Medical diagnosis as interpretative method in Poe\u27s The fall of the house of usher

The Fall of the House of Usher is a complex story about the last members of the Usher family, Roderick and Madeline Usher, who suffer from mysterious illnesses. Literary scholars have proposed a variety of explanations for their symptoms, among them vampirism, incest, and mental illness. However, I believe their illnesses to be epilepsy, specifically temporal lobe epilepsy. Diagnosis of the Ushers with ten^joral lobe epilepsy generates several other issues. In diagnosing the Ushers with epilepsy, I will address the following six issues in the process of arriving at this diagnosis: •The influence of illness on writers and their works • The issue of illness in Edgar Allan Poe\u27s life • The issue of illness in The Fall of the House of Usher • Characteristics of the Gothic and the significance of the supernatural in Poe\u27s tale • Use of medical diagnosis as a literary tool to diagnose fictional illness • Inadequacies or flaws in previous explanations for the illnesses of the Usher family I will begin by examining the possible effects of illness on creativity. I will examine the role that iUness plays in The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as its possible role in Poe\u27s life. The Fall of the House of Usher is considered a Gothic tale, so I will examine the story for evidence to support its status as a Gothic tale and the role of the supernatural in it. Because diagnosing the Ushers\u27 illnesses will remove some elements of the supernatural, I will also assess the effect of the removal of those elements on the tale as Gothic literature. Since I am using medical diagnostic techniques to answer questions about the unnamed illnesses in the story, I will develop a specific process for using medical diagnosis in literary analysis. I will also examine other explanations and determine their relative strengths and their weaknesses. Finally, I will examine the impact that the diagnosis of the Ushers\u27 illnesses has on an overall view of the story, as well as its possible significance in understanding many of Poe\u27s works