In the short story, The Fall of The House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe chooses the setting as his main focus. This tale is one of many that focus on the character’s surroundings in order to truly emphasize and express the tone the author is trying to portray. The Fall of the House of Usher was included in Poe’s first literary collection from 1839 and is one of his most famous works. He was orphaned by the age of three, which in my opinion, would mean that he had a relatively dark childhood. A dark childhood that may or may not be the reason he allows for his stories to reveal a mysterious and dreary tone. Perhaps, setting is what truly affects the way your life plays out, and this is why the time and place has such a great affect in the world of literacy. In this essay, I would like to discuss how the setting sets the mood, affects your prejudices of the characters, and how it foreshadows where the story is headed. To start off, I believe it is important to focus on any stereotypes and prejudices you may feel when beginning a new story. If you’re getting an uneasy and tense feeling right off the bat, you can be sure that’s where the story is headed. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allen Poe, through the voice of an unnamed narrator, focuses quite a long time (4 pages to be exact) on the description of his friend Usher’s house. Although Poe’s first words of the story are “dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year” and “the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” didn’t prematurely set the mood, we have already been told how to feel. But if the author used the diction “I saw a beautiful home, that shined and brightened up my day”, we’d have an entirely different presumptio... ... middle of paper ... ...uge downfall. The story begins and ends with the mansion and essentially, its well-being. Since the house begins to deteriorate, as does the character’s lives. We also see how the initial feelings we felt, came back to life when Usher’s sister comes back to life and terrifies the remaining characters, leaving a bitter and dark whole in your chest. In conclusion, the setting can have a great impact on where a story is headed. The setting itself can affect your prejudices, your moods and even give you a seeing eye into the future. Whether the setting is dark and dreary or light hearted and peaceful, it can greatly change the direction of the plot line. In the Fall of the House of Usher, the entire story is driven by and affected by the setting which eventually deteriorates and splits in two, as a sort of symbol being held together by Usher and his twin sisters souls.
In “Fall of the House of Usher”, the setting takes place at the house of Usher, whose friend, the main character, comes to visit because Usher is dying. He travels through the house, visiting the family members and sees the house is in a serious state of disrepair. A theory on the story
The narrator is feels trapped by the need to help his friend and is only able to escape the house at the last minute before it is destroyed. In addition to this, all of the narrator’s attempts to help Usher family fail, leaving the narrator alone at the end of the story.
The wheather in this unit was depressing-like weather. How stereotypical for horror stories… The weather in Fall of the House of Usher was dark and gloomy. But then, since it was an Edgar Allen Poe passage, that would fit his theme for this story. In Photo Essay, in the hockey player photo, the background is foggy or misty. You see, we’re used to foggy situations in scary or thrilling pictures. It fits the theme and the purpose to scare us. Another picture in Photo Essay, the burnt out furniture store, the background trashed and abandoned. That furniture store could've been in good business and looked nice, but whatever disaster happened there, made the abandoned place help show fear in the
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe’s use of dark, descriptive words allow him to establish an eerie mood. Poe’s unique style of writing along with his foreshadowing vocabulary is significant in creating a suspenseful gothic story. At the beginning of the short story, Poe describes the House of Usher to be “dull”, “oppressive”, and “dreary” (1265). His choice of words strongly emphasizes a mood of darkness and suspense as he builds on the horrific aspects of this daunting tale. At first glimpse, the house itself is surrounded by the feeling of “insufferable gloom”, (1265) “[t]here was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought [...]” (1265). The atmosphere that Poe describes in the statement above establishes a spine-chilling mood. Poe uses words such as “insufferable gloom”
Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of American Literature's legendary and prolific writers, and it is normal to say that his works touched on many aspects of the human psyche and personality. While he was no psychologist, he wrote about things that could evoke the reasons behind every person's character, whether flawed or not. Some would say his works are of the horror genre, succeeding in frightening his audience into trying to finish reading the book in one sitting, but making them think beyond the story and analyze it through imagery. The "Fall of the House of Usher" is one such tale that uses such frightening imagery that one can only sigh in relief that it is just a work of fiction. However, based on the biography of Poe, events that surrounded his life while he was working on his tales were enough to show the emotions he undoubtedly was experiencing during that time.
Edgar Allan Poe has been debated to be the author of the most dark and horrific pieces of literature. He was favored by many for his complex pieces of literature that have ultimately impacted the world of literature today. However, Poe’s pieces of work did receive harsh criticism before and after his death. Because Poe was generally known for his thought-provoking short stories, his short stories often received mixed reviews. One of Poe’s most arguable short stories is “The Fall of the House of Usher”. This short story was “regarded as an early and supreme example of the Gothic horror story” (Plot Summary: "The Fall of the House of Usher"). Poe himself described this piece as “arabesque” due to its ornate prose (Plot Summary: "The Fall of the House of Usher"). However, many critics disagreed with each other on their views of “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
The human condition, a concept prevalent in several pieces of literature, encompasses the emotional, moral, questioning, and observant nature of humans. This concept is often used by authors to emphasize the characteristics that set humans apart from other living creature. Edgar Allan Poe’s dark fantasy piece “The Fall of the House of Usher” perfectly depicts the human condition as it conveys how fear and over-thinking can control one’s actions and life.
The story starts out with the narrator riding up to an old and gloomy house. He stresses that the overall persona of the house is very eerie. The reason he is at this house is because he received a letter from an old friend by the name of Roderick Usher. Roderick and the narrator were intimate friend at a young age but they had not spoken to each other in several years. The narrator examined the house for a great time as he rode toward the house, he noticed that the house had been severely neglected over time. That the house’s beautiful woodwork and Gothic type of architecture have not been maintenance to any degree since he had last seen it.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
The first sentence of the story begins with the narrator talking about “the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, [he] had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary track of country;…” (McMichael). As the narrator is approaching the House of Usher, he begins to feel this sense of eerie, depression, and anxiety because he has not seen his friend for a long while and he already knows about his mental illness so he becomes curious of what he will find but already he is starting to get the effects of the depression that Usher is suffering from, alongside with his mental illness
Edgar Allen Poe, a famous novelist from the 18th century, is known for being a treasure trove for allusions, illusions, clues, and all sorts of literary fun. Born in 1809, this Bostonian never had it easy. Marriage to a 13 year old cousin, family problems, and deaths surrounded him. Over time, such tremendous struggle began to reflect in his writing, creating the dark and moody tone we now see today. One such piece, The Fall of the House of Usher, tells the tale of a man who goes to visit a dying friend on his last days. Roderick Usher is the name of this dying man, although he doesn’t seem dead in the beginning. However, the deathly state should be of no importance to the reader; death is the very essence of Poe’s writing. Rather, the reader’s attention should be deviated toward the unusual twin of the story,
The technique in which every word, character, and aspect in a story is used to convey themes is recognized as, single effect. Throughout “ The Fall of the House of Usher” this technique is used repeatedly. Edgar Allan Poe is often found using this technique, he was able to portray multiple themes in a way deeper than just words. Through the use of single effect readers were able to visualize, and actually understand the reading much further than just on paper. The use of single effect is what has made this story a phenomenon throughout the years. Each detail in the story, Poe used to build up different themes. The main themes conveyed were fear, madness, and isolation.
The Fall Of The House of Usher is a terrifying tale of the demise of the Usher family, whose inevitable doom is mirrored in the diseased and evil aura of the house and grounds. Poe uses elements of the gothic tale to create an atmosphere of terror. The decaying house is a metaphor for Roderick Usher’s mind, as well as his family line. The dreary landscape also reflects his personality. Poe also uses play on words to engage the reader to make predictions, or provide information. Poe has also set the story up to be intentionally ambiguous so that the reader is continually suspended between the real and the fantastic.
In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe presents the history of the end of an illustrious family. As with many of Poe’s stories, setting and mood contribute greatly to the overall tale. Poe’s descriptions of the house itself as well as the inhabitants thereof invoke in the reader a feeling of gloom and terror. This can best be seen first by considering Poe’s description of the house and then comparing it to his description of its inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher.
The final scene in which the narrator flees the building in fear of his life and probably his sanity as well can be viewed two different ways. The first one is of course the literal one. However if you think about it as in the beginning of the story the narrator may very well be referring to the family and the destruction that follows as the house of Usher. This makes a little more sense then the spontaneous combustion of a building.