<P> The theme of the crumbling, haunted castle is a key feature of Horace Walpole's Castle of Otranto (1764), which largely contributed in defining the Gothic genre . The presence of a capacious, disintegrating house symbolizing the destruction of the human body is a characteristic element in Poe's later work . </P> <P> "The Fall of the House of Usher" shows Poe's ability to create an emotional tone in his work, specifically feelings of fear, doom, and guilt . </P> <P> These emotions center on Roderick Usher, who, like many Poe characters, suffers from an unnamed disease . Like the narrator in "The Tell - Tale Heart", his disease inflames his hyperactive senses . The illness manifests physically but is based in Roderick's mental or even moral state . He is sick, it is suggested, because he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and is, therefore, essentially a hypochondriac . Similarly, he buries his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive, creating his own self - fulfilling prophecy . </P> <P> The House of Usher, itself doubly referring both to the actual structure and the family, plays a significant role in the story . It is the first "character" that the narrator introduces to the reader, presented with a humanized description: its windows are described as "eye - like" twice in the first paragraph . The fissure that develops in its side is symbolic of the decay of the Usher family and the house "dies" along with the two Usher siblings . This connection was emphasized in Roderick's poem "The Haunted Palace" which seems to be a direct reference to the house that foreshadows doom . </P>

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