Assignment 7: "The House of Usher"

So far, I think I've had the most trouble understanding and following this short story over all of the others. The reader at first believes that Madeline is dead when she is placed in the coffin, along with the narrator of the story. We later find out as Roderick Usher's strange behavior grows and the tension builds that something is not right. Eventually, Usher confesses in some kind of mad rage that Madeline is alive and that the noises he has been hearin are coming from the coffin down below from which she is trying to escape. I feel as if Usher confessed to knowing she was alive because of the story that the narrator is reading. He confesses at the part of the story that is being read where the hermit's door is broken down and there is the death cry from the dragon and the clangor of the shield because the story is coming to life in the sense that all of these things are happening downstairs where Madeline is locked in the dungeon. I'm not sure exactly if she is alive or if Usher feels guilty for possibly killing her and is being haunted by this sin?? In the end the narrator says that the door is busted down and Madeline pulls Usher to her and takes him to death along with her? So does Usher die with her due to his possible murder and guilt??