‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: Each horror sibling is named for a Poe character.

Roderick Usher’s Six Terrible Children aren’t actually in the original Edgar Allan Poe story, but they’re all main characters in Mike Flanagan’s Netflix adaptation. The Fall of the House of Usherwith names strongly associated with the characters created by the macabre author.

Played by many Flanagan faces you’ve seen before, the Usher siblings — Frederick (Henry Thomas), Tamerlane (Samantha Sloan), Victorian (Tenia Miller), Napoleon (Rahul Kohli), Camille (Kate Segal), and Prospero ( Sauriyan Sapkota )—named for characters you’ll find in Poe’s stories that correspond to episodes or other stories from his vast catalog.

Frederick “Freddie” Usher (Henry Thomas)

Credit: Eike Schroter/Netflix

The oldest of the dreaded siblings, Frederick Usher is the kissing heir of the decade, whose name is “as close to Roderick as you can get without a junior” according to his sister Tammy.

Frederick is named for the main character in Poe’s 1832 short story “Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German”. 18-year-old Frederick is the last of his illustrious family, the Metzengersteins, and he becomes a baron with his father’s death, all his wealth and castles and nothing. The Metzengersteins have beef with another wealthy family, the Berlifitzings, and there is an ancient prophecy about them:

“There will be a terrible fall of an exalted name when, astride his horse, Metzengerstein’s death triumphs over Berlifting’s immortality.”

Frederick disapproves of a fire at the Berlefitzing house, in which the head of the family dies, and afterwards, the Metzingersteens acquire “a huge and fiery-colored horse” apparently not from the Berlefitzing stables. came. Mystery horse, sweet deal. Well, it’s an unfortunate deal, because when Frederick’s own castle catches fire, the cursed object engulfs Frederick in flames to his death. Freddy’s name is calculating, power-hungry, but ultimately as incompetent as he is.

In the Netflix series, Frederick’s wife Morilla (Crystal Bellant) is also named for Poe’s story, as is his daughter Lenore, named for Poe’s 1843 poem of the same name and Poe’s famous 1845 poem. I am placed for both the protagonist’s lost love. “The Raven”.

Tamerlane “Tammy” Usher (Samantha Sylvian)

Credit: Eike Schroter/Netflix

The face of the Usher family’s goop-like beauty and wellness brand, the Goldbug (another reference to Poe’s 1843 short story), Tamerlane is a link to Poe’s first book. Tamerlane and other stories There is a volume of poetry published anonymously by the author in 1827, and there are only 12 copies of the first edition left in the world – two in the New York Public Library, flex. The poem “Tamerlain” itself is about a dying Turkish conqueror, whose dramatic despair in the last words of the poem corresponds very well with our second oldest usher sibling:

I reach my home — my home no more — / Everything flies that made it so — / I go out through its mossy door, / In the empty laziness of woe.

…

What was left with me now? Disappointment —/ Kingdom for the broken hearted.

Victorian “Vic” Lafourcade (T’Nia Miller)

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The unscrupulous and deeply immoral RUE morgue surgeon Victorian Lafourcade does not appear in Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the title of the episode of which she is really the beating heart, but instead, the usher sibling. takes its name from “The Premature Burial”. Published in 1844.

In the story, Mademoiselle Victorine Lafourcade is “a young maiden of distinguished family, wealth, and great personal beauty” in the story, an apt parallel to our usher sibling. In the story, a Victorian is buried alive by her abusive husband, then resurrected by her lover. Dark, then great!

Napoleon “Leo” Usher (Rahul Kohli)

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Indulging in a bit of debauchery between gaming sessions, Napoleon “Lev” Usher really claws his way through the events of the series. Perhaps the most likable of the Usher siblings, the crew’s “Xbox Gatsby” takes its name from the man himself: Napoleon Bonaparte. Well, almost.

In Poe’s 1844 story “The Spectacles,” the main character is named Napoleon Bonaparte Frostert, but he changed his name to Simpson, because yes, it real One part of his name may confuse people. In the story, Napoleon considers himself quite astonishing and therefore refuses to wear his spectacles: “Being young and handsome, I naturally disliked them, and I strictly forbade them from working. refused. I know nothing, indeed, to disfigure his countenance. That of a young person, or affect every such feature with an air of humility, if altogether sanctity and age. Not from.”

When he goes to the theater with a friend, he barely watches the performance, instead spending paragraphs describing an attractive woman. He is Madame Eugenie Lalande, a wealthy widow, and she decides to court and marry him. On their wedding night, he puts on his damn glasses and discovers that the new Mrs. Simpson is actually an old lady with no teeth, and let’s just say that she More reactions:

The surprise was profound—extreme—indeed I might say it was terrifying. What in the name of everything did he mean? Can I believe my eyes?—Can I?—was the question. Was he – was he – was he a bully? And were they – and were they – those wrinkles, on the face of Eugenie Lalande? And oh! Jupiter, and every god and goddess, great and small! What—what—what—what’s happened to his teeth? I dropped the glasses violently to the ground, and, jumping to my feet, stood in the middle of the floor, facing Mrs. Simpson, with my arms folded, and smiling and foaming, but Also, totally speechless with terror and rage.

This mood of drama is perhaps the closest between Napoleon Simpson and Napoleon Usher.

Camille l’Espanaye (Kate Segal)

Credit: Eike Schroter/Netflix

Camille l’Espanaye, along with Prospero, is one of the few siblings whose names derive directly from their episode names. The morally questionable PR mogul and queen of spin takes her name from Poe’s 1841 story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” a direct allusion to her grim fate.

In summary, the story introduces one C. Auguste Dupin—the namesake of Poe’s great detective and assistant to the Netflix series. The US Attorney played by Carl Lumbly – who is investigating a crime scene in the fourth story of a Parisian house, in the rue Morgue (Morgue Street, not a real mortuary), in which Madame L’Espanaye and his daughter, Mademoiselle Camille lived. L’Espanaye – both of whom are horribly murdered.

Couplerate? An orangutan.

Appropriate name, huh?

Prospero “Perry” Usher (Sorian Sapkota)

Credit: Eike Schroter/Netflix

Poor Prospero, he never should have RSVP’d to his party. Dubbed the “Gucci Caligula” of the group, the youngest Usher is named for the story for which his episode is named, “Masque of the Red Death,” in which a masked intruder Intrudes during which a pretense of debauchery is being held. The Plague Prince Prospero, described as “happy and bold and wise,” summons a thousand friends to his court and they all retire to a grand abbey, “the prince’s Creation of his whimsical but august taste”, to avoid contagion. Special, headship, privileged time.

The outside world can take care of itself. During this time it was foolish to grieve, or think. The prince had provided all the happiness. There were buffalo, there were improvisators, there were ballet dancers, there were musicians, there were cards, there was beauty, there was wine. All this and security was inside. Without it there was the ‘Red Death’.

Like Verna, the masked intruder brings doom to the revelers in all his “glitter and glitter and scorn,” and Prospero and his companions succumb to the plague like everyone else.

Beyond his fate moniker, Prospero’s nickname in the show, Perry, actually is one more A Poe reference, this time to the author himself—when Poe enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1827, he used the name Edgar A. Perry instead.

How to watch: The Fall of the House of Usher Now streaming on Netflix.