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Netflixes' "The Fall of the House of Usher" — Guide from a Poe-Lover

In the new Netflix series "The Fall of the House of Usher," literature from the Gothic Romance era and modern streaming intertwine in a fascinating way. This stunning adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's timeless classics is cleverly woven with contemporary elements. As a result, a web of—sometimes more, sometimes less subtle—references to the works of the master of horror emerges.


Below, you will learn all about the depths of the human mind and, even more importantly, the artistic brilliance behind "The Fall of the House of Usher."


Frau mit Umhang und Maske vor Bilderrahmen mit Familie düster

In this post ...

. . . we will discuss the following short stories by Poe*:

The Fall of the House of Usher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (September 1839)

The Masque of the Red Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (April 30, 1843)

The Murders in the Rue Morgue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (April 1841)

The Black Cat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (August 19, 1843)



Presenting the works in all their glory would exceed the scope, which is why I will only provide a rough overview of the content relevant to the series to create a common knowledge base for newcomers to Poe's literature.


Anyone who feels drawn to some of the titles can simply click on the date on the right to enjoy them online.

This post contains SPOILERS about the series, so anyone who doesn’t want to know anything should watch the series first and then come back. ;)


Episode 1: "A Midnight Dreary"


The episode title references the first line from Poe's most famous work, "The Raven."


Gesicht alter Mann in Anzug mit Krawatte und grauen Haaren in Bilderrahmen
Roderick Usher, played by Bruce Greenwood

At the very beginning of the series, we learn that in the last week, all six children of wealthy CEO Roderick Usher have died. Shortly thereafter, we meet C. Auguste Dupin—a lawyer who wants to sue the Ushers for selling an addictive painkiller called Libudon. It is marketed as "non-addictive," yet according to his research, it has already cost thousands of lives. Roderick Usher then invites Dupin to a conversation in a rundown house, where he confesses that he knows how and why his children died. Furthermore, he assures Dupin that he could be convicted of murder—if he listens to him.


This is the framework of the story; over the next eight hours, the audience will learn about the rise and fall of the family empire.

Here, we already find an interesting reference to Poe's works: the name Dupin is borrowed from stories such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," or "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt," where Dupin is the first deductive puzzle-solver in history.


Roderick's narrative begins in his childhood in 1950. At this time, his mother works as a secretary for Mr. Longfellow, the CEO of Fortuna Pharmaceuticals. Although married, Longfellow is also the father of Roderick and his twin sister Madeleine, but he hardly cares for the two children.


Shortly thereafter, their mother falls gravely ill but refuses any painkillers or medical assistance. Consequently, the siblings turn to Longfellow, hoping for help—after all, their mother had served him faithfully for years. However, the CEO refuses to lift a finger, resulting in Mother Eliza's death shortly after. After Roderick and Madeleine bury the deceased in a makeshift coffin in the garden, this final rest does not last long.


Eliza Usher, suddenly resurrected, goes to the Longfellow house, where she strangles him on the entrance steps of the grand estate and collapses beside him, truly dead this time. The dark circumstances surrounding their mother's death will later play a significant role, so take notes!


It's also interesting to note that Longfellow was a real-life antagonist for Poe— the character Roderick Usher is a fusion of the writer himself and the fictional character Roderick Usher. The latter invites his childhood friend to his family estate in the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher." Similar to the initial situation in the series, the only remaining members of the Usher family here are Roderick and his sister. One can clearly see the parallels already. The end of the narrative will be revisited in Episode 8, so let's wait and see...



Episode 2: "The Masque of the Red Death"


It is the eponymous title of a short story by Poe, first published on April 13, 1843.


junger Mann mit rosa Anzug schaut skeptisch
Prospero Usher, played by Sauriyan Sapkota

Now, in each episode, the death of one of the six Usher descendants is highlighted, starting with Prospero Usher.


He plans a hyper-hedonistic party disguised as a masquerade ball to conceal the identities of the exclusive, ultra-wealthy guests. The event is set to take place in an abandoned building of the family company, Fortunado.


At midnight, "when the rain falls" (from sprinklers in the building), the fun is supposed to truly begin. Just before the climax of the party, an uninvited guest appears—a woman draped in a red cloak, wearing a skull mask, who engages in a brief, ominous conversation with Prospero. After this, when he signals to douse the guests with the sprinklers as a cue for the party to start, instead, acid sprays from the ceiling, leading to a painful end for everyone present, including Prospero Usher.


In Poe's short story, a similar scenario unfolds: while the common populace languishes due to a plague (represented in the series by the drug Libudon), Prince Prospero hosts a masquerade ball for his peers. In seven rooms, each designed in different colors, the atmosphere is joyous until midnight, when an uninvited guest wearing a skull mask and a red cloak walks through the seven rooms, causing "one after another (...) to sink in the blood-drenched halls of their revelry."


In the series, certain scenes of the party are also illuminated in different colors, akin to the seven rooms in the narrative. Furthermore, Prince Prospero confronts the uninvited guest, which is mirrored in the brief exchange between Prospero Usher and the woman.



Epidode 3: "Murder in the Rue Morgue"


Borrowed from the short story 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' first published in April 1842.


Frau mit hellblonden Haaren in zerkratztem Bilderrahmen
Camille Usher, played by Kate Siegel

In the third episode of the Netflix original, we get to know the Ushers better. Camille Usher, who is responsible for the family’s PR (Public Relations), takes center stage as she tries to uncover the truth behind her sister Victorine's animal experiments. Rumors suggest that Victorine is falsifying the results of experiments conducted on monkeys to expedite the transition to human trials, as Roderick demands.


The name of this research facility—Roderick Usher Experimental, or R.U.E.—contains a clever reference to Poe’s detective story: "Rue" means "street," and "Morgue" translates to "mortuary." In a previous episode, Camille tells her assistant that the family intends to name the research facility "Rue Morgue." When considering the plot in both the series and the book, the analogy becomes perfect.


Later in the episode, as Camille drives to R.U.E. on her own to examine the test animals and expose her sister's scandal, she is struck down by an escaped monkey.


Mann in Anzug sitzt auf Sessel mit Glas in den Händen
C. Auguste Dupin,played by Carl Lumbly

A similar scene presents itself to C. Auguste Dupin in Poe's story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which will go down in history as the first detective story. The crux of this tale revolves around Dupin, who becomes aware of the bizarre case through a newspaper article. (Since Dupin holds a different position in the series, Camille takes on the role of the "detective" in this rough retelling.)


In the original story, two Parisian women, Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter Camille, are found dead in their fourth-floor apartment. However, all the doors and windows of the crime scene are locked. Witnesses also cannot agree on what language they heard the supposed assailant speaking inside the apartment. Dupin concludes that the murders can be attributed to an orangutan that had escaped from its owner.



Episode 4: "The Black Cat"


Also the title of a short story published by Poe in 1843.


Mann in gelben Hemd und Jackett schaut finster in Bilderrahmen
Leo Usher, played by Rahul Kohli

This short story and thus the theme of the episode is already hinted at in episode three: there we see Leo Usher, after a drug high, realizing that he has slaughtered Pluto, his friend Julius's cat.


For the time being, Leo claims the cat has run away, but as Julius becomes increasingly worried, Leo tries to find a "replacement" for Pluto at an animal shelter. To his delight, he discovers a cat there that looks exactly like the missing Pluto. Relieved, he adopts Pluto No. 2, and family harmony seems to be restored.


However, Leo soon feels haunted by the creature and fears that the cat intends to do him harm. Paranoid, he searches for the cat, but it seems to hide from him until he ultimately starts pounding the walls of his apartment.


Meanwhile, Julius comes home, but his attempts to calm Leo are fruitless. Leo finally sees the cat sitting on the balcony and leaps at it—but he can't hold on and falls over the railing to his death.


This story is more inspired by its basic motif than by the concrete plot of Poe's famous tale. Here, a man who initially loves animals seemingly begins to torture his pets for no reason—including a black cat named Pluto—ultimately hanging his beloved cat from a noose in the garden. That same night, his house burns down, except for the wall at the head of the marriage bed, where the outline of the cat, including the noose, has been seared into the surface.


During a drinking binge at a bar, the unnamed narrator finds a new cat that, except for one single white spot, resembles Pluto down to the last hair. He takes the cat home, where he soon discovers that the white spot is forming into the outline of a gallows. He also begins to hunt the cat and corners it in his basement, but when he tries to kill the cat, his wife intervenes. Instead of the cat, she is struck down. He immediately begins to wall up her body.


A few days later, when the police investigate the woman's disappearance, the man leads the officers to the basement, where a deafening scream suddenly erupts from behind the wall, revealing the man’s guilt—he had bricked in the cat along with his wife.



* A Little Note

schwarze Katze sitzt da und sieht nach links

Poe initially published in local newspapers. To increase his sales, he later sold his works again to various journals; in many of these reissues, he made changes both to the text and, more noticeably, to the title, which is why multiple versions of a work exist today. Additionally, over the years, many translators have dealt with Poe's legacy, which can contribute to the discrepancies.




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