house of mirrors edgar allan poe's the fall of the house of…

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1、HouseofMirrorsPLL227HouseofMirrors:EdgarAllanPoe’s“TheFalloftheHouseofUsher”JOHNH.TIMMERMAN“TheFalloftheHouseofUsher”isamongthosefewstoriesthatseemtoelicitnearlyasmanycriticalinterpretationsasithasreaders.Morerecentcriticalappraisalsofthestoryhavelargelyfollowedtwodirections:areappraisa

2、lofthegenreofthestoryasaGothicromance1andacloseattentiontoMadelineUsherasatypeofPoe’sotherfemalecharacters.2ButthetalepresentsthereaderamultiplicityofproblemsthatsetitasidefromPoe’sotherstories.Madelineisasenigmaticasanewlanguageandas1PerhapsthemosthelpfulstudyofthissortisGaryE.Tombleso

3、n’s“Poe’s‘TheFalloftheHouseofUsher’asArchetypalGothic:LiteraryandArchitecturalAnalogsofCosmicUnity”(Nineteenth-CenturyContexts12.2[1988]:83-106).Tomblesonlocatestheplaceofthestory—bothitstraditionalandinnovativeelements—withinthetraditiondatingtoWalpole’sTheCastleofOtranto,AGothicStory(

4、1764).AlsohelpfulisStephenDougherty’s“DreamingtheRaces:BiologyandNationalFantasyin‘TheFalloftheHouseofUsher’”(HenryStreet7.1[Spring1988]:17-39).Ofparticularinterest,andwitharevealingtwistoninterpretingthestory,isMarkKinkead-Weekes’“ReflectionsOn,andIn,‘TheFalloftheHouseofUsher.’”Kinkead-

5、Weekesarguesthatthestoryis“notmerelyGothick,butrathera‘Gothick’whichateveryturnsignalsaconsciousnessofitsownoperation”(17).Thispatternincludes,furthermore,anawarenessofthewriteroftheGothic.2See,forexample,CynthiaS.Jordan’s“Poe’sRe-Vision:TheRecoveryoftheSecondStory”(AmericanLiterature59

6、.1[Mar.1987]:1-19).JordansetsforththewaysbywhichPoediffersfromHawthorneandpayscloseattentiontosuchstoriesas“Berenice,”“Morella,”and“Ligeia,”inadditionto“TheFalloftheHouseofUsher.”In“‘SympathiesofaScarcelyIntelligibleNature’:TheBrother-SisterBondinPoe’s‘TheFalloftheHouseofUsher’”(Studies

7、inShortFiction30[1993]:387-396),LeilaS.Maydiscussestheissueofthefemalepersonawithaninterestingtwist,arguingthatthestoryrepresentsPoe’svisionofsocialdestructionwiththebreakupoffamilystructuresinmid-19thcentury.ThattherelationshipbetweenRoderickandMadelineisaberrantgoeswithoutsay