Safe Luxury

In the "Fall of the House of Usher".......?

In the Fall Of The House Of Usher, what had been stored in the vault where they end up entombing Madeline? I hope somebody can help, I need the answer for a worksheet I'm doing for this story. I have been to a couple of websites, (because I cannot find it in the story), and I have seen answers like "gun powder" "nothing" "something" (but it doesn't say what). Hope someone knows the answer, thank you =)

Public Comments

1. In feudal days, the vault served as the keep of a dungeon and in later years as a storage place for gunpowder.
2. Well I dont know either but I here attach the only reference to it: 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. It seems to have been a prison of some sort and later as an explosive store and latterly as a tomb for Madelaine who seemingly was not actually dead but in a catatonic trance and was thus entombed alive. Whether it was her in body or in spirit that finally confronted Richard Usher and thus brought about his death from terror is hard to say. Richard Usher had also failed in the singular duty which he owed to the family to marry and produce a son to carry on the line - he alone could do this - there is the merest suggestion of femininity about him which might account for this. His sister may have been a living accusation in his face in regard to this - it was a task which she could not carry out - it was a male line. I suspect he was aware of the fact that she was not in fact dead but he was or thought he was rid of her and her accusing presence. The story of Egthered and the Dragon and a possible connection to the dragons lair is a little far fetched even for this tale ..........I think!