The Somber and Dark Tone of The Fall of the House of Usher
The work of Edgar Allan Poe is notoriously morbid and terror-provoking. Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, with its melancholically eerie tone, is undoubtedly a prime example of such writing. Much effort within the literary world has been devoted to the analysis and critique of Poe’s compositions. Among those to study and analyze Poe’s work is J.O. Bailey. Bailey’s argument concerning Poe’s underlying objective is valid and presented effectively in the article entitled “What Happens in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’”; but this short story can rationally be interpreted in alternative ways, thus suggesting Poe intends the piece to be more universally applicable than Bailey asserts.
Bailey essentially declares the entire short story is rooted in vampirism, suggesting Poe presents the actual House and the Usher’s themselves as vampires. As Bailey explains, Poe’s description of characters, particularly that of Roderick and Madeline, provide striking evidence of vampiric activity. Among the multiple connections Bailey highlights between Roderick and vampirism, Bailey notes that Poe characterizes the deathly-ill Roderick as sensitive to light, specific sounds, certain textures, and even the smell of flowers (Bailey 454). A vampire’s inability to endure light is common knowledge among a general audience, but Bailey reveals that the debilitation of the other senses, that Roderick indeed experiences, is a “specific symptom of vampiric attack” (Bailey). In addition, Poe’s development of Madeline’s character serves as even more pertinent to this vampiric theme. Bailey describes the indicators of vampiric attack as including a “gradual wasting away” of the body and e...
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...iley is impressively persuasive in his ability to endorse a bizarre theme and convince the audience of its actual credibility. But although Bailey’s interpretation is valid, there are alternatives which can be given equal merit through evidence found within the short story. It is quite possible that Poe’s main priority lies not in a direct and limited interpretation such as that of vampirism but rather in the portrayal of the story’s overwhelmingly somber and dark tone.
Works Cited
Bailey, J.O. “What Happens in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’?”. American Literature 35.4 (1964): p 445-466. 5 Nov. 2002 .
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction Fourth Edition. New York: Norton Inc., 1990. 1390-1405.
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Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Peter Taylor’s Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time
Poe, Edgar A. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 6th
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.
Patterson, Arthur. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Notes presentation of the Folio Club 1996 Online. Google Online. Retrived on April 5th 2005. http://www.watershedonline.ca/literature/Poe/pousher.html.
In order to fairly examine this trend, one has to understand or be aware of the fundamentals associated with Christianity. These are based solely upon the Bible which is the acknowledged God-breathed text containing all their ideals. First and foremost, the greatest commandments given to followers is to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… love your neighbor as yourself…there is no other commandment greater than these,” (Holman Christian Standard Bible, Mark 12.30-31). Other decrees range from seemingly straightforward concerns that are commonly agreed upon to the profound subjects that many cringe at the slightest mention due to the mixture of opinions or translations. Essentially, the original standards are primarily seen in the Ten Commandments located in the Old Testament. These strict rules were established to communicate how every indi...
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.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe establishes a new type of literature, he emphasizes sides of Empiricism as well as the idea of Transcendence.
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.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe, The story takes place on the outskirts of Usher’s where the narrator is arriving. In the story we follow the narrator and his experience meeting his childhood friend Roderick Usher for the first time in years.
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 House of Poe", Richard Wilbur elucidates his criticisms of Poe 's work. He firstly comments on a critic 's purpose, then how Poe 's stories are all allegories. He then addresses the possible opposition to his argument, and then begins his discussion of the common themes in Poe 's writing and provides examples from his stories. This dissertation will analyze Wilbur 's criticism by cross referencing Poe 's work and how it exemplifies Wilbur 's assessment. There is a great deal of evidence to support Wilbur 's theories, but a close examination of each one will determine how legitimate his argument really is.
Beside his illness and his sister dieing, Roderick believes his condition is being controlled by the house. He call on the narrator a boyhood friend to in a last ditch effort to cheer his life up and give him someone to communicate with. The narrator arrives to a house of gloom, darkness and decaying furniture. He immediately is afraid for his life and how his friend can live a house of darkness. Several days past and it is filled with art discussions, guitar playing, and literature reading, all to keep Roderick's mind busy from the reality that he is losing his mind. The narrator and Roderick prematurely enconffined Madeline in a vault in a hope to alleviate his metal condition. She is either dead, in a coma, or a vampire. You don't know but Poe allows the reader to make there own assumptions.
No matter what your interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” may be, it is almost impossible to deny it as one of the greatest short stories ever written. It stands as one of the many great testaments to the literary genius of Edgar Allan Poe and helps affirm his high ranking of American history.
Perhaps it could be argued, in the end, that Maggie’s fate wasn’t hers. She could be considered a victim of lack of free will due to the fact that some of what influences her life deals with other’s choices, like Jimmie’s and Pete’s, making a lack of free will in naturalism like a new genre of fiction. Yet, the fact remains that Maggie did have a chance to avoid the fall into prostitution and, ultimately, her death. Because of these possibilities for choices, she does have some sort of free will, no matter how horrible her choices are or how much she can’t totally avoid the world of the slums. Thus, naturalism isn’t a new form, but related to realism. The two are closely connected, with differences and similarities, much like a any family would.