Originally appearing in the Instructor's Manual for FICTIONS (Harcourt Brace College Texts, 1993), this is a brief (600 word) essay examining the house as a metaphor for the psychological (and physical) deterioration of the reclusive, insular Usher family. Mirror or doubling images, the meticulous spatial movement from exterior to interior (and from the narrator's physical observations and position to his possible dream state or reverie) complement the theory that it is the narrator's psyche we