The Fall Of The House Of Usher Analysis Essay

Setting can be one of the most significant aspects of nearly any text. Setting is one of many devices that authors use to set up not only the time and place of the story, but also the mood. Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most notorious authors to use setting to give the story its mood, most often with fear. The Fall of the House of Usher is no different. Throughout the short story, Poe uses many literary devices, including setting, to help set the stage for the both fearful and melancholy plot. Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Fall of the House of Usher uses setting as an important literary device for several reasons, including the mood of the story, the communication process, and foreshadowing.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House

One of the many elements of setting is time. Time plays a dominant role in the types of communication used in this play. While the narrator approaches the mansion, he explains to the readers that the reason he is advancing towards the mansions is due to “-a letter from him-which, in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no other than a personal reply.” This is essential to the outcome of the play, for at the time that this story is set, a time in which letters were the only mode of communication, conveyance of one 's situation took a long time to reach the recipient. If this text had been written in a time and place of a mansion today, many of the involved parties would have had cell phones. This may not seem an instrumental part, yet if the narrator had access to a cellular device, he could have used it to contact people to get additional help for Mr. Usher’s sister. Therefore, she could have been cured, alleviating Mr. Usher of many of his

One way in which Poe uses setting as a type of foreshadowing is through his early description of the House of Usher. “...fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.” In this excerpt of Poe’s short story, the narrator tells of a miniscule crack, running from the top of the mansion, all the way down to its foundation. At first, many readers acknowledge this as nothing more than a result of the immense age of the house. Yet after reading the story, and making inferences from the title of the piece, readers can come back to the conclusion that later on in the story, this crack will leading to the indefinite fall of the House of Usher. In this sense, the mention of the crack can be defined as a type of foreshadowing, or a hint as to what will come about later on in the