The brain houses millions of neurons that fire chemical and electrical signals across synapses to create consciousness. This complex organ allows for the human body to function but also allows humans to experience emotions. Sometimes, these feelings are not always easy to handle. Distinguishing between wants and needs drives many to self doubt. Not being able to see their issues only worsens the problem. With literature, people can escape their conflicting thoughts and focus on another's story. Most of the time, people connect with the character's struggles. For this very reason, authors use literary elements such as motifs to put internal conflicts into words. Motifs are reappearing symbolic objects or ideas that help develop themes. For example, …show more content…
“William Wilson” depicts the story of a criminal on the brink of death and how he arrives at his current position. Wilson describes how in school, he excels above all his classmates except for one who shares his name and appearance. This other William Wilson only differs in the way he speaks. He whispers like a voice in the back of Wilson's mind. Throughout the story, the rivalry between these two grows. Wilson sees how his shadow self beats him only in moral superiority. When Wilson begins to turn down a dark path, the shadow self points out Wilson’s wrongdoings. The story ends with a confrontation between the two in which Wilson stabs his shadow self. For a moment, Wilson sees a mirror reflecting only himself spattered in blood. He realizes that the image was not a reflection but his namesake’s mangled body. In his final words, the other Wilson says that in murdering him, Wilson has lost any chance of happiness. In writing this story, Poe shows the schism of mind and body through the mirror being of William Wilson: “The second William Wilson, who comes and goes like a specter or apparition, represents the conscience or moral sense; that is why, as the gentle but persistent voice within, he speaks only in a low whisper and why no one …show more content…
In doing so, he faces the challenge of choosing between right and wrong. Poe creates a second version of Wilson to personify the opposing views Wilson’s mind contains. The reader sees how the corrupt Wilson kills his spiritual self, thus losing any hope of absolution. Secondly, in the other work “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses the Usher mansion as a physical symbol of the deterioration of the Usher family. The Usher twins and the house are both falling apart; the home rots, and the twins bodies and minds quit on them. Due to the family’s past incestual relations, the twins cannot help the corruption they face within their own genes. That corruption ultimately leads to their deaths, and the house, both the physical house and the bloodline, crumples down with them. Poe creates these mirrors to help show readers’ feelings that usually cannot be seen, only thought about. The physicality of the mirror helps those who cannot picture for themselves the trouble they face within. Hopefully, readers can take away from these stories how to not deal with inner
In the text Charlotte Doyle by Avi I think the theme of the story is to be brave. The main character of the story, Charlotte doyle, has to go through many things on her ride to America. She faces internal and external conflicts. In the story she is on the boat with only men, which can cause trouble.
Along with being an excellent potrail of suspense the ''dull, dark and soundless...decaying house'' also substitutes as a symbol of Roderick Usher's family legacy slowly vanishing as he shall too. Though the house of Usher could contain multiple symbols on its exterior alone, the lands as well contain hidden meanings such as the ''ghastly river...moat'' that surrounds the grounds. this gives off the hidden idea that much like Roderick, the narrator is trapped within deceiving and oppressive walls of the house of Usher. The house has become a beacon of symbolism as even in the final scene the house sinks into ''black and lurid tarn'' symbolizing that much like Roderick Usher, and the Usher legacy, the house shall become nothing more than a memory. Poe uses these symbols as to show the reader the severity of Roderick Usher's situations before Poe even introduces him.
Poe also uses symbolism to represent the connection between the house and the Usher family. The description of the house itself has a shocking resemblance to that of Roderick and Madelyn Usher. Upon the main character’s arrival, Poe offers an interesting description of the building’s physical state. “The discoloration of age had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in fine tangled web-work from the eves” (1266). Poe is able to establish an air of suspense by relating the state of the house to that of Roderick and Madelyn Usher.
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.
The narrator William isn 't the best person to people he 's a bully and by the other William coming in Poe is trying to show the narrator how he acts. William has an alter ego and by having another William in the story Poe is trying to help him understand his actions. The main example of self-loathing in William is throughout the whole story, instead of trying to understand the other William he is constantly arguing with him and doesn 't even realize he was in a fight with his own self. Evil plays a role in this story because of Williams’s actions throughout it. At the beginning of the story William is torturing a boy at school and continues to torture people throughout. Evil is also in this story by Poe there’s a certain evil to it that
The externalization of the narrator’s perplexing internal struggle justifies Poe’s serious and outwardly grandiose style that creates both metaphorical and actual physicality. Simulating the roller-coaster-like journey of self-doubt the narrator experiences, the short story and its meticulously written rhetoric teases the readers with possible knowledge of the second Wilson’s identity without complete certainty, but then hits them with an epiphany, like the one the narrator experiences, about the doppelganger’s true identity. In order to understand “William Wilson”, one must not evaluate single excerpts, but the work as a whole, as a dynamic confession by the narrator; only by understanding the conclusion and recognizing its complexity, can one truly appreciate Poe’s mastery, which stems from his ability to introduce both the themes and conclusion of the story to the reader before he or she even knows what they are.
Poe’s use of personification, the act of giving human characteristics to nonhuman things, assigns the house of Usher a powerful and evil presence. In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator describes the house as having “vacant eye-like windows”. He uses this description twice: first to show that the house has seen everything that has led to the fall of Usher, and again to emphasize the unidentified deception of the house. The narrator also describes his negative reaction to the house as a “hideous dropping off of the veil”. This statement describes what the house has revealed to the narrator, a disgusting and disappointing appearance.
In “William Wilson”, Edgar Allan Poe teases his readers throughout the entirety of story with hints about its unexpectedly expected conclusion. Through figuratively-infused passages, Poe meticulously leads the reader to the front steps of the story’s ending without ever truly revealing the conclusion until the final sentences. Within those final sentences, the question of who the second William Wilson truly is, is answered, immediately transforming the story from a battle between two physical beings with both the same name and appearance into an internal battle staged within the mind of one man with conflicting desires. In order to create this dramatic and essential shift, Poe externalizes the protagonist’s internal struggle by blurring the
Imagery in "The Fall of the House of Usher" The description of the landscape in any story is important as it creates a vivid imagery of the scene and helps to develop the mood. Edgar Allan Poe is a master at using imagery to improve the effects of his stories. He tends to use the landscapes to symbolize some important aspect of the story. Also, he makes use of the landscape to produce a supernatural effect and to induce horror. In particular, Poe makes great use of these tools in "The Fall of the House of Usher." This story depends on the portrayal of the house itself to create a certain atmosphere and to relate to the Usher family. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe uses the landscape to develop an atmosphere of horror and to create corollary to the Usher family. Poe uses the life-like characteristics of the house as a device for giving the house a supernatural presence. The house is described as having somewhat supernatural characteristics. The windows appear to be "vacant" and "eye-like" (1462). The strange nature of the house is further explained as around the mansion, "…there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity." (1462). This demonstrates that the house and its surroundings have an unusual and bizarre existence. Upon entering the house, the narrator views some objects, such as the tapestries on the walls and the trophies, fill him with a sense of superstition. He describes the trophies as "phantasmagoric" (1462). He further explains that the house and the contents were the cause of his feelings.
In the beginning of the story, with an extensive and vivid description of the house and its vicinity, Poe prepares the scene for a dreadful, bleak, and distempered tale. The setting not only affects Poe’s narration of the story but influences the characters and their actions as well. Both the narrator and his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, question w...
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.
Does the narrator show weakness through this mental illness or is it a sophistical mind of a genius? This is the question that must be answered here. Throughout this discussion we will prove that the narrator is a man of a conscience mind and committed the crime of murder. Along with that we will expose Poe’s true significance of writing this short story, and how people were getting away with crime by justifying that they were insane.
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.
The story is told through the subjective viewpoint of the narrator who begins by telling the reader he is writing this narrative to unburden his soul because he will die tomorrow. The events that brought him to this place in time have “…terrified, tortured and destroyed him” (Poe). This sets a suspenseful tone for the story. He blames the Fiend Intemperance for the alteration of his personality. He went from a very docile, tenderhearted man who loved his pets and wife to a violent man who inflicted this ill temperament on the very things he loves. The final break from the man that he once was, is the “…spirit of PERVERSENESS” (Poe 514). He describes this as doing something wrong because you know it is wrong. Evil consumes his every thought and he soon develops a hatred for everything. “Speaking through his narrators," Poe illustrates perversit...
...uses setting in the story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” to set the overall mood of the story, to foreshadow what will happen at the end of the story, and show character traits. Poe creates a gloomy and melancholy mood in the beginning of the story and it is already known that this is no ordinary house, as it is located on the dreary tract of the country. As the narrator gets closer to the house and enters, it is evident that there will be some sort of evil involved. The crack in the wall suggests that there will be some tragic end in the story. The setting also reveals the character traits of the Ushers. The narrator sees that they have created their own world and are obsessed with death. Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting in this story to its greatest extent, creating the gloomy mood, foreshadowing the end of the story, and establish overall character traits.