In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the spooky setting created by Poe not only serves as an exquisite backdrop to the story, but also gives the reader's insight into the mystery of the characters. Through Poe's descriptive personification, the physical state of the mansion becomes representative of the mental state of Usher's family and its individual members, giving the reader insight into their enigmatic characterization. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Throughout the story, the author gives many clues to the meaning behind the elaborate and dispirited setting, but the reader is assured of its connection to the characters of Roderick himself. The narrator tells us that Roderick felt “an influence which certain peculiarities of the simple form and substance of his family home have, by dint of long suffering, he says, obtained upon his mind” (Poe 73). The words form and substance are used, implying that the physicality of the mansion is not the only aspect that affects Roderick. On a superficial level, the general decrepit nature of the place causes Roderick to become discouraged, as it also does, to a lesser extent, to the narrator himself. However, there is a deeper connection here between the house and Roderick that the narrator does not and cannot share. The reader sees that the narrator's description of the house and his description of the man share great similarities. The mansion has “dark walls” and “vacant eye-shaped windows” that directly reflect Roderick’s mortal face (Poe 70). This personification of the mansion serves to make the connection between the house and the character very clear. Initially, Roderick may have adopted the attributes of the mansion he lived in, but as the metaphysical connection between the two forms strengthened, the house in turn began to adopt attributes that became manifest in Roderick's mind . the author then gives clues about the mental state of the family members and thus foreshadows the end of the story. The narrator remarks that “there seemed to be a wild inconsistency between the still perfect fit of the rooms [of the mansion] and the crumbling state of the individual stones” (Poe 71). Here the different parties are representative of the members of the Usher family in that they still constitute a house of nobility, but their personal stability is unreliable. Thus prefiguration is used when the question arises: how long can a building stand if each of its stones is weak? How long will it take for the madness of individual members to bring down the entire family? Likewise, as the house is representative of Roderick himself, the parts of his mind are collapsing and will not be able to sustain him for much longer. The large crack in the house further indicates the family's eventual downfall, a "barely perceptible fissure" that runs the length of the house (Poe 71). This further indicates the mental state of the inhabitants of the house; we may even recall the term “cracked” used to describe the clinically insane. Although at the beginning of the story Roderick still seems whole in some ways, participating in regular activities and organizing the affairs of his household, the manner in which he does them truly frightens the narrator. This uncanny effect manifests itself in the mansion, as the narrator says: “I still wondered how unusual the fancies aroused by ordinary images were” (Poe 72). The narrator has seen grand houses and curiously ornate rooms before, but the particular combination of these attributes is what is scary..