The Gothic Depths of "The Fall of the House of Usher"

What if the crumbling walls of a gothic mansion could echo the unraveling of a family's legacy?

Join Fran from Melancholy Mentor and Evan from Mystery Mythos as we journey into the eerie depths of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." 

This episode peels back the layers of Poe's haunting narrative, where themes of madness, family, and isolation permeate through the decaying Usher estate. Expect a thrilling discussion on how the story resonates deeply, evoking both a foreboding chill and a curious nostalgia.

Listeners are in for a captivating exploration of various adaptations of Poe’s masterpiece, from the chilling 1960 film starring Vincent Price to the latest 2023 series. 

Transcript

Fran: 0:01

Hello everyone and welcome to Melancholy Mentor, where classic literature meets the vibrant world of radio plays. I'm Fran and I'm joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos. Together, we're your guides on this creative journey. During each episode, we'll dive into stories featured on the Melancholy Mentor channel, allowing fresh ideas to flourish, inspiring you to dream big and unlock your creative potential. Get comfy, open your mind and embrace curiosity. Let's get started hello, I'm fran.

Fran: 0:42

Hello, I'm Evan. Yeah, joined by Evan from Mystery Mythos.

Evan: 0:49

AKA, mystery Mythos.

Fran: 0:51

Right, that's enough. Okay, each week on Melancholy Mentor, we're going to be highlighting showcasing, if you like, an episode that we've got on the melancholy mentor channel on our youtube channel. So this episode is talking about the fall of the house of usher, which is an amazing short story by edgar allen poe. Now, this story was first published in 1839. I think it was in some kind of magazine or something. It's a beautiful work of Gothic fiction, including themes of madness, which quite often Poe's works include themes of madness. Madness, family and isolation.

Evan: 1:45

Sounds right.

Fran: 1:48

So the story is about an unnamed narrator who is going to visit his ill friend, roderick Usher, and Roderick Usher's got a sister called Madeline or Madeline Going to visit. Edgar. Allan Poe wrote stories evoking strong emotional responses in the readers of um. I've had had um challenges with depression on and off over the years, for many years, and I often felt quite like back in the day I would have been diagnosed with melancholy. You know, yeah, it's not a word that um fills me with dread. As such, it's almost like a warm word for me, like a. You know I like it because it kind of also is very evoking of classic literature and you know all the things I like about history, and so I actually like the word yeah, I like it yeah, I like it too.

Fran: 3:17

So we all like it. It's a great word, we all like it. So edgar allen poe is famed for eerie storytelling. So in the fall of the house of usher, he often used , not just in this story, but he often used symbolism. So in the fall of the house of usher, and it said that the house represents the, the usher, the usher family's decline. So the house itself is symbolic of the decline of the family.

Fran: 3:49

And there was a 1960 movie. There was a 1960 movie based on the story starring Vincent Price yes, amazing, amazing American actor, vincent Price His actual name, vincent Leonard Price Jr. Brilliant, I know, I know. And his film genre was mainly playing villains, but he played in a lot of those sort of gothic kind of movies and I actually believe he was a strong Poe fan, so he did a lot of Poe's works and, of course, his amazing voice at doing the voiceovers and narrating things. So he plays Roderick Usher in in the movie adaptation, the 1960 movie adaptation. And there was also a 2023 series, the fall of the house of usher. I don't know, did you watch that at all?

Evan: 4:42

yeah, yeah, I didn't watch it.

Fran: 4:45

I think one episode and I wasn't too sure. So although I like the story um, did you watch all of it? Yeah yeah, I enjoyed it yeah, I enjoyed it.

Evan: 4:55

Yeah, I thought it was quite good, very good, maybe I'll give it another go.

Fran: 4:59

Yeah, I think, because I'm a fan of like the, the early adaptations of it, like I was a bit yeah, maybe I'll have another look. I think I it's something I could have another look at again, I think yeah, so the episode that we've got on the melancholy mentor youtube channel, you've got a bit of information about that, haven't you?

Evan: 5:18

yeah, I do. this is like it's a weird circle it's called the weird circle radio dramas. It was produced in like new york and they made quite a lot of episodes. It was all like adaptations of like classic horror and supernatural stories, so that's what it was all based on, and they broadcast them between 1943 and 1945. And there was like 78 episodes all in all, and this is the very first one.

Fran: 5:47

Oh, wow.

Evan: 5:47

Yeah, this is the very first one.

Fran: 5:49

Yeah, do you know if the other things that they recorded are available at all?

Evan: 5:56

I think some are. Yeah, some are.

Fran: 5:59

Some of them are OK, yeah, yeah, amazing, because quite often, with the radio plays that we put on the channel, sometimes we don't have a great deal of back story or history to who actually did the radio play or who the voice actors are. If we do, we put it in the description, don't we? But quite often there's not a lot of information to be found.

Evan: 6:23

No, no, it's just kind of like general information, but it doesn't translate back to like all the people that were in each episode.

Fran: 6:30

so yeah, okay, so that's all that we've got on that, which is interesting in itself, I think, and especially being that early on that it was recorded. Um, I've got some, , oh, what do we call it? Some eerie information about the potential origins of the fall of the house of usher. So it's likely inspired by the again, I could be saying this wrong, but it's Hezekiah Usher House, which was in Boston, massachusetts, in America. So the house itself was located a few blocks from where Ho was born, right? So it's quite likely that that was the inspiration for it.

Fran: 7:21

When we say blocks cause American in America, they, I suppose it's. Is it the streets or cause? The funny thing is in in the UK we say like going round the block, but then we don't call that individual streets as as blocks as such, do we? They like different areas. So I don't really know what a block is, um, whether or how big that would have been, but apparently it's a few blocks, so maybe a few streets, um, from where poe was born. So the house was built in the 1680s by Hezekiah Usher Jr. Oh, wow, yeah, I know he's the son of the America's first bookseller.

Evan: 8:05

I like that yeah.

Fran: 8:09

There's more, there's more. Okay, so buckle up for this one. There's more so. In 1692, hezekiah, and the spelling of this because I always question my pronunciation the spelling of this is h-e-z-e-k-i-a-h yeah um, and my phone voice slipped slightly.

Fran: 8:33

There started to get a bit of a slightly. There started to get a bit of a north london accent creeping in. Um, so to my understanding, that would be hezekiah, yeah, so anyway, in 1692, hezekiah jr was accused of witchcraft. Oh, accused of witchcraft, can you imagine that? So, if this is true, a few blocks from where poe was born, it was somebody accused of witchcraft, and so the house itself was demolished in 1830, um, and it said okay. So again, I don't know where the fact is in this, like if it's fact-based at all, but it's it's said that there were two bodies in the basement. Oh, so pezakai junior was accused of witchcraft. They demolished the house and it said that there were two bodies in the basement.

Fran: 9:36

So this is quite likely the the inspiration behind the house of usher I would say so yeah, it's absolutely fascinating, so be very interested to know if um anyone's got any more um evidence of that or any more information about that, because it's it's quite a curious tale, isn't it as well? Yeah, um, all witchcraft things, but it's a lot of witchcraft stuff. Actually, um vincent price played um matthew hopkins in the witch finder general general one yeah, which is a movie based.

Fran: 10:14

It's um a story based in the in the uk um around essex and suffolk, like the counties of essex and suffolk about the witch trials, and that's interesting as well. Yeah, okay, so thanks for joining us. So the fall of the house of osha is a radio play that is on our channel melancholy mentor. Um, by who was it the story again?

Evan: 10:42

weird, the weird circle the weird circle from?

Fran: 10:46

and what year was it?

Evan: 10:48

that was 1943 1943 amazing. First, one.

Fran: 10:53

yeah, so it was done by the Weird Circle in 1943. We do not have any more information about the Weird Circle, so, again, if anyone's heard of them, we'd love to know more. Absolutely fascinating the Fall of the House of Usher. Radio play by the Weird Circle is available on our YouTube channel. Ok, so thanks for joining us, thank you, and we will speak to you soon. Bye.