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Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Wuppertal, course: Grundlagenseminar B: Amerikanische Literaturwissenschaft, language: English, abstract: With close reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the interpretation will be put forward that the tale’s key issue is not, as the title suggests, the collapse of the family mansion, but the ‘fall,’ with its connotation of ‘failure,’ of the narrator’s rational ability to account for his experiences at the Ushers’. In order to justify this reading of the story, the narrator’s identity and the purpose of his stay at the House of Usher will be clarified first. It will be illustrated that rationality is the narrator’s key method of analysis used to analyze the observations he makes at the protagonist’s home. Additionally, instances of the narrator’s frustration to rely upon scientific knowledge will be demonstrated. After having paid attention to the growing psychological impact of the proceeding events on the narrator, the question of which message Poe wants to portray to the reader will be addressed.