In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of The House of Usher”, the character Madeline is subjected to sexist treatment by her brother, Roderick as well as his friend, who is the unnamed narrator. As Madeline falls ill, the men fear her because she does not embody feminine qualities. She is not spoken to by the men, but portrayed as the “myth of the woman”, as described in Simone De Beauvoir’s essay “The Second Sex”. The gender role Madeline is expected to portray is hindered by her illness, which causes the men to alienate and control her with silence. In Judith Butler’s essay, “Gender Trouble”, she discusses the control and power regarding society’s ideal gender roles, which Madeline does not entirely fit into. Because of her disease, she is unable to perform as a nurturing and ideal woman. The men in the story avoid Madeline entirely; instead, they focus on Roderick’s struggles coping with the “fear” he has of his sister. The narrative is from a male’s perspective which adds to the oppression and control over her as the sole woman in the story. It is not until after she is dead that Madeline can finally have control over her brother Roderick.
The male characters, including both Roderick and the unnamed narrator, react to Madeline’s illness by alienating her. The narrator describes the strange disease by saying: “Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away” (Poe 27). Madeline is described as apathetic, which means she is indifferent and incapable of empathizing. To the men, her illness represents her inability to perform as an ideal woman to the men: docile, obedient, and nurturing. Beauvoir explains that when women do not perform the role expected of them as ideal women, they are deemed evil and deviant. She says: “…the woman…can induce young men and even fathers of families to scatter their patrimonies…women appropriate their victims’ fortunes or obtain legacies by using undue influence; this role being regarded as evil, those who play it are called “bad women”’ (Beauvoir 1266). Here, Beauvoir describes how women who do not fit into a patriarchal society, are told their behavior is wrong and deemed “evil”. The men only speak of Madeline and never directly to her, as their “fear” is merely a reaction to her not performing the gender role expected of her.
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Judith Butler’s idea about values regarding “the body” and its expectations according to its natural sex, explains why Madeline is depicted as frightening. Her home embodies her illness, which is described: “It rose from the dead, decaying trees, from the gray walls and the quiet lake. It was a sickly, unhealthy air” (Poe 23). From a male’s perspective, the narrator takes notice of the chaotic state of the house. To him Madeline’s “body” as a woman should nurture, and this includes her home. When Butler describes “the body,” she says: “The body is always under siege, suffering destruction by…history. And history is the creation of values and meanings by a signifying practice that requires subjection of the body” (Butler 2543). The female “body” and its values are made by men, who expect women to perform as caretakers. To the narrator, this means Madeline fails as an ideal woman.
In Beauvoir’s essay, she claims men are incapable of sympathy regarding a woman’s experience. She says: To men’s eyes the opacity of the self-knowing self…is denser in the other who is feminine; men are unable to penetrate her special experience through any working of sympathy” (1268). Men’s ability to perceive and empathize with women’s experiences is flawed, and this shows through Roderick’s inability to cope and understand the changes Madeline endures with her illness. The narrator instead, sympathizes with Roderick’s experience and his inability to cope with the family disease. This occurs when the men see Madeline emerge from her room: “For several days following, her name was not spoken by either Usher or myself; and during this period, I was busy with efforts to lift my friend out of his sadness and gloom” (27). Both men fail to empathize and show support in Madeline’s time of need. As Beauvoir explains, this is because she is the “other”, and they view her struggles as inferior in comparison to Roderick.
The male presence in the story is the main focus as the female presence is oppressed, mainly by the narrator. The focus on men is placed mainly on Roderick and his inability to understand Madeline’s condition. Since she cannot care for him or the house, he sees this as unfit regarding the ideal image he wishes her to portray. This is why he feels he must reach out to his male companion so he can gain sympathy and grasp control over this situation. He writes a letter to the narrator who describes it as: “a wild letter which demanded that I reply by coming to see him” (23). The letter’s purpose is to gain another man’s support since Madeline’s nurture is lacking as a woman. This however, is his fantasy of how a woman should act, to which Butler describes: “If the inner truth of gender is a fabrication and if a true gender is a fantasy instituted and inscribed on the surface of bodies…but are only produced as truth effects of a discourse of primary and stable identity” (2549). The idea of gender as fantasy does not occur to Roderick, and this explains why he reacts in fear of Madeline. She no longer embodies the image he expects of her, which to him makes her identity less valid than it used to be.
Madeline does not embody Butler’s definition of “the normal”, and this causes the men to feel discomfort towards her. Butler says in her essay: “The loss of the sense of “the normal”, however, can be its occasion for laughter, especially when “the normal”, “the original” is revealed to be a copy” (Butler 2511). These two men react to Madeline’s illness because she transforms into a woman who no longer can perform her duties. She is no longer “the normal”, and while it doesn’t cause laughter, it causes the men to become confused by her behavior. This occurs as the narrator describes both his and Roderick’s reaction to Madeline’s sudden presence: “I looked at her with a complete and wondering surprise and with some fear…her brother but he had put his face in his hands…his tears were flowing” (Poe 27). When women reject the social norm to perform their femininity, society advises them they are wrong, which is the case for Madeline. The “fear” they feel when she’s present, represents the loss of “the normal”, especially Roderick’s inability to cope with Madeline’s loss of feminine nurture.
Since Madeline does not portray “the normal”, according to Butler, the men create an image of her as a “mystery”. Her silence is brought on by the men who fail to interact with her, which Beauvoir explains: “To say a woman is a mystery is to say, not that she is silent, but that her language is not understood” (1268). The language of Madeline is non-existent, she is only spoken of, never to. Even after she dies, the men avoid looking at her: “We did not long look down at her, for fear and wonder filled our hearts” (Poe 30). The “wonder” indicates the men know very little of Madeline, and this is prevalent until she dies. As a result, her voice is not heard, as the men choose to not listen. This is because the “myth of the woman” is based on control over women, which is something the men carry over Madeline. In her essay, she says: “Few myths have been more advantageous to the ruling caste than the myth of the woman: it justifies all privileges and even authorizes their abuse. Men need not bother themselves with alleviating the pains and burdens that physiologically are women’s lot” (Beauvoir 1267). Men, like Roderick, use the concept of the “myth” to portray Madeline in a negative light. The narrator is part of the problem, as he enables Roderick and “others” Madeline by portraying her as a mystery. It’s easier for him to paint his image of her and listen to his close friend than to speak to Madeline directly.
Oppression and control are concepts both Butler and Beauvoir discuss. According to Butler, gender roles are exaggerated to create dominance: “…separating, purifying, demarcating and punishing transgressions… the main function to impose a system on an inherently untidy experience. It is only by exaggerating the difference…male and female…semblance of order is created” (2544). Since Madeline does not exude her femininity, the men feel a lack of control over her. The roles do however, become exaggerated when it is Madeline who kills her brother: “For a moment she remained trembling at the door…with a low cry…in her pain, as she died at last, she carried him down with her, down to the floor. He too was dead, killed by his fear” (Poe 33). This is Madeline’s chance to regain her control and use her brother’s continuous “fear” against him. By physically carrying him with her to his death, she creates chaos and terror for the men, but liberation for herself. Beauvoir also speaks of control inregardinger feminist essay: “…like all the oppressed, woman deliberately dissembles her objective actuality…their actual behavior, are carefully hidden” (1270). Madeline’s actual behavior and emotions are hidden throughout the story, as the men never give her a chance to speak her mind. As Beauvoir says in her essay, her “actual behavior” is hidden, that is until she decides to take Roderick with her.
Madeline’s illness is depicted as mysterious and frightening by the narrator and also Rodrick. The nature of the illness causes Roderick’s home to resemble her physical and mental state, which scares him. The men control and manipulate Madeline into silence, as to them she is not performing their ideal image of femininity. The male perspective is biased towards depicting Madeline as deviant and terrifying, and siding with Roderick since there is already an established friendship. Madeline’s power is only found through the advantage of Roderick’s “fear”, in which she proves that gender roles can be challenged.
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