Incestus Ad Infinitum Meaning

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is a prime example. The Usher family’s insistence on maintaining an insulated lineage leads to physical, mental, and structural collapse.

This bloodline is trapped in an incestus ad infinitum cycle. The moral pollution of the first crime forces every subsequent generation to commit a new violation to avenge the old one. The loop only breaks through the introduction of an external, objective system of justice (the Athenian court). 4. Societal and Systemic Applications incestus ad infinitum meaning