Edgar Allan Poe composed “The Fall of the House of Usher” about two decades before Abraham Lincoln warned those living both above and below the Mason-Dixon of the dangers to try to live comfortably in a house divided against itself. Lincoln's warning against trusting the structural foundations of such a domicile can be applied with equal metaphorical application to Poe's story. The story told in this example of Gothic literature is sufficiently poor in detail and sufficiently broad in allegorical mysteries that surely one of the reasons for its endurance is the ability to read into it an extremely large number of interpretations, all of which are capable of ringing true in one way or another. The extent to which an interpretation of the details Poe provides in "The Fall of the House of Usher" rings true ultimately depends on how far one moves away from its allegorical foundation. If interpreted as a literal example of how a house divided cannot stand, the allegorical component paradoxically becomes even stronger. The first step in achieving this interpretation begins with eliminating one of the most pervasive and damaging literal explanations behind one of those scant details applied with broad strokes of Poe's pen. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Lincoln's warning echoes through time to that dark and stormy night (or so a typical reader might wish) when Poe took up his pen and put down on paper the phrase that perhaps holds the key to unlocking the mysterious meaning of the story: “A striking resemblance between the brother and sister first caught my attention; and Usher, perhaps guessing my thoughts, murmured a few words from which I learned that he and the deceased had been twins, and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them." For nearly two centuries, readers and critics have interpreted this surprising and almost incomprehensible bond between Roderick and Madeline as a literal allusion to incest This interpretation clearly makes sense in light of the fact that Roderick believes that his sister's death would “leave him (him) hopeless and fragile the last of the ancient race of Usher." If Roderick's belief is true, there are only two possible conclusions; either the Ushers are a family whose lineage is extended by generational incest or Roderick is simply impotent. The problem is that both interpretations are clearly too unambiguous to fit comfortably into a story that raises far more questions than it answers. The gothic nature of “The Fall of the House of Usher” indicates that Poe was suggesting something much deeper and supernatural at work in the relationship between the Ushers. The narrator describes the House of Usher as "an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasants who used it, both the family and the family mansion." A common enough use of metonymy, but perhaps too limited in scope when combined with " the very remarkable fact, that the root of the Usher race, of all time-honored as it was, had never produced any lasting branch; in other words, that the whole family lay in direct line of descent, and had always remained, with very insignificant and very temporary variations. All it takes is the courage to sustain a single viewing of an X-Files episode centered on the Peacock family - another lineage with no lasting branches - to realize that if this description were to be taken literally and limited only to the Usher family, both Roderick and Madeline would be in physical states and.