort of
proto-psychotherapist in Usher's attempt to cure himself of his "nervous affliction." His very
presence breaks the isolation which we have suggested induced or at least supported Usher's
regressive state of consciousness. But for Madeline he is, indeed, a sinister physician. On the day
of his arrival, she takes to her bed for the last time. On the symbolic level, we may interpret this
as an indication that the narrator has succeeded to an extent in bringing Usher out of his
regressive trance, in allowing him to escape unconscious domination. This impression is
supported by the fact that Madeline soon "dies" and the narrator aids Usher in placing her in her
temporary crypt, an interment which may be interpreted as a symbolization of repression not
only because of the geography of the house but also because of the extraordinary precautions
taken--the placement of the body in a dungeon made for "highly combustible" material [column
2:] and the careful locking of the heavy iron door.
The very fact that Madeline dies--or seems to die-- shows that "Usher" is not simply a tale of
progressive psychic disintegration; if it were, Madeline (the unconscious) should grow stronger
as Usher (consciousness) grows weaker. That she wastes away and lapses into a state where she
may be interred (repressed) suggests Usher's movement toward recovery or maturation. But with
Madeline buried, he grows listless and neglects his ordinary occupations. Presumably, these are
creative activities: since the artist depends upon unconscious processes for inspiration, he cannot
by his nature engage in massive repression of the sort Usher attempts.
Usher has not only interred Madeline too soon, but he has also interred too much of her.3 If
Usher's wish to mature is to be successful, the unconscious must be conquered so that its vital
and beneficent aspects may be salvaged. In the terms of psychological symbolism, the Great
Mother must be differentiated from the anima a process which is, according to Jung and
Neumann, depicted by the dragon fight. This mythic pattern involves the hero (consciousness)
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entering a valley, cave, or other symbol of unconsciousness, fighting and slaying a dragon
(destructive aspects of the unconscious, the Terrible Mother), recovering some sort of treasure,
and saving an anima figure which he almost invariably marries. The dragon fight may also be
seen as symbolizing creative regression--the temporary union which produces "treasure" in the
form of the work of art.
This is, of course, almost the precise content of "The Mad Trist" which the narrator reads to
Usher. Paralleling it is the escape of Madeline from her crypt. Where Ethelred breaks down the
hermit's door with his mace, Madeline somehow opens her coffin; where he kills the dragon
which emits a fearful scream, Madeline forces open the iron door; where he obtains the symbolic
treasure, she makes her way through the copper passageway. Real and ideal coalesce when
Madeline falls upon Usher, the hieros gamos being transmuted into a ghastly death for the pair.
Rather than conquering the unconscious and emerging with its treasure, the repression does not
hold--as it almost never does in Poe's tales (see note 6)--and Usher is overwhelmed and
destroyed by the unconscious. With the union in death comes the dissolution of the whole
personality and its sinking into the unconscious as symbolized by the sinking of the house into
the black tarn. Thus, the climax of "Usher" juxtaposes an ideal pattern (the ego's conquest and
"taming" of the unconscious) with an actual one (the ego's destruction by the unconscious) .
Significantly, it is the narrator who reads "The Mad Trist" to Usher. Here again he operates as a
purveyor of the ideal. Unfortunately, Usher's personality is not strong enough either to maintain
its repressions on the one hand or to grow by controlled regression--to follow Ethelred--on the
other. Several twists in Poe's telling of the dragon fight fill out the picture. It will be remembered
that Ethelred, under the influence of alcohol seeks refuge from a tempest in the hermit's cave.
That is--allowing for the displacement of elements--he seeks refuge from reality in the regression
induced by alcohol. Where he should be conquering the unconscious, he is fleeing into it. Of
course, when ideal crosses over into [page 11:] real, when Ethelred becomes Usher, we see that
this hope for refuge is a false one. It is also significant that there is no anima figure in "The Mad
Trist." Neumann's comments on one who fails to rescue the captive in the dragon fight are
relevant: "He is the victim of his own isolation and seclusion.... The nonliberation of the captive
expresses itself in the continued dominance of the Great Mother under her deadly aspect, and the
final result is alienation from the body and from the earth, hatred of life, and world negation" (7).
In summary, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a story of an attempt to escape from a
regressive state of consciousness on the part of Usher. By breaking the latter's isolation, the
narrator allows him to do so to an extent; this is symbolized by Madeline's burial. When Usher
attempts to modulate his all-or-none repression of the feminine, unconscious components of his
personality, the narrator reads out, in the form of "The Mad Trist," the pattern he must follow in
this modulation. However, Usher's personality as a whole is too weak to support such a
movement toward maturation, and the tale ends with the catastrophic breakdown of his
repressions and the overwhelming of the ego by the unconscious. The narrator and "The Mad
Trist"--which seem at first to be mere devices--turn out to be integral parts of the unfolding of
this symbolic meaning of the tale.

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NOTES
(1) Allen Tate, Collected Essays (Denver: Alan Swallow, 1960).
(2) See "The House of Poe," in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Robert Regan
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1967).
(3) One could see Roderick, Madeline, and narrator as symbolizations of ego, id, and super-ego
in Freudian terms or of conscious, unconscious, and shadow in Jungian ones. Although valid,
such a mechanical approach obscures richer levels of meaning.
(4) C. G. Jung, "Concerning the Archetypes, with Special Reference to the Anima Concept," in
Collected Works, IX, Part 1 (New York: Pantheon, 1959). Jung's views are expanded and
systematized in Erich Neumann, The Origins and History of Consciousness (New York: Harper
Torchbooks, 1962).
(5) See Peter McKellar, Experience and Behaviour (Baltimore: Penguin, 1968), pp. 78-85.
(6) The theme of burying too much is a recurrent one in Poe and is always connected with a
disastrous "return of the repressed." Thus, in "Berenice," which is structurally analogous to "The
Mad Trist," the hero must exhume Berenice in order to retrieve her teeth. In "The Tell-Tale
Heart" and "The Black Cat," things not meant to be buried bring about disinterment and
discovery of the crime committed. Significantly, in "The Cask of Amontillado," where nothing
superfluous is interred, the symbolic repression holds.
(7) Neumann, p. 206. Cf. D. H. Lawrence's views on Poe's personality in Studies in Classic
American Literature, rpt. in The Shock of Recognition, ed. Edmund Wilson (New York: Farrar,
Straus and Cudahy, 1955).

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