Downward Transcendence in the Fall of the House of UsherAccording to Beverly Voloshin in "Downward Transcendence: An Essay on 'Usher' and 'Ligeia' “, Poe presents transcendental designs that threaten to proceed downward rather than upward” in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (19). Poe mocks transcendental beliefs, allowing the characters Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, to the house and the atmosphere of traveling in a downward movement towards decay and death, rather than the upward transcendence towards life and rebirth that transcendentalists describe The transcendence of the mind begins with Roderick Usher and yes reflects in the characters and the environment around him. The beliefs of the transcendentalists are continually filled with bright colors and ideas and celestial tones. The character Roderick Usher suffered greatly from a morbid acuteness of the senses" which refers to his transcendental beliefs (Poe 1465). ). Usher finds his transcendental connection with the oversoul but instead of brightness he finds darkness with the colors black, white and grey. Madeline Usher suffers from "a gradual deterioration of the person and frequent, though transitory, affections of a partially cataleptic character" (Poe 1465). This comes from a loss of contact with the physical world, again a characteristic of a transcendentalist, but negative rather than positive. According to Voloshin "Madeline matches her brother's paleness, but her special mark is red: a faint blush when buried and blood on her clothing when she emerges" (22). Both characters differ from Transcendentalists in their disintegration of body and mind instead of a rebirth of a Transcendentalist's body and mind. Due to his connection with the oversoul Roderick Usher finds it difficult to communicate with words, so he uses paintings and writings. to describe his inner thoughts. Voloshin describes how in “The Haunted Palace,” a writing by Usher, he explains his own “fall of order into chaos, of reason into madness, of innocence into experience” (20). Representing another descending and mortal transcendence is Madeline, painted in Roderick's "vault or tunnel." In the painting, Roderick portrays Madeline in a tomb and gives her no chance to have her own beliefs by locking her inside. In this way, Roderick breaks the transcendental belief that being locked in the past is wrong and every person should break. free to create their own beliefs. Just as transcendence in decay is found in the characters of "The Fall of the House of Usher," it is also found in the actual house and its surroundings.