Symbolism and incest are both very apparent themes throughout the story of "The Fall of the House of Usher", by Edgar Allan Poe, and helps us to better understand the events that occur. Poe uses his symbolism to reveal character traits, foreshadow future events and helps his reader to understand the events that occur throughout the story. Throughout the story we realize that the relationship between brother and sister is not a normal sibling bond. We also see that the siblings themselves are not normal in all the aspects of a human being.

Incest is an issue throughout the story and Poe constantly used symbolism in the story to relate back to incest. Poe uses symbolism to expose character traits throughout the story, from the very beginning we see that Roderick is a very unusual being that has many odd habits. "The most insipid food was alone endurable...