The Fall of the House of Usher as a Psychological Piece This essay examines "The Fall of the House of Usher" from the perspective that none of the events actually happened - or, if they did, they were exaggerated by the fear felt by the characters. The essay proposes that the action took place in the narrator's mind and discusses the dream images present in the story and how they support this theory. While discussing "The Fall of the House of Usher," Thompson explores the idea that the story is not quite a truthful account - that is, a retelling of events experienced by the narrator - but is rather the result of a "mutual hysteria of the narrator and Roderick Usher". Basically, he states that the narrator and Usher are both so full of fear that they imagined the events, or there is a logical explanation for the things that happened while the narrator was staying in the House of Usher. Thompson's first point reminds us that the narrator of this story attempts to rationalize many of the disturbing things he witnesses in the house. This is in contrast to the fact that Usher's mind is obviously disintegrating over the course of the tale. Thompson states that Poe uses the narrator's "apparent" rationality to "increase the irrational". By instilling a sense of coherence in the reader, the strangeness of the situation and Usher's mental state become more apparent. Furthermore, Thompson states that integral to the tale is the "mechanism of fear itself", which begins with Usher and spreads to the narrator. This feeling of fear, he argues, is what gives us the basis for reading this story as a psychological thriller rather than a series of actual events. Thompson looks at p...... middle of paper ......ndriac," which may be how people of that era referred to mental illness. Many people seemed to believe that Usher actually suffered from mental illness rather than mental illness, a physical ailment, and finally, the possibility of incest between brother and sister and other generations of Ushers was discussed. This stemmed from the part of the story that talked about how the Usher family tree had not branched a lot this means that not many people were brought in from outside the family I think that's very plausible, and that's actually what I always thought was at the heart of this story. I think the two brothers are more than just brother and sister, and I found this one of the most interesting discussions we have had. Works CitedThompson, G.R. "Explained Gothic," Poe's Fiction University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. Pages 87-97.