The House of Usher and The House of Fisher: Towards an Architecture of (Dis)comfort

Abstract

Six Feet Under (2000-2005), by Allan Ball, is clearly influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s stories, from the opening credits (a reference to the poem ‘The Raven’) to the presence of ghosts and the gothic atmosphere displayed by most objects in the television series, especially the house. Both houses, the Fisher Funeral Home and the house of Usher in the story ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (1840), are symbolic spaces of death and, consequently, liminal spaces. If the Usher’s house, like its owner, is an isolated space representing the decadence and fall of the human being; the Fisher’s house, naturally a place of human finitude, seems to represent the opposite: albeit being a funeral house it offers some comfort. In this way, my aim is to analyse Poe’s story and the episode ‘Familia’, (1:5, 2000) from Six Feet Under in order to not only present Poe’s influence in the series, but also to compare both houses so as to show this architecture of (dis)comfort.