La hermana de Roderick sufre una enfermedad que la
llevará a su tumba y lo dejará como el último de su clan. Del clásico de Edgar
A. Poe, La caída de la casa de los Usher
"He
admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the peculiar gloom
which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more natural and far more
palpable origin—to the severe and long-continued illness—indeed to the
evidently approaching dissolution—of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole
companion for long years, his last and only relative on earth. “Her decease,”
he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, “would leave him (him the
hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers.” While he
spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote
portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared.
I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I
found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor
oppressed me as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a door, at length,
closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the countenance of
the brother; but he had buried his face in his hands, and I could only perceive
that a far more than ordinary wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers
through which trickled many passionate tears. . .
For several days
ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or myself; and during this
period I was busied in earnest endeavors to alleviate the melancholy of my
friend. We painted and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the
wild improvisations of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still
closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit,
the more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind
from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all
objects of the moral and physical universe in one unceasing radiation of gloom.
. .
I could not help
thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its probable influence upon
the hypochondriac, when, one evening, having informed me abruptly that the lady
Madeline was no more, he stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a
fortnight (previously to its final interment), in one of the numerous vaults
within the main walls of the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned
for this singular proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to
dispute. The brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by
consideration of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of
certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men, and of
the remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of the family. I will not
deny that when I called to mind the sinister countenance of the person whom I
met upon the staircase, on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire
to oppose what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an
unnatural, precaution.
At the request
of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangements for the temporary
entombment. The body having been encoffined, we two alone bore it to its rest.
The vault in which we placed it (and which had been so long unopened that our
torches, half smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us little
opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and entirely without means of
admission for light; lying, at great depth, immediately beneath that portion of
the building in which was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used,
apparently, in remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a donjon-keep,
and, in later days, as a place of deposit for powder, or some other highly
combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, and the whole interior of a
long archway through which we reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper.
The door, of massive iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense
weight caused an unusually sharp, grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges. .
. "
(Párrafos del clásico de Edgar A. Poe, La caída de la casa de los Usher)
Vocabulario
Wanness:
paleness
Donjon: the main
tower within the walls of a medieval castle
Sheathed: encased
El libro
La caída de la casa de los Usher muestra la
habilidad del autor de crear un tono emocional en su trabajo: miedo, destino y
culpa. Estas emociones se centran en Roderick Usher quien sufre una enfermedad.
Esta enfermedad inflama sus sentidos. Se manifiesta físicamente pero está
basada en su estado mental. Está enfermo porque él espera estar enfermo basado
en el historial de enfermedades de su familia, por lo que es esencialmente un
hipocondríaco.
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