Edgar Allan Poe's Fear Of Self

Edgar A. Poe's Fear of Self

Edgar Allan Poe was a unique man that most people could not understand. Many recognize that he is a talented writer with a very strange and dark style. One of his most well known short stories is "The Fall Of The House Of Usher." Many argue the different meanings of this story and how it is symbolic to his life. Poe was a very confused individual who needed to express him self, he accomplished this through the short story of "The Fall Of The House Of Usher." Through this story, Edgar was trying to show the fear he had for him self, he did not understand him self so therefore Poe ran from his own personality and mind. This story enables the reader to take a look at Poe's mind and reveals some of the details that led him into his own insanity.

Almost everyone goes through different fazes in their lives where they are trying to find their true self. Some may be happy and content with who they are where as others are scarred and frightened at the human beings they have become. Edgar finally came to a point in his life where he needed to step back and examine himself. The method that he chose was to look into the depths of his own mind. There are many things for which he needed to come to terms with, in a sense he had grown apart from himself and needed to find out who he really was. The story of "The Fall Of The House Of Usher" is the story of Edgar Allan Poe taking a journey into his own mind in search of who he had become.

Upon reaching the house of Usher he has come to the outer shell of his own mind, it is not clear what is wrong but Poe is certain that there is something off set and out of place. He cannot quite put his finger on it but it is there never the less. "What was it-I paused to think-what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher" (234). Before Poe truly finds what he is looking for, he knows that there is something wrong within himself. Even the setting of this story describes Poe's personality and outlook on life. Poe first realizes in his journey that he is alone with no one to turn to except his very own mind. "When the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, through a singularly dreary tract of country and at length found myself within view of the melancholy House of Usher" (234). In the end, this fact of his life could have been a reason for his insanity.

The house itself represents Poe's mind, in a sense it represents what Poe has become in reality. His mind has become the unknown and the part of him that he did not necessarily want to know or come to terms with because it was frightening and dark. "Upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eyelike windows. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart-an unredeemed dreariness of though which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime (234)." Edgar found himself to be vacant and bleak, he also had a cold sick feeling when he saw what he had become. He was frightened to move on but he had to keep going in order to know the truth about himself.

Usher represents the inner self of Edgar A. Poe, he is the personality for which Poe knew, and possibly became. Poe quite possibly became Usher but he did not realize it until he re visited his inner self and mind. "Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting" (236). Roderick Usher can represent Poe's madness, Poe knew him in the past but finally along his journey he is coming to terms with his insanity. Edgar is excepting his madness although he still is frightened by the truth. "The writer spoke of acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him-and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend" (236). Poe realized that his insanity did exist but he needed to address it and come to terms with it.

Eventually Poe goes into the house of Usher and the reader experiences the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. He enters Ushers home (Poe's