An Analysis of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher The Fall of the House of Usher is definitely a piece written in Poe's usual style; a dark foreboding tale of death and insanity filled with imagery, allusion, and hidden meaning. It uses secondary meanings and underlying themes to show his beliefs and theories without actually addressing them. It convinces us without letting us know we're being convinced, and at the same time makes his complex thoughts relatively clear. On the literal level the story is about a man (the narrator) visiting his boyhood friend who is suffering from “acuteness of the senses”.