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   ms-charleston-yawp Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   As long as we consider it true that Usher did in fact bury his twin sister alive, then it is safe to say that there is more at work here than a simple self-fulfilling prophesy.  Yes, while the narrator is reading Mad Trist to Usher, he thinks he hears a "cracking and ripping sound," a "screaming or grating sound," and a "distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous . . . reverberation."  Are these self-fulfilling prophesies in themselves?  Perhaps.  There is no denying, however, the actual appearance of Madeline with "blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame." Could these sounds have been Madeline ripping her burial robes, screaming in terror at being buried alive, and exiting her tomb?  Most certainly! Considering that Madeline has absolutely nothing to do with the recitation of Mad Trist (and the fact that she most likely had no idea it was even being read at all), her appearance, while not exactly proving that the stated coincidences actually happened, proves that there are circumstances here that are beyond the control of both the narrator and of Usher himself.

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   Posted by ms-charleston-yawp on Monday December 22, 2008 at 6:38 PM