Short Story: The Fall of the House of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe

Film:The Shining

1980

Basis of Comparison

I chose to compareThe Fall of the House of Usher,

by Edgar Allan Poe, and the 1980’s film, The

Shining, because they both share the same theme:

isolation.

The Fall of the House of

Usher

Main Characters:

Narrator- The narrator never had a name, but was childhood friends

with Roderick Usher. He goes to the Usher house to help Roderick,

who was claiming to be physically sick.

Usher twins- Roderick Usher, and his twin sister Madeline Usher were

the last two living of the Usher family. The family never “branched out”

to keep the family name around. Roderick throughout the story

becomes more and more, as what the reader could describe, mentally

ill.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Conflicts:

Internal conflicts- The narrator wants to help his

friend, but his friends’ illness, and the way his home

looks creates a conflict in the narrators mind.

There is also an internal conflict between the

narrator and his friend. Both of them have drastically

changed since childhood, and so neither of them

knew who their old friends had really become.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Plot:This short story written by Edgar Allan Poe. The story

only has three characters: the narrator, who never

gets a name, Roderick Usher, and his twin sister,

Madeline Usher.

The story starts off with the narrator riding up to a

house on horseback that he describes as dark and

dull. Roderick Usher, the man living in the house,

sent him a letter saying that he needed company. As

the narrator enters the house, he describes walking

through many dark hallways looking for Roderick.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Plot (cont.)

When he finds Roderick, he describes him as pale, and less

energetic than he ever was. Roderick tells the narrator that

he is suffering from fear, that he’s afraid of his house. His twin

sister, Madeline, has become sick with catalepsy, or the loss

of control of the limbs in your body. The narrator spends

many days trying to cheer up his old childhood friend.

Eventually, Madeline dies. Roderick decides to bury her in the

tombs under the house, so that the doctors will not try to take

her body for scientific research.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Plot (cont.)

One night, neither characters could sleep, so the narrator

begins reading Roderick a story. As he’s reading, he

begins hearing noises that correspond with the story.

Roderick claims that he’s been hearing these noises ever

since they buried Madeline.

The wind blows open, and Madeline is standing behind the

door. She is bloody from the struggle of getting out alive.

As she’s dying, she attacks Roderick. Roderick dies from

fear, and the narrator runs away from the house. As the

narrator leaves, the house collapses behind him.

The Shining

Throughout the plot summary, the shine will be

referred to a lot.

The “shine” is actually the ability to communicate

telepathically with other who share this ability.

The Shining

Main Characters:

Jack Torrance- Jack is the husband of Wendy Torrance, and the

father of Danny Torrance. Jack is a writer, and a recovering

alcoholic who is asked to watch over the Overlook Hotel during the

winter. He eventually goes insane due to cabin fever, and attempts

to murder his family.

Danny Torrance- Danny is the son of Jack and Wendy who goes

with his family to help watch over the Overlook Hotel. He soon

discovers from a hotel chef while receiving a tour that he has a

special ability which is know as “shining.” He basically has the ability

to communicate telepathically with others who have this special

ability.

The Shining

Main Characters:

Mrs. Wendy Torrance- Mrs. Torrance is the wife of Jack Torrance. She

is a very loving and caring wife and mother. She displays these

characteristics throughout the movie a number of times. She is always

checking up on her husband and son to make sure they are ok.

Dick Hallorann- Mr. Hallorann was the chef at the Overlook Hotel

during the hotel’s open season. While he was showing Mrs. Torrance

around the kitchen with Danny, he telepathically asks Danny if he

wants ice-cream, sparking a conversation about how they both share

the same “power.”

The Shining

Conflicts:

Jack Torrance begins to develop cabin fever and

goes insane. His cabin fever causes him to attempt

to kill his family.

The Shining

Plot:

Jack Torrance receives a job interview for the Overlook

Hotel as a winter caretaker, which must close from

November to May due to heavy snow falling every winter.

He plans on using this as a quiet time to sit and work on

writing. While in the interview, the manager tells him about

the last caretaker, who developed cabin fever, and went

insane. Right after going insane, the man killed his wife,

two daughters, and then killed himself. Mr. Torrance tells

the manager that he is not worried, that he is positive he

will be able to maintain his sanity and be able to care for

the hotel while working on his writing.

The Shining

Plot: (cont.)Jack receives a job as a caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in the

mountains, which closes down during the winter due to terrible

snow storms.

On the last day the hotel was open, the family was given a

tour of the hotel. Mr. Hallorann, the chef, is giving Mrs.

Torrance and Danny a tour of the large hotel kitchen, and

discovers that Danny shares the same telepathy power that he

has. This is when Danny is offered ice-cream telepathically.

Danny then begins to ask questions about the hotel, and then

room 237. Room 237 is the room that the previous caretaker

had stacked the dead bodies in. Danny is warned to stay out

of that room.

The Shining

Plot: (cont.)Danny and his mother continue exploring the hotel, as

Jack’s writing still has not gone anywhere after a month.

There is a huge hedge maze that Danny and his mother

explore before the snow gets bad. Over time, Jack begins

to get very frustrated with his writing. He begins to have

random outbursts of violence and screaming.

Wendy and Danny become more and more afraid of Jack,

as these random outbursts become to get more and more

violent, as well as more often. Eventually Wendy becomes

so scared that she carries a bat with her when she goes to

check on him.

The Shining

Plot: (cont.)

One day Jack hits the peak, and goes on a

rampage. He attempts to attack Wendy. She hits

him with a bat and knocks him unconscious. She

drags him into the food closet in the kitchen, and

locks him in there. When he escapes the closet, he

chases them down. Jack disconnects all phone line,

and radio networks from the hotel so that no one

can get in touch with them.

The Fall of the House of Usher

Hero’s Journey:

Short Story- This story never shows the narrator in

his natural habitat.

Movie- Danny and his family are living happily, and

Danny’s father is taking this job so that he has time

to work on his writing career.

Short Story- The narrator receives a letter from an

old childhood friend requesting company. There he

gets on his horse and heads over there.

Movie- Danny moves into the hotel for the winter.

The narrator doesn't refuse the call, the story does

imply that he does debate on whether or not to go

inside.

Danny doesn’t refuse the call, he goes expecting a

huge place that he can run and play.

The narrator doesn’t meet anyone. Instead, he is

the mentor to his friend.

Danny meets the head chef, who he finds out also

has this telepathy power. The chef then tells him

about the hotel, and what not to do.

The narrator enters the dark house looking for his

friend.

The hotel closes, and Danny and his family are left

there for the winter.

The narrator finds that his friend has drastically

changed, but he is still a friend.

Danny begins to bond with his mother, and drift

from his father.

The narrator begins to adjust to helping his insane

friend.

Danny begins to adjust to being on his own, and

doing whatever he wants.

The narrator helps bury his friends sister under the

house. At this point, the friend becomes even more

insane like. The sister then comes back and kills

her brother.

At this point, Danny is trying to escape death with

his mother after his father has developed cabin

fever and gone insane.

The narrator escapes the house, and the house

crumbles down after he gets out.

Danny escapes death, and leaves his father to die

in the snow.

After the characters in both the story and movie

escape death, they both end. I assume they all

went back to normal life, with some few obvious

adjustments.

Works Cited

Poe, Edgar. The Fall of the House of Usher.

Prentice Hall Literature Florida The American

Experience.

Ed. Grant Wiggins. Upper Saddle River:

Pearson, 2010. 293-310

The Shining. Dir. Stanley Kubrick. Perf. Jack

Nicholson. Warner Home Video, 2010. DVD.