Usher Downfall

A man draws upon a gothic mansion with withering trees and a dark pond around it. The mansion terrifies the man, but he remains. The reason he is there resides inside the house. His friend from childhood is afflicted by an unknown illness and is oppressed by it, the man received a letter that urged him to come and distract his friend from his constant torture. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a Romantic short story written by Edgar Allen Poe, it is about a man who keeps his friend company while he is tortured by his illness. Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting, characterization, and the theme that fear is powerful to create the single effect of doom. One way that “The Fall of the House of Usher” gives the effect of catastrophe is in the

Roderick Usher is commonly talking about his inevitable demise. This is seen when the narrator first meets with Roderick in the story, Roderick says that “[he] shall perish, [...] in this deplorable folly.”A reason for this pointing to doom as a single effect is that “perish” and “folly” are closely related to doom.The reader also sees that Roderick is afraid, “[He] shudder[s] at the thought of any, even the most trivial incident, which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul.”Another reason is that he is afraid of the smallest thing to cause his soul to leave his body. Roderick’s hope is fading quickly, “[He] feel[s] that the period will sooner or later arrive when [he] must abandon life” (Poe 5). Finally, he says that he feels that sooner or later he must abandon life, abandoning life is a form of doom. Through this characterization we see that Roderick believes that he has seen the handwriting on the wall; this quote points to the fact that the single effect is doom. Characters play a large role in creating atmosphere, and we can see this in the way Roderick talks and acts. If at the end of the story Roderick and the narrator simply read a story and didn’t react to the noises, then the reader wouldn’t feel as anxious as the reader would with the characters reacting. But instead the reader sees that “he rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform

The reader can see this when the narrator “An utter depression of the soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation [...]” The narrator said “depression of the soul”, one definition of depression is the act of lowering, the lowering lowering of the soul is a very damning thought. The narrator also states that it compared “to no earthly sensation”, since he speaks of the depression of the soul in the first half of the sentence the reader can assume that the narrator is referring to Hell. Hell is the place where doomed souls go. “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart --- an unredeemed dreariness [...] What was it that so unnerved [him] in the contemplation of the House of Usher?” (Poe 1) The narrator divulges to the reader that the house unnerves him, sickens his heart, and gives unredeemed dreariness. He is telling us that the house frightens him and fills him with dread. Later in the story, the narrator describes to the reader the sensation that afflicts him when he is in the presence of the mansion when he says that “the vivid force of sensations [...] oppressed [him]” and that “there [hangs] an atmosphere [...] which [has] no affinity with the air of heaven” (Poe 3). The narrator states that he felt forces oppress him and that the mansion that lays upon him these powerful feelings has “no affinity with the air of heaven”, the narrator is implying