Poe thought that it was very important to be able to read a book or a story until the end without stopping, due to the fact that it can be loose the effect that the whole story might cause on the reader; that is the reason why he preferred to write short stories and poems, because his main concern was to create a certain impression on the reader. For him, the unity is the main characteristic that the short stories can offer; and the effect should be the chief concern of: the plot, the scenery, the style, the descriptions, the characters and the structure of the story.
In the unity of effect the author has the possibility of having the reader under his own control throughout the story, and in order to reach a union with the reader he must decide what effect he wants to cause even before thinking about the events. And when he resolves what effect does he want to produce in the reader’s emotional response, he has to decide which is the best mode to attain that effect. Furthermore the writer has to resolve which is going to be the denouement in order to create the plot around it. Everything in the story has to be related to that purpose, which in The fall of the house of Usher is the mystery: the characters’ personality, the settings, the furniture, and even the smallest details partakes in that unity of effect; and throughout the novel Poe conducts the reader to the emotional state he prefers.
The fears of the mind are his main sources of inspiration for his stories, everything has a factor of strangeness and mystery, and he uses the characters’ psychology and madness in order to create a gothic atmosphere. This story focuses on the fear, which is the retained consciousness in a world that is dead, and the concern of life after dea...
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...ween the mansion and the haunted palace of a poem which Poe wrote and he embodied it in the story. The poem implies a mental and physical decline, with references to the “thought’s dominion” or the “head”. The house and the palace have certain similarities such as the personification of the castle (windows which resemble eyes), the king dies of a strange illness, or the fear of life after death. Each stanza of the poem stand for a part of the body, specifically the head, with words such as head, hair, crown, eyes or mouth.
As the story is narrated in a retrospective mode due to the fact that the narrator tells the story of Roderick and Madeline when he is not longer at that peculiar place. As the reader does not know the name of the narrator it is implied that the purpose of this figure is to reproduce everything he saw in the house with an accurate description.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
When the story begins in “The House of Usher,” the narrator over exaggerates the description of the house in an attempt to explain his own disgust with the home. Reading Edgar Allan Poe’s stories seem to follow a pattern of dark feelings. His descriptions can give the reader an image in their head of a negative look and sets them up for a negative story. By writing about an eerie broken home such as “The House of Usher”, one could say the exaggerative descriptions are creating images that can depict the possible dreariness of a household. The dreariness may have consumed the residents of the household, which is mirrored in the state of the house. Poe has been said to have grown up in a broken home extending into a difficult childhood and deaths of his loved ones continuing to be a large portion of his life (Giammarco 28). By this mindset, a home can easily fall into a morbid trap of misery and unfortunate deaths. Poe’s drinking problem may also influence the way Poe may see home (Giammarco 22). An alcoholic may...
“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe was published in 1839. In it, the short story’s narrator visits a childhood friend, Roderick Usher. The narrator travels to the Usher house, where the story takes place. As in other Poe stories, the settings reflect a character. Throughout the short story, there are many instances when the Usher house and Thought, the castle in Roderick’s poem, reflect Roderick Usher and his family. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting of the Usher house along with the setting in Roderick’s poem reflect Roderick Usher in appearances, relations with family, and physical existence.
Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers to date. His thrill filled tales of darkness and death helped people see a different side of romantic literature. Many believe that his isolated life and drinking problem helped influence his works. Poe showed his most prominent life accomplishment and disappointments through his life in his stories. He defined a lot of his life’s parallels through his works.
Unlike most people, the narrator of the story seems to be perfectly at ease with the appearance, actions and thoughts of Roderick, which leads us as the readers to ask the begging question, “Was the un-named narrator just, if not more, irrational and insane as Roderick Usher himself”? Although we end the story with many questions, suspicions and uncertainty, this is the beauty of Poe’s writing, something many authors try to encompass in their writing still to this day. While analyzing and observing the appearance, thoughts and actions of Roderick Usher, we can ultimately thank and respect the mind of Edgar Alan Poe for giving us a high standard for literacy and short stories like “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
(1265) along with other disturbing words to stress the mood of horror. Furthermore, the house evokes suspense as it strikes the reader with curiosity as to why the building presents such a dreadful and uneasy feeling. Poe describes the house with further detail emphasizing its ghostly traits: “Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene” (1267). Poe describes the house using very descriptive and daunting words contributing to the story’s depressive mood as well as its suspense.
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.
Poe went through many hardships during his life that helped inspire his literary works. Many of his works seem pretty normal at first but then you realize there is an underlying tone of tragedy in his works, just like in his life. Many of his poems are inspired by his friends, family and real life experiences. This supports my thesis because it shows that the people and experiences in his life influenced his choices, his works and his outlook on things.
Poe begins his with a description of the setting. It was a “..dull, dark, and soundless day..” (Poe, 90). The narrator explains that he is on his way to an old friend 's house, Roderick and Madeline Usher, who both live in the mansion. He then explains what he sees at first glimpse of the mansion. “I looked upon the scene before me – the bleak walls, vacant eye-like windows, rank sedges, and a few white trunks of decayed trees..” (90). The setting is dark and full of potential evil; making it a romantic
Poe also uses symbolism to compare the deterioration of the house to the fall of the Usher dynasty. In Roderick’s poem, “The Haunted Palace”, he describes the history of the house as it began as a strong and “radiant palace”, which over time became a decrepit, disease-ridden cage. The radiant palace repres...
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.
Poe uses several descriptive words in his portrayal of the house. The reader’s first impression of the house comes from a direct observation from the narrator. This unnamed narrator states, “… with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” As the narrator continues to describe the house he uses several similarly dismal adjectives. The gloom experienced by the narrator is not limited to merely the house itself. The vegetation, which surrounds the area, is described as “a few rank sedges and … a few white trunks of decayed trees.” He emphasizes these facets of the house and its environs by restating the descriptions reflected in a “black and lurid tarn.” The narrator points out that the house seems to be in a dilapidated condition. While he claims that the house appears structurally sound, he takes time to comment upon “the crumbling condition of the individual stones.” He also emphasizes the long history of the house by stating that its features recall an “excessive antiquity.”
In conclusion Poe excellent use of characterization and imagery to depict fear and darkness, truly make The Fall of the House of Usher a story of the battles the we must face our fears in order to free our mind.
If there is one thing that is widely agreed upon in regards to Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” it is surely the fact that the short story is one of the greatest ever written. The very words that Poe selects and the manner in which he pieced them was nothing short of phenomenal. This however, is pretty much all that people are able to agree upon. Indeed, to almost everyone who reads it sees the story as great, but for different reasons. In a way the tale can be compared to a psychiatrist’s inkblots. While everyone may be looking at the same picture, they all see different things. What mainly gives “The Fall of the House of Usher” this quality is the double meanings and symbols Poe seems to use throughout.
Edgar Allan Poe applies a variety of examples of this feel in the short story. An example of the feel of the genre is “the haunted mansion, haunted siblings, bewildering corridors, and eerie chambers,”(Fisher 88). The so-called feel of the Gothic genre is so well represented in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” that it makes a great argument that it positively is a representation of the Gothic genre and not for the Gothic parody. An obvious clue that Poe left behind was the death. In which, most Gothic genre ends with a death or some kind of terrible ending ,yet in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the conclusion of the short story is a basic ending to the story because this type of genre is dark. Therefore, the feel of the genre is heightened when the literary device, Gothic double, is used throughout “The Fall of the House of