Many readers of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" have claimed that the title is "ambiguous" Write an essey in which you discuss both the "Literal" meaning of the title as well as one possible "symbolic" meaning.Use specific quotations from the story to illustrate your claims. Everything would be helpful.THANK YOU.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001

Answers

Poe beats you over the head with it. When he describes house, the family and the man he blatantly wraps up their mutual intertwined(pun on the destroying vines covering the wall!) condition as decay teetering on collapse. To get more to the poetic symbolism just read the included poem in the story "Tha Haunted Palace" where the house even symbolizes the man himself, his mind, the eyes the windows, the past memories etc. Obviously this is a homework assignment question and I will just point you in the obvious direction- not write the essay with quotes and all. It really is not hard and it is USUALLY good to remember that most teachers give you easy, obvious questions- so long as you the student do some simple brain jogging. Some Poe questions are hard because they are too broad. This one is a pretty focused, on target topic.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001