illustration of a dark, menacing cracked house with large, red eyes looking through the windows

The Fall of the House of Usher

by Edgar Allan Poe

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Discussion Topic

Significance of Roderick and Madeline's Twin Relationship in "The Fall of the House of Usher"

Summary:

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," the twin relationship between Roderick and Madeline Usher serves multiple purposes. It emphasizes their deep psychological and spiritual connection, suggesting a shared fate and adding to the story's Gothic horror. Their twin bond reflects cultural perceptions of twins as possessing mysterious, possibly malevolent links. This connection enhances the narrative's tension, as Roderick senses Madeline even in death, highlighting their inseparable destinies and symbolizing the decay of the Usher family line.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Roderick and Madeline Usher came into the world at the same time, and she has been

his sole companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness which [the narrator] can never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.

Madeline has always been Roderick's companion because they were born together—they even shared a womb—and thus there is a sense that they are much closer than a regular brother and sister would be. Neither would be able to recall life without the other or, possibly, conceive of what life would be like without the other. Further, the narrator says,

A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased [Madeline] and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them.

Thus, Roderick intimates that he and Madeline are close in ways that no one, not even an average brother and sister, could understand because of their relatively unique relationship.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Roderick and Madeleine, as twins, are part of an enigmatic and not entirely understood group of individuals. Twin siblings have demonstrated through research that they share a tremendous psychological connection, and some even dare say that this connection transcends the physical world. 

Evidence of this is found in the story in the words of the narrator:

A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them.

In their case, Roderick can sense the feelings and emotions of Madeline, who is in a catatonic state for reasons that we can only speculate. Yet Roderick feels that Madeline "walks about." Since they are indeed twins it makes it seem almost possible that the two, sharing such a rare genetic uniqueness, are also able to establish communication telepathically.  

Therefore, the twin connection is a clever way to add enigma to the character of Roderick. That the twins are born to a family with a genetic predisposition to self-destruction makes the problem of the story all the more tragic. 

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

I believe that Poe had the two siblings be twins, rather than just brother and sister, because he wanted to emphasize just how close they were.  People often say that twins are closer than regular siblings because they are the same age and have grown up together from the moment they were conceived.

The siblings' closeness is relevant because of how closely their fates are connected.  They both are seemingly quite ill and eventually, they die at the same moment -- their fates are intertwined.  By writing them as twins, Poe makes it more sensible for them to have such a bond that they would share a tragic fate.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Yes. There are several. First, traditionally twins are often joined or linked in some way. This makes it more likely that they would stay "in contact" after her death. Second, twins are a kind of double; if one is dead, the other is too. Third, this allows them to function as the male and female principle in a psyche, with the house being the larger psyche. That way, their connection is like a link to the subconscious…and maybe madness.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Another interesting, yet morbid and controversial, twist to the twins link is that the Usher family most likely has a history of incest, which means their family has been "inbred" for centuries.  Incest can lead to offspring born with mental illnesses, along with other maladies, so this ties into the twins story well.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

Richard and Madeline are a lot like the two halves of the yin-yang: both light and darkness paired in balance with each other. Because they were twins, there was a closer biological and symbolic bond between the two. Just as the house is separating but singular, twins are the same way, reproductively speaking.

A single egg splits, and two entities are formed, much like the splitting or cracking of the Usher house. The metaphor is extended by Poe's choice to make the two characters twins. If they were only brother and sister, the symbolism would not have been as complete.

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Why did Poe depict Roderick and Madeline as twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

For a closer identification. To be a twin is to be identical (ideally), and twins share more than other siblings. They share the same womb environment, and, due to being the same age, move through life at the same stages, experiencing the same history. Culturally, there is the association that they share some closer mental or spiritual link. (Think of the movie "Twins" for an example.) This link fits with the sense that they are the same person, or interwoven at a greater than physical level.

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What is the significance of Roderick and Madeline being twins in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

One can argue that Poe chooses for Roderick and Madeline to be twins to emphasize that they are doubles or doppelgängers, a term in Freudian thought that refers to the uncanny. The uncanny, an important element of gothic fiction, occurs when one sees parts of the self that are usually hidden, parts that one is dissociated from.

The doppelgänger, or twin, is uncanny because it is just like oneself but at the same time not oneself. It is a way one can see parts of the self that one ordinarily would not see. It is also important to note that in some mythological contexts, glimpsing one's twin or double was sometimes taken as an omen of death.

Knowing all this, it is easy to see why Madeline and Roderick are twins. Madeline is a mirror of Roderick in that her paralyzing disease mirrors Roderick's own psychological ailments. Her death is an omen of his death. The two are presented as halves of the same whole. When Madeline dies, Roderick dies.

Another way to look at their status as twins is to observe that because they are twins, they jointly represent the last of the Usher line. And indeed, they die together, ending the line.

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What is the significance of Roderick and Madeline being siblings in "The Fall of the House of Usher"?

The major reason that it matters that Roderick and Madeline are brother and sister stems from the fact that they are twins.  Just as the lake that surrounds the Usher mansion reflects the mansion's image, this symbolism transfers into the mirror image that Roderick and Madeline would see when looking at each other.  It is also important that the reader realizes that when Roderick and the narrator bury Madeline that they, Roderick must be aware that Madeline is still alive due to some type of "twin telepathy".  Roderick's motive for attempting to murder his sister also is important here -- he may have murdered her because he wanted to have his own identity and find independence from his sister.

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Why is it significant that Madeline and Roderick are twins in the story?

There is something about twins that makes them seem even closer than siblings who were born at different times. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that twins were conceived and birthed simultaneously; perhaps it has to do with the fact that twins shared a womb and have been together since before they were even conscious beings. Twins, thus, seem to "match" one another in a particularly unique kind of way; they are, in a very real sense, doubles. The idea of incest between any pair of siblings is abhorrent to us, but, for the reasons I have addressed, the idea of incest between twins seems, I think, somehow even more upsetting and grotesque. With the apparent death of his sister, Madeline, Roderick insists that his family line has died out as well, making it clear that he would have been expected to procreate with his twin sister. This makes for double the illness to pass on—we can see how the illness would multiply—and double the upset to the reader. There's a symmetry to the idea of these two matched halves that feels quite perverted by the knowledge that they were meant to continue the Usher line together.

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Why is it significant that Madeline and Roderick are twins in the story?

It matters that Madeline and Roderick are twins because of several reasons:

The assumption that they may have been conceived within a consanguineal line

The assumption that they "share the same inevitable fate"

The possibility that they will meet the same demise

They are reflections of each other

They are co-dependent and their melancholy is mutual

They are extensions of each other

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