The Fall of the House of Poe: Gothic Elements in Netflix's Adaptation of the Usher family

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Grado en Estudios Ingleses The Fall of the House of Poe: Gothic Elements in Netflix's Adaptation of the Usher family JOSE MAGALLANES MORCUENDE Tutora: Marta María Gutiérrez Departamento de Filología Inglesa Curso: 2023-2024 2 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid 3 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid ABSTRACT Gothic literature emerged in the eighteenth century, with the latter half of that century seeing its emergence on the American continent. While initially rejected due to American practicality, writers quickly adapted Gothic literary aspects to fit their cultural traits. Edgar Allan Poe, a well-known American Gothic writer of the twentieth century, exemplifies this trend in his work “The Fall of the House of Usher”. In 2023, Mike Flanagan created a contemporary adaptation of the work as a Netflix series, which is based on the original work, but also references both other works by Poe and his own life. The aim of this essay is to explore how the American Gothic has been modified in a twenty-first century TV series, while showing how one short story by Poe is used as framework for his whole life and works. ‘Keywords’: Gothic, Edgar Allan Poe, Postmodernism, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, TV Series RESUMEN La literatura gótica surgió en el siglo XVIII, siendo la segunda mitad de ese siglo testigo de su aparición en el continente americano. Aunque en un principio fue rechazada debido a la practicidad americana, los escritores no tardaron en adaptar los aspectos literarios góticos a sus rasgos culturales. E. A. Poe, conocido escritor gótico estadounidense del siglo XX, ejemplifica esta tendencia en su obra “La caída de la casa Usher”. En 2023, Mike Flanagan creó una adaptación contemporánea de la obra como serie de Netflix, basada en la obra original, pero también referencia a otras obras de Poe y a su propia vida. El objetivo de este ensayo es explorar cómo se ha modificado el gótico americano en una serie de televisión del siglo XXI, mostrando a su vez cómo un relato corto de Poe se utiliza como marco para toda su vida y obra. ‘Palabras clave’: Gótico, Edgar Allan Poe, Posmodernismo, "La Caída de la Casa de Usher”, Series de televisión 4 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid 5 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................................. 2 1.1.1. The Gothic from its Origins to Postmodernism ................................. 2 1.1.2. Origins .............................................................................................. 2 1.1.3. Elements and Characteristics............................................................. 2 1.1.3.1. Setting ................................................................................ 3 1.1.3.2. The Supernatural and the Uncanny ...................................... 4 1.1.3.3. Presence of the Aristocracy and Families ............................. 5 1.1.3.4. The Double ........................................................................ 6 1.1.3.5. Exploration of Technology ................................................. 7 2. POE AND “THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER” ....................................... 8 2.1. “The Fall of the House of Usher”: Original Story ....................................... 11 3. ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................... 12 3.1. Adapting the House of Usher to the House of Poe ...................................... 12 3.1.1. Episodes ........................................................................................... 13 3.1.2. Characters ......................................................................................... 17 3.2. Gothic Elements in the TV adaptation ........................................................ 20 3.2.1. Setting .............................................................................................. 20 3.2.2. The Supernatural.............................................................................. 22 3.2.3. New additions in the Postmodern Technological Age ........................ 25 4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 27 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 28 6 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid INTRODUCTION On October 12, 2023, Netflix released the adaptation of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, an American gothic horror series directed by Mike Flanagan. This director had previously stood out for other adaptations such as "The Haunting of Hill House", but this one goes a step further. This gothic adaptation gained incredible fame due to how well the Gothic genre is represented in the series, exploring different themes such as madness, terror, death, and revenge. Moreover, this series consists of eight episodes, which revolve around the protagonists Roderick and Madeline Usher, who are present in each of the episodes, as "The Raven" or "Annabel Lee". However, what is important to explore in this adaptation is the fact of knowing what aspects of the Gothic have been modified, as the current Gothic series can continue with the elements of the traditional Gothic, or adapt them in a more innovative way. Therefore, this undergraduate dissertation will investigate how the original story "The Fall of the House of Usher" has been transformed into a twenty-first century television series. To do this, two different approaches will be followed. First, I will describe how traditional American Gothic became postmodern American Gothic. Therefore, the history of this classical Gothic with its different characteristics until its subsequent evolution towards postmodernist Gothic will be shown, seeing its similarities and differences in terms of its main characteristics. In addition, we will also be able to explore how traditional Gothic evolves into what is known as TV Gothic, which is the genre of this adaptation, with the introduction of innovative elements and techniques for this adaptation. In this way, we will analyze the different advances in the presentation of this adaptation on the screen. Secondly, I will discuss how a short story by Poe serves as a framework for Poe's entire life and work. For this reason, Poe's relationship with "The Fall of the House of Usher" will be presented, as well as a previous summary of it, in order to enter into context. Next, this adaptation will be analyzed considering the original work, and also showing the relationship between the titles of the episodes, the names of the characters and the plot with the life and work of Poe. 7 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid 1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1.1. THE POSTMODERN GOTHIC 1.1.1. ORIGINS American Gothic is considered to be an evolution of the British Gothic adapted to the American continent. However, Postmodern Gothic has its roots in the traditional Gothic, which developed in the eighteenth century. Romanticism is a fundamental aspect in the beginnings of this genre, as it had a drastic influence on the American Gothic, since the first works of this genre were based on the British Gothic. From these works were extracted the supernatural and mysterious, which was the aspect the American authors were interested in (Spooner 25). In addition, not only did they borrow the most important themes from the British Gothic, but the way of writing was also relevant to American writers, who adapted their way of writing works to include those feelings of darkness in the environment (Punter 165). In short, American Gothic was based on Romanticism. In this way, this genre facilitated the discovery of the anxieties and complexities of the society, making it a key movement in the American Gothic history. The great success of the Gothic genre meant the transfer of Gothic fiction to the screens, giving rise to Gothic television. Thus, it is an advance in the history of the Gothic by including these elements in series and films. 1.1.2. ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS In this section it is my intention to examine how some of the most important elements of the American Gothic have been kept, transformed and developed in the twenty-first century. In this way, the evolution of the Gothic can be clearly seen both in literature and on the small screen. To accomplish this I will focus on the following elements: the setting, the aristocracy, the doppelganger or double, the horror and terror 8 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid and the supernatural. The reason for the selection of these elements is the importance of each of them reflected in the Gothic works. 1.1.2.1. SETTING Setting is a crucial aspect in American Gothic works, as writers managed to convey terror through them. However, these settings changed drastically in the American works, because writers had to adapt to the different cultural environment. That is to say, British Gothic works presented old buildings, such as ruins and churches, as Punter (93) pointed out that “deteriorating castles, abbeys and manor houses in foreign, usually Roman Catholic, countries, abound alongside medieval and Reformation settings in the literature of the classic Gothic era”. However, there were no castles in America, so American Gothic works depicted ancient settings under some sort of spell, such as haunted houses. In addition, these works established "wilderness" as the American landscape, which is a crucial factor for American Gothic writers to create a sense of terror in their works. Therefore, settings with dark forests were presented in American Gothic works as the setting (Punter 28). As for darkness, it was of great importance in these scenarios, as it enriched the scenery (Lloyd Smith 7). In addition, it went hand in hand with the shadows, as they combined. An example of these settings in American Gothic is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", where the main setting is the house of Roderick Usher. In this way, there is a clear transition towards a more realistic landscape imitating nature, instead of the presentation of previously used scenarios. On the other hand, postmodern Gothic focused more on the presentation of scenarios in urban areas, so they left aside the wild terrain landscapes of American Gothic to create greater realism, giving more visibility to the experience of the characters in urban areas (Lloyd Smith 9). Thus, the way in which these urban settings are depicted as a mirror of the isolated population of America at the time. 9 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid 1.1.2.2. THE SUPERNATURAL AND THE UNCANNY The presence of the supernatural and the uncanny is another relevant aspect in American Gothic. The supernatural is crucial in the works of American writers, so they included scary characters that provoked fear and terror, such as the presence of “ghosts” in these works (Lloyd Smith 138). However, in postmodern Gothic there is an evolution through the presence of the visions that the characters suffer throughout the plot. As for the uncanny, Allison showed through his review of Freud's The Uncanny that “the uncanny is that class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar” (Allison 277). In this way, the uncanny creates uneasiness, which in many cases leads to an atmosphere of terror and horror1. However, that is not their only definition, but Punter and Byron also established that the uncanny is " the emergence of what ought to have remained secret and hidden” (Lloyd Smith 76). Therefore, it should be mentioned that the uncanny is connected to what takes us back to a past memory, thus being the object of our own mind, which opens the way to our past memories. Thus, it is related to the supernatural, which is key for the presentation of American Gothic works. In postmodern Gothic the uncanny is also important, as it transforms the familiar into something strange and chilling. In this way, different reappearances of previous usual imaginations can be presented, going from familiar to disturbing (Alisson 286). Therefore, the uncanny is also a crucial aspect in postmodernist Gothic, as it contributes to the alteration of the ordinary. 1 For more on horror and terror see Ann Radcliffe´s definition (Raškauskienė 21). 16 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid Roderick. That is why at first he does not give them any importance, but he did when these sounds increased and became more strident. Moreover, he realizes that something strange was going on, as despite that, Roderick was lying on the ground, talking to himself, saying that he hears those sounds day after day. In this way, Roderick confesses to the narrator that he believes his sister is not really dead, and that she has been buried alive. It is here that the climax takes place, as suddenly Madeline appears covered in blood, attacking her brother Roderick, so they die together. After witnessing this, the narrator runs away from the house, seeing how as he escapes, the house cracks completely. Hence, by the time the Usher twins' lives ended, the house completely collapsed, becoming a mirror of the Usher family. 3. ANALYSIS 3.1. ADAPTING THE HOUSE OF USHER TO THE HOUSE OF POE As for the adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher, it is noteworthy that Mike Flanagan has been inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's original short story. He has also recreated the entire plot of Poe's work through a postmodernist series, dividing it into eight episodes. That is, Poe's original work had approximately fifteen pages, this being the basis of the adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher. In addition, this series is influenced by much of Poe's legacy of works, as can be seen in the different episodes: “A Midnight Dreary”, “The Masque of the Red Death”, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Black Cat”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “Gold-Bug”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, and “The Raven”. In addition, each of the eight episodes has a meaning that goes beyond Poe's original work, but each episode references a different work by Poe. In addition, not only do the titles refer to his works, but the way in which each of them is developed reflects the same plot. However, each episode unfolds Roderick Usher's children displaying their deaths by following the plot of the original short story that gives the name 17 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid to the episode. In this way, we can see that The Fall of the House of Usher is full of characters and stories that are based on both his private life and his literary life. 3.1.1. EPISODES Episode one, titled “A Midnight Dreary”, uses the first line of the famous poem “The Raven” as its title. There, a crow mocks the speaker while he cries for the sample of his beloved Lenore, telling said raven to go away, as it was a symbol of the evil. This poem began: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, while I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door (Harris 868). Furthermore, the last episode is titled “The Raven”, which is connected to the first episode, closing in this way the full series. In this last episode Roderick is shown on stage reciting that poem, just at the moment in which the deal they had agreed with Verna had been fulfilled with the death of all his lineage, which is another similarity to the original. short story. In this way, this adaptation makes very frequent use of crows, showing them on stage as an evil being. A clear example of this can be seen when Roderick shouts "It is time", thus referring to what the raven in Poe's poem said over and over again. In addition, it is in this last chapter that we see another clear reference to the original work “The Fall of the House of Usher”. At the end of the episode, Madeline suddenly emerges from the basement, escaping from her tomb. Thus, she attacks Roderick, and they die together as the house completely collapses. However, at the beginning of episode one Roderick Usher is shown at a funeral for the death of three of Usher's relatives, as they had died within a span of a week. It is there where another reference to Poe's literary life is present, as the priest proceeded to read excerpts from different works by Poe, among which we can distinguish “The Spirits of the Dead” and “For Annie”. 18 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid In episode two, entitled “The Masque of the Red Death”, Prospero Usher is depicted preparing a masquerade party at the Usher family factory. However, this party did not go as expected from the moment the party was illegal. It is here where the reference to Poe's work is remarkable, since the party ended with the death of the participants due to the release of chemicals (sulfuric acid) that is thrown on them, burning them completely. However, even though the adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher presents the same plot as in Poe's work, the way in which the participants die has been modified; the plague was replaced by sulphuric acid. Furthermore, the protagonist of this episode is named Prospero, referring to Prince Prospero, who is the character who organizes the party in Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death”, but who is also pursued by Death under a red mask. Regarding episode three, we find a parallel with Poe's original work in a similar way to what happens in episode two. This episode is titled “The Murders of the Rue Morgue”, where Camille Usher, the Usher family's public relations officer in charge of preventing the company's downfall, dies at the hands of a chimpanzee, leaving her body in pieces. Compared to Poe's “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, we can see that the title is the same. Also, the main character of both the series episode and Poe's work is the same, as she is named Camille. However, the difference that Mike Flanagan introduced in the adaptation is that a chimpanzee executed the crime, while in Poe's work it is carried out by an orangutan. In relation to episode four “The Black Cat”, we can find an adaptation similar to Poe's “The Black Cat” (1843). This episode revolves around Napoleon Usher, who suffers moments of madness, leading him to accidentally kill his boyfriend Julius' black cat (Pluto). As a result, he ended up replacing that cat with a similar one. However, the cat began to torture him psychologically, so that it hid in all parts of the house, but only Napoleon could see him, since his boyfriend Julius could not find him. Because of these appearances of the cat in his cause, the member of the Ushers’ result in suffering all kinds of injuries on his body from said cat. In this way, he ends up going completely insane, starting to chase the cat around every corner of the house, which leads him to destroy the house in order to find it. Thus, we can see that there are certain similarities in terms of the way in which he kills the cat and replaces it. However, in the original work there is no 19 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid wife who ends up dead, despite the fact that the protagonist in both that work and the adaptation we see that he continues to suffer the consequences of alcohol and drug addiction. In addition, the axe that the protagonist of Poe's original work is also replaced in this postmodernist series through the inclusion of Thor's hammer, with which the protagonist crashed the walls of the house to check if the cat is still inside them. In addition, the adaptation continues with the madness of its protagonist Napoleon, since when he saw that the cat was on the railing of the balcony of his house, he pounced on it. Therefore, he fell into the void, dying on the spot. With regards to episode five, “Tell-Tale Heart”, we can see that the series has an identical title to Poe's “Tell-Tale Heart” (1843). The protagonist is also called Victorine, who shows that she hears the heartbeat of her beloved. Therefore, the heartbeat in her head becomes so noticeable that it leads her to go completely insane. However, the adaptation has some quite notable differences, as Poe's original work shows us Victorine's madness for the sound of the heartbeat. Nevertheless, the adaptation goes a step further, by introducing a heart implant into Victorine's girlfriend. This implant is an innovation of the company Fortunato Pharmaceuticals, thus trying to advance in the heart market. Though, Victorine wanted to try the implant with his girlfriend, driving her into a state of madness due to the fact that she heard the sound of the heart implant constantly. As a result, Victorine ended up going to the point of maximum madness, killing her beloved so that the heart implant would stop beating. All this was seen by Roderick, who also witnessed how his daughter Victorine commits suicide by stabbing herself with a scalpel. Therefore, Mike Flanagan inspired this episode in “Tell-Tale Heart” (1843), following a similar plot, but with certain differences such as the introduction of the heart implant. In episode six we can find the most differences in terms of the adaptation over the original work. The episode is titled “Goldbug” starring Tamerlane Usher. She liked to have everything under control to feel calm, in this case both with the presentation of her new company called Goldbug, and with the relationship with her husband. As the episode unfolds, Tamerlane ends up having everything under control at all times, until her brothers start dying one by one, which puts the launch of the Goldbug company in a second place. In addition, it is also presented that this leads her to have insomnia problems, so that she sometimes had hallucinations about an infidelity of her husband 20 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid with Verna (the woman with whom the Usher twins signed the agreement for their glorious life, in exchange for the death of the entire Usher lineage). These hallucinations increase as the episode progresses, reaching the climax when Tamerlane suffers a hallucination of Verna during the presentation of her company. In this way, Tamerlane saw her death when she nailed the mirrors in her room. Even though this episode shows how greed and wanting to have everything under control can take the protagonist's life, this episode seems extremely far from the plot of Poe's “Goldbug”. That is, in Poe's original work, the plot revolves around a man rather than a woman. He is treated as if he is insane for pointing out that the image of a beetle was a skull, while following a series of clues in a pirate's treasure hunt. In this way, it is clear that this episode has not only been inspired by Poe’s “Goldbug” but by “Tamerlane” (1827), who also suffered the cost of ambition and wanted to control everything, leading her to die. Focusing on episode seven, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, it is titled in the same way as Poe's original work. Hence, it follows the plot very faithfully, but with certain quite notable differences. There, we see Frederick Usher as the person around whom the plot of the entire episode unfolds. Frederick was the first son of Roderick Usher, who was obsessed with living up to the expectations his father had always placed on him. However, his obsessions also come from episode one, as he discovered that his wife, Morelle, had attended the mask party that Prospero had organized at the factory in episode two, which caused her to have burns all over her body. Therefore, Frederick cannot stop thinking about how his wife could have ended up in the factory, because his jealousy ends up increasing as the episode progresses. In this way, he agrees to take her out of the hospital, following the rest of the treatment at home so that no one approaches her. His state of madness and jealousy becomes more noticeable, as he comes to take revenge on her by knocking out several of her teeth with pliers. Nevertheless, the punishments against his wife continue to increase, constantly drugging her so that the treatment would not progress. However, Verna (the symbol of the devil) drugged him with the same medicine with which he drugged his wife. In this way, when he arrived at the factory to see how Morelle could have gotten there, he was immobilized on the ground. However, the factory was going to be demolished, so the moment the roof is damaged, a pendulum shape is created that cuts through his body, 21 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid ending his life. Therefore, this episode has been inspired by “The Pit and the Pendulum”, as the plot is similar to Poe's original work. Nonetheless, Mike Flanagan introduced certain differences in the adaptation of that work. That is, in Poe's “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842), the protagonist is not locked up in a factory, but is condemned to death and wakes up imprisoned in a kind of pit. In addition, the protagonist had a drink, which made him drowsy, being related to the drugs that Verna ingested to the protagonist of the episode of the series, Frederick. Poe presented him tied to a wooden structure face up, while the adaptation is similar, as he was not tied up but was immobilized on the ground because of the previously mentioned drugs. Finally, the original short story presents the pendulum slowly approaching him, but only while he was conscious, leading to two quite different endings; in the short story the protagonist is saved, but in the adaptation he dies. 3.1.2. CHARACTER REFERENCES In the adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher not only can we find references to Poe's different works through the titles of the episodes and their plots, but the characters are also clear references to both his characters and his life. The first of the most relevant names is Verna's name. This name is more mysterious than it seems, since Verna is actually the raven that always appears on the scene above Roderick Usher's head. Thus, this name is an anagram of the word “raven”; that is, a word formed by the rearrangement of the same letters. In this way, this name refers to Poe's poem “The Raven”. As for the context of this character, it is shown from the first episode that twins Madeline and Roderick Usher made a deal with Verna, so that they would be wealthy in exchange for the death of their entire lineage before their own death. However, Verna is not human, nor a ghost or anything like that, as she reveals to Madeline early on that she is "not a woman". Hence, she is a shapeshifter who has the ability to transform into anything, whether she is a chimpanzee, a cat, a security guard, and even a sex worker. In Poe's original work, the raven is a clear symbol and at the same time a memory that 22 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid follows the protagonist throughout the plot. However, the adaptation gives a different role to the crow, showing it as a symbol of karma, and even as an omen of death. As for Auguste Dupin's name, this is the name of the detective in the adaptation. This detective was in charge of investigating the Usher family regarding their crime and their problems with the Fortunato company. However, this is another allusion to Poe, as the name Auguste Dupin is based on the detective that Poe frequently used in his works. There are three works in which Auguste Dupin is a detective, such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1814), “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” (1843), and “The Purloined Letter” (1844). One character who does not get much prominence is Eliza Usher. She is the mother of twins Madeline and Roderick Usher, but she does not appear much on the scene because she only has relevance in the first chapter, to show the Usher family's past. However, despite being a supporting character in the plot of this adaptation, Eliza Usher is a very clear reference to Poe's life. That is, Eliza Poe is the same name as Edgar Allan Poe's biological mother, showing that this adaptation makes references to Poe even in the characters that are less important in the development of the plot. On the other hand, the name of the Usher brothers' biological father in the adaptation is also linked to Poe's life. His name is Mr. Longfellow, who is actually his mother's boss within the Fortunato company. However, this name alludes to the real name of the poet Henry Longfellow, who went on to accuse Poe of plagiarism in the mid-nineteenth century. Nevertheless, he is not the only poet Mike Flanagan references in his adaptation. That is, there is a series of flashbacks introduced by Roderick Usher as the episodes progress, in which he worked for a man named Rufus Griswald, Fortunato's boss at the beginning of the series. The name Rufus Griswald was inspired by the name of the poet who also criticized Poe, publishing some of his works during the mid-nineteenth century as well. Concerning the character of Napoleon Usher, this name is also a reference to another of Poe's works. In this case, the name Napoleon comes from “The Spectacles”, whose work shows the protagonist Napoleon, who ends up marrying an old lady. In this way, he realizes on the wedding night that she was his great-grandmother, once wearing the glasses that he always refused to use. 23 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid In relation to the drug that several members of the Ushers resort to as the plot unfolds, it should be noted that Mike Flanagan was also inspired by a work by Poe, which included a similar drug. The adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher based the introduction of lygodon into the plot on Poe's play “Ligeia”. In this work, a man who was addicted to opium was presented, which was the source of inspiration to show Roderick Usher with the same drug addiction as that character, being a parallel with Poe. Regarding the jester who appears on the scene numerous times throughout the plot, this is the head of the company Fortunato, whom the Usher brothers walled up, burying him alive. However, because of this crime, Roderick suffers different visions with this jester, appearing to him when he is confessing to the detective Auguste Dupin. In fact, the costume worn by the jester in this adaptation was inspired by Poe’s tale “Hop Frog” (1849). Nevertheless, if we focus only on the crime that Roderick and Madeline Usher carried out, the walling up of their boss, it is also a reference to a different work by Poe. This crime is inspired by “The Cask of Amontillado”, in which the protagonist lures his victim to a kind of winery, where after promising him a wine, he walls him alive. In this way, the crime that the Usher twins carry out with their boss Rufus Griswald in this adaptation is very faithful to Poe's work. The bar where Verna is the waitress is a setting in which, despite the fact that she only has the spotlight for a single episode, the plot revolves around the moment in which the Usher brothers meet Verna there. However, the important thing is that the director of the series Mike Flanagan has also taken advantage of the introduction of the bar to fill it with references to Poe. If we look at the walls of this bar, we can see a black cat (“The Black Cat”), but also a boat inside a bottle, which is also an allusion to “Manuscript Found in a Bottle”. In addition, if analyzed closely, a horse is also shown which may refer to Poe's “Metzegerstein”, where the protagonist becomes obsessed with a horse. Finally, there is a direct reference to the great American writer, since behind the bar counter there is a photo of Poe, showing that the bar has an entire theme about both him and his works. 24 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid 3.2. GOTHIC ELEMENTS IN THE TV ADAPTATION 3.2.1. SETTING The Fall of the House of Usher´s adaptation presents a house in an empty, dark contemporary neighborhood as the setting where Roderick Usher spends much of the plot. From the outside, this house is worn out by the passing of the years. However, from the inside it is already seen from episode one that it is not quite different from how it was presented from the outside; a completely dark building, with fallen walls. In addition, when this house has been portrayed in a postmodernist Gothic series, there are similarities in the way Edgar Allan Poe described the Usher family home, but it manages to create a deeper fear. That is, Mike Flanagan shows a building that is not at all welcoming, just like the way Poe introduced the Usher house. Both show a house that has fallen apart over the years, but the way in which the postmodernist series presents it provokes a sense of more fear in the viewers. In addition, the way in which the scene of the description of the house is approached also helps to create this feeling of fear and unease, since the fact of seeing a completely empty, dark neighborhood, and that has a building that crumbles due to the passage of generations, is a clear incentive for the creation of horror in the viewer. Nevertheless, the entire plot does not just take place in that house, but every member of the Usher family lives in their big houses. The houses of each of the Ushers are modern, which are presented in urban neighborhoods and affluent areas. In this way we can see a great change by capturing this type of settings in a postmodernist series. Hence, Napoleon Usher's house is a clear example of what a modern house is, as is Roderick Usher's mansion, which was large enough to raise all his children. In addition, the fact that this setting is located in a wealthy area and is so modern is connected to the fact that the Usher family is depicted as an aristocratic family. Furthermore, other settings are also shown throughout the plot, such as the Usher family factory and the basement of the factory. Both settings are of great importance, as both are the site of crucial events. 25 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid As for the description of the factory, it is shown for the first time in episode two, “The Masque of the Red Death”, in which the factory is focused on different occasions because Roderick Usher and lawyer Arthur Pynn intended to demolish it. It is at this point that the factory is shown from a distant perspective. In this way, this setting was a very dark building, just like the house of the Usher family, also giving the viewer a sense of unease, due to the fact that this building was located in an area where there was no other building in its surroundings, being depicted in a way that it was thought to be abandoned as well. Settings such as the factory are set in urban areas, making reference to what Spooner established as "spaces of absence". That is to say, in both scenes where the factory is shown in episodes two (“The Masque of the Red Death”) and seven (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), it has an appearance of abandonment and isolation. Regarding the basements of the Ushers' childhood home and the factory, they have a certain relationship in terms of what happens in each of them. As for the basement of the Usher house, Detective Dupin is shown arriving at the house to hear Roderick Usher's confession about the death of each of his children. It is important to appreciate the fact that so far there is some similarity with the way in which Poe's short story unfolds, since Roderick is also shown telling his story in the house where he grew up with his sister Madeline. However, Dupin hears banging sounds coming from the basement of the house, caused by Madeline Usher, Roderick's twin sister. This is because one day Roderick called his sister Madeline at the house, poisoning her with the drink. Therefore, Roderick proceeded to mummify her, putting sapphire eyes on her while telling her that "they were the eyes of a pharaoh". This postmodernist presentation of what happened in the basement has some relation to Poe's original work, since while Roderick was telling stories to his friend, it is thought from the beginning that Madeline is dead, so much of the plot takes place in the vault of the house, located in the basement. In addition, while Roderick in Poe's short story tells such stories, the narrator also hears sounds coming from the basement, as does Detective Auguste Dupin in the series. But what is most closely related is the moment in which Madeline suddenly appears from the basement, since in the series she appears mummified, without eyes and bloodied, while in Poe's original work Madeline is shown wrapped up. Therefore, they are two similar presentations of the final part of both works, in which the setting of the basement of the Ushers' childhood home takes on great importance. 32 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid traditional gothic, while the synthetic drugs are a sample of the present day, this being the one that has had the greatest transformation and impact in the series. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that although the series is called The Fall of the House of Usher, the series is actually a compendium of Poe's work, so only the short story has been used as a framework to introduce the rest of the fictional and real-life elements in the series. Thus, in this undergraduate dissertation I had shown that the adaptation has made use of different characters, names of short stories and complete developments of Poe's plots to create such a series. For this reason, some of the characters that have the most connection with Poe's works have been analyzed, as well as the characters that have the most differences in terms of the original works. In addition, the relationship of the different episodes with the original plots of his works has also been presented, in such a way as to show that one short story by Poe has been used as the framework for his whole life and works through a postmodernist adaptation. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Allison, Liz. “Reading the Uncanny.” The Cambridge Quarterly, 2004, pp. 277–81. Bloom, Clive. Gothic Horror: A Guide for Students and Readers. 2007. Botting, Fred. Gothic. 2.a ed., 2013, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203487716. Botting, Fred. “Metaphors and Monsters”, Journal for Cultural Research, 2003, pp. 339– 65. Carnes, Mark C., and Jeffrey Meyers. “Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy.” The American Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 5, Dec. 1993, p. 1682.https://doi.org/10.2307/2167223. Castle, Terry. The Female Thermometer : Eighteenth-century Culture and the Invention of the Uncanny. Representations, 1995. 33 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid Cox, James M. “Edgar Allan Poe: Style As Pose.” The Virginia Quarterly Review, 1968, pp. 67–89. JSTOR. Crow, Charles. A Companion to American Gothic. Wiley eBooks, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118608395. Edwards, Justin D, and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet. The Gothic in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture: Pop Goth. Taylor and Francis, 2013. Fink, Edward J. “The impact of digital video technology on production: the case of American Gothic.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 48, no. 4, 1996, pp. 9–19. JSTOR, Gaspar Ondiviela, Claudia. Gothic elements in Edgar A., Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak. Undergraduate dissertation. Universidad de Zaragoza, 2018. Gill, William Fearing. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe. Washington Street, 1876. Gracia Gutiérrez, Ada. An Analysis of Poe’s Ligeia as a Gothic Tale. Undergraduate dissertation. Universidad de Zaragoza, 2019. Harris, James C. “Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven.” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 65, no. 8, 2008, p. 868. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.65.8.868. Hart, Charles W. “The Hawthorne Experiments.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue Canadienne d’Economique et de Science Politique, vol. 9, no. 2, 1943, pp. 150–63. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/137416. Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2002, https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol0521793262. Hogle, Jerrold. The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 167-207. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521791243. 34 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid Ledwon, Lenora. “Twin Peaks and the Television Gothic.” JSTOR, vol. 21, no. 4, Oct. 1993, pp. 260–70. Lloyd-Smith, Alan. American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction. The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004. Marc, David. “Comic Visions: Television Comedy and American Culture.” Choice/Choice Reviews, vol. 35, no. 10, June 1998, pp. 35–5471. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.35-5471. McDonald, Keith, and Wayne Johnson. Contemporary Gothic and Horror Film. Anthem Press, 2021. Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. Miklas, Sharon, and Stephen Arnold. “‘The Extraordinary Self’: Gothic Culture and the Construction of the Self”. Journal Of Marketing Management, vol. 15, no. 6, July 1999, pp. 563–76. https://doi.org/10.1362/026725799785045824. Nixon, Nicola. “Making Monsters, or Serializing Killers.” University of Iowa Press eBooks, 1998, pp. 217–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20q1zmk.15. Poe, Edgar A. “The Philosophy of Composition.” Ed. Julia Reidhead. Norton, 2003, pp. 748-56. Punter, David. “History of the Gothic: Gothic Literature 1764–1824 Gothic Romanticism: Architecture, Politics, and Literary Form Gothic Riffs: Secularizing the Uncanny in the European Imaginary, 1780–1820”. European Romantic Review, vol. 23, no. 4, Aug. 2012, pp. 479–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509585.2012.694652. Punter, David and Glennis Byron. The Gothic. Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Punter, David. The Literature of Terror: The Gothic Tradition. Routledge, 2013. Punter, David. The Uncanny. The Routledge Companion to Gothic, edited by Catherine Spooner and Emma McEvoy. Routledge, 2007. 129-136. 35 Jose Magallanes Morcuende. Universidad de Valladolid Radcliffe, Ann. "“On The Supernatural In Poetry”". 1826, pp. 145-152. Raškauskienė, Audronė. Gothic Fiction : The Beginnings. Oxford University Press, 2009. Spigel, Lynn. Make Room for TV. University of Chicago Press, 1992. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226769639.001.0001. Spigel, Lynn. “Installing the Television Set: Popular Discourses on Television and Domestic Space, 1948–1955.” Camera Obscura, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 1988, pp. 9–46. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-6-1_16-9. Sun, Chia‐Chung. “Horror From the Soul—Gothic Style in Allan Poe’s Horror Fictions.” English Language Teaching, vol. 8, no. 5, Apr. 2015, https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n5p94. Symons, Julian. The Life And Works Of Edgar Allen Poe. House of Stratus, 2014, pp 23050. Wheatley, Helen. Gothic Television. Manchester University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526125613. Wood, Robin. Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan. Columbia University Press. 1986. https://doi.org/10.7312/wood91452. Zimmerman, Brett. Edgar Allan Poe: Rhetoric and Style. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005.