Abstract
Roderick Usher is the protagonist of Edgar Allan Poe’s masterpiece The Fall of The House of Usher. Concerning his death, the scholars and critics at home and abroad have discussed a lot but there is no fixed conclusion. Based on the ecological niche theory, this thesis explored Roderick Usher’s death and concluded that his death was a natural outcome as his natural as well as his social niche positions were on the decline because of his failure to have effective communication with the environment he was living in and with the people around him. Furthermore, his niche trend to do nothing to the ever-decaying living environment but to do harm to his twin sister further accelerated the demise of his niche position. It is hoped that this thesis can shed some new light on the exploration of Roderick Usher’s death and work as a kind of tentatively interdisciplinary research between ecology and literature.
Highlights
Edgar Allan Poe (1809−1849), was a celebrated poet, storyteller and literary critic in the 19th century of America
Based on the ecological niche theory, this thesis explored Roderick Usher’s death and concluded that his death was a natural outcome as his natural as well as his social niche positions were on the decline because of his failure to have effective communication with the environment he was living in and with the people around him
His niche trend to do nothing to the ever-decaying living environment but to do harm to his twin sister further accelerated the demise of his niche position
Summary
Edgar Allan Poe (1809−1849), was a celebrated poet, storyteller and literary critic in the 19th century of America. Failure to get through trauma eventually had its toll on Usher; Tang Weisheng (2017) focused on the power of the “things” in the short story and concluded that Roderick Usher’s rational thought was eroded and eventually overpowered by the ever-growing evilness of things around him, which led to his final death; Xu Dan (2007) held that Roderick Usher’s death resulted from the internal fear deriving from the unbalanced development of his personality and the depressing and terrifying environment outside; Zhang Yunkai (2015) thought the ignorance of the narrator “I” contributed to the death of Roderick Usher in addition to Usher’s psychological distortion and the deteriorating environment; Zeng Xiao (2010) discussed the internal and external factors causing Usher’s death and his doomed tragedy according to “the death instinct” theory; Shang Biwu (2005) argued that a series of binary oppositions such as ration and irration, the house of Usher and its owner, and Roderick Usher and his sister, underwent a simultaneous process of pairing and splitting in the short story and Usher’s death was the destined result of the collapse of ration. Vol 10, No 2; 2020 position and trend of Usher as a niche in the ecosystem, it can be seen that when the niche position of Usher in the ecosystem is on the decline, and his niche trend, which refers to his influence on the environment, is diminishing, his death is doomed
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