In "The Fall Of The House Of Usher", why did Madeline kill Roderick? Thank you!

-- Anonymous, December 16, 1999

Answers

revenge... he " buried her alive" or at least he heard her cries it said.. also, she was a ghost, and why do ghosts kill people in the first place- it may not have been her persay, but some spirit embodied in her "ghost"

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2000

Actually, Madeline wasn't a ghost. She wasn't . She ed her twin brother due to the fact he burried her alive. She had the power to do this, due to the fact that her fear and anger gave her quite an adreniline rush.

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2000

The lady Madeline was burried alive by her sick twin brother. Maybe he knew that he would die soon and wanted to be the last of the Usher's that is speculation. Maybe because they were twins they had some weird connection. Regaurdless, she digs her way out of her living tomb over a two week period. She commes to her brother to take somesort of revenge, however, in her illness and exhaustion promtly dies on top of him. his seeing her out and about simply scares him to death. Poe's biggest fear was being burried alive, and gothic literature by nature embodies your greatest fears.

-- Anonymous, March 25, 2002

NO, NO. You've got it all wrong. That is the movieization of the story. In the actual story, directly from the pen of Poe, Madeline merely collapsed into Roderick's arms and he died from fear and she died just because. She was in a cataleptic fit when she was buried so he did bury her alive, but not knowingly.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2002

Madeline is in a coma like state. Roderick burries her in the crypt in the basement of the house. She is not really dead. She has to fight her way out of the casket and open the locked door to get upstairs. While she is doing this, her "bruial wrappings" get bloody for the reasons mentioned above. For more info. read "The Premature Burial" by Poe. It will give you more insight into why this happens.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2002