It is possible to apply a feminist reading to Edgar Allan Poe’s story, but considering Madeline as representing feminism would be anachronistic. Poe’s stories famously feature dead women, and the male narrators are often obsessed with those women and sometimes overcome with grief or remorse.
Roderick Usher is both...
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the murderer and the chief mourner of his sister; his grief and guilt are combined even before her actual death is a proven thing. Because Roderick is rather vague about her illness and their relationship, one possible interpretation is that she was pregnant. This might have resulted from their sexual relationship, which would account for Roderick’s guilt; alternately, if she had sexual relations with another man, his jealousy and anger over her disloyalty might have been his motivation for killing her.
A feminist reading would emphasize Madeline’s control over her own body as resistance to the male dominance and gaze that her brother represents. In the end, Madeline kills Roderick; moreover, she destroys their paternal family line and the house. Together, these could be taken to stand for women dismantling patriarchy.
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