The Fall of the House of Usher: Explaining the Biggest Edgar Allan Poe References in the Series

Mike Flanagan’s latest series has finally arrived on Netflix, and the entire thing is inspired by the many works of literature icon Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher gets its name from one of Poe’s famous works, telling the story of the downfall of a powerful man. However, that’s just one of many Poe references in the series. Nearly every detail of the eight-episode series is some kind of reference to Poe’s writings.

There probably too many Poe references and influences in The Fall of the House of Usher to include in this writeup, especially since we want to stay away from spoilers this soon after the show’s release. That said, there are some really major Poe things that we need to dive into and discuss.

The Episodes and Titles

The Fall of the House of Usher is the Poe story that provides the framework for the whole series, but Flanagan actually adapts seven more of the author’s tales with individual episodes. Without giving details of the various plots away, each episode after the premiere focuses on a specific character, and that character is given a loose adaptation of a famous Poe story.

The Masque of the Red Death, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, Gold-Bug, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Raven are all turned into modern stories to fit the Usher characters throughout the series. 

Verna and The Raven

Carla Gugino’s character is named Verna, a shape-shifter who appears as someone different to every member of the Usher family. Chaos and death follow wherever she goes. 

It’s not at all a coincidence that if you change around the order of the letters in her name you can spell Raven, the harbinger of madness from Poe’s most iconic work.

Various Supporting Characters

Pretty much every character in The Fall of the House of Usher is named after someone created by Edgar Allan Poe. This includes all of the members of the Usher family, some of whom are named after characters in their respective episode stories, while others take influence from outside tales.

Roderick Usher’s first wife, who you see in nearly every episode via flashbacks, is named Annabelle Lee, after Poe’s tragic final poem. Lenore, the woman who is mourned throughout The Raven, is the name of Roderick’s granddaughter. 

Mark Hamill’s character, the lawyer Arthur Pym, is from Poe’s only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. The attorney and investigator trying to take down the Usher family for their pharmaceutical crimes is named Auguste Dupin, after the famous Poe character who appeared in three of his stories and is considered to be the original model for detectives in literature. 

There are several more throughout the series but those are the most prominent.