We are led to believe one of Roderick Usher's problems in "The Fall of the House of Usher" comes from his excessively poetic -- or artistic -- imagination. This poetic imagination is morbid, as are all of Usher's overwrought sensibilities, and while Usher gravitates towards poetic/artistic pursuits -- "We painted and read together, or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking guitar" -- none of this works to alleviate his "unceasing radiation of gloom." Roderick plays a "wild" air of von Weber and shows the narrator the dark, "phantasmagoric" paintings he created. This poetic imagination mirrors a mind that is disordered, hypochondriacal, unhappy, and given to terrors.
The poetic imagination Roderick expresses in his art also foreshadows the reality of what will occur in the story. For example, Roderick shows the narrator a painting he has done of a vault that is filled with a "ghastly," unnatural light, not so different from the vault where Madeline will be placed. Roderick and the narrator read a poem called "The Haunted Castle," which also reflects the house of Usher's condition: a once-beautiful castle is now occupied by ghosts, "a hideous throng," that laugh but do not smile. Usher reads books with morbid themes, such as the inquisition, heaven and hell.
By surrounding himself with art that only reflects and intensifies his already morbid imaginings, Usher reinforces and magnifies his already nervous and depressed state. His life is lived in one unalleviated key of morbidity.
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