Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1999

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

English

Major Professor

Bethany K. Dumas

Committee Members

Russel Hirst, Misty Anderson

Abstract

"The Fall of the House of Usher" is a complex story about the last members of the Usher family, Roderick and Madeline Usher, who suffer from mysterious illnesses. Literary scholars have proposed a variety of explanations for their symptoms, among them vampirism, incest, and mental illness. However, I believe their illnesses to be epilepsy, specifically temporal lobe epilepsy. Diagnosis of the Ushers with ten^joral lobe epilepsy generates several other issues. In diagnosing the Ushers with epilepsy, I will address the following six issues in the process of arriving at this diagnosis:
•The influence of illness on writers and their works
• The issue of illness in Edgar Allan Poe's life
• The issue of illness in "The Fall of the House of Usher"
• Characteristics of the Gothic and the significance of the supernatural in Poe's tale
• Use of medical diagnosis as a literary tool to diagnose fictional illness
• Inadequacies or flaws in previous explanations for the illnesses of the Usher family I will begin by examining the possible effects of illness on creativity. I will examine the role that iUness plays in "The Fall of the House of Usher," as well as its possible role in Poe's life. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is considered a Gothic tale, so I will examine the story for evidence to support its status as a Gothic tale and the role of the supernatural in it. Because diagnosing the Ushers' illnesses will remove some elements of the supernatural, I will also assess the effect of the removal of those elements on the tale as Gothic literature. Since I am using medical diagnostic techniques to answer questions about the unnamed illnesses in the story, I will develop a specific process for using medical diagnosis in literary analysis. I will also examine other explanations and determine their relative strengths and their weaknesses. Finally, I will examine the impact that the diagnosis of the Ushers' illnesses has on an overall view of the story, as well as its possible significance in understanding many of Poe's works.

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