Edgar Allen Poe, a famous novelist from the 18th century, is known for being a treasure trove for allusions, illusions, clues, and all sorts of literary fun. Born in 1809, this Bostonian never had it easy. Marriage to a 13 year old cousin, family problems, and deaths surrounded him. Over time, such tremendous struggle began to reflect in his writing, creating the dark and moody tone we now see today. One such piece, The Fall of the House of Usher, tells the tale of a man who goes to visit a dying friend on his last days. Roderick Usher is the name of this dying man, although he doesn’t seem dead in the beginning. However, the deathly state should be of no importance to the reader; death is the very essence of Poe’s writing. Rather, the reader’s attention should be deviated toward the unusual twin of the story, …show more content…
The reader is then driven to choose one of two options because of this , as Claudine Hermann and Nicholas Kostis mention in an article ““The Art of Duplication” in The Fall of the House of Usher”:
Horror reaches its peak in this passage as even the reader finds himself “divided” between two interpretations: Roderick is aware of what is happening either because he knowingly buried his sister (a logical explanation) or because he is united with her by an internal bond – a union more mysterious than that of simple twins. (Hermann and Kostis 41)
Due to Roderick’s odd connection, and the outcome of the book, both assumptions are correct. Roderick, by becoming Madeline, could know everything that is happening to Madeline. This would explain how he knew Madeline was escaping and how they both died once she reappears, because her full ‘body” needs to be dead for her to stop roaming. This then furthers the proof for the second assumption, because that connection would be an internal bond between the two. Either way, such information would prove that they share some sort of
From the onset of the story, it is apparent that Poe is employing a gothic theme upon his work. The narrator’s portrayal of the home of his longtime friend, Roderick Usher was as follows, “I looked upon the scene before me – upon the bleak walls – upon the vacant eye-like windows – upon a few rank sedges – and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees” (Poe, 75). T...
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.
In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. Poe tries to evoke suspence in the reader's mind by using several diffenent scenes. These elements include setting, characters, plot, and theme. Poe uses setting primarily in this work to create atmosphere. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder, strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed. He has a fearful apperance and his senses are acute. This adds curiosity and anxiety. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Because of this, the audience gets a sense that evil is lurking. Madeline is in a cataleptic state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Finally, when she dies, she is buried in a vault inside of the mansion. In this story, the plot consists of rising events, conflict, climax, and resolution. The rising events include the parts in the story when the narrator first arrives at the house, meets Roderick, and hears about Roderick's and Madeline's problems. Madeline's death and burial are part of the conflict. At this point, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are an omen that an evil action is about to occur. The climax is reached when Madeline comes back from the dead and she and her twin brother both die. Finally, the resolution comes when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall to the ground. The theme that Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convey is do not let fear take over your life because it could eventually destory you.
When writing a story that is meant to scare the reader, authors use a variety of different literary elements to intensify fear. This is apparent in the stories “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “beware: do not read this poem,” and “House Taken Over”. It is shown through transformation in the character, setting, and sometimes even the story or poem itself, adding to the scariness that the reader feels when reading it. While there are some examples of transformation not being scary or not playing a role in stories meant to scare us, transformation plays a crucial role in making the reader of these stories scared.
An unnamed narrator visits his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher. The duality is expressed mainly between Roderick and his sister Madeline. The siblings have a rather bizarre relationship and are as close as twins. After Madeline collapses he starts to mimic her behavior. “The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis.” Madeline gave another reason not to be buried. It was possible with her condition to be mistaken as dead when really she was alive. “I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” This quote shows Roderick’s suggestion that the house has its own intelligence. “To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave.” Roderick is now afraid and lost and terror over rules
“When we look across time and across the world, we find that people can truly become afraid of anything.” This quote by Allegra Ringo explores why and how people get scared. In writing, something used to create fear in the reader is transformation. Transformation in stories is when something changes from itself into something else. Often when something changes from itself into something else, like a werewolf, it is scary. Authors can use transformation to create fear through supernatural events, death and the unknown.
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.
One of the central themes underlying the short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is that of the nature of the house. The way it is described and the way it is so mysterious. Another central theme about this story is the nature of the people that live in the house. They are portrayed very much in the same manner throughout the story. Thus, they have several similarities with each other. All of which are of a bad feeling, showing how bad things are for the people and the house. These similarities are very well laid out in the story and are, I believe, meant to be something to be considered when reading it.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe’s use of dark, descriptive words allow him to establish an eerie mood. Poe’s unique style of writing along with his foreshadowing vocabulary is significant in creating a suspenseful gothic story. At the beginning of the short story, Poe describes the House of Usher to be “dull”, “oppressive”, and “dreary” (1265). His choice of words strongly emphasizes a mood of darkness and suspense as he builds on the horrific aspects of this daunting tale. At first glimpse, the house itself is surrounded by the feeling of “insufferable gloom”, (1265) “[t]here was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought [...]” (1265). The atmosphere that Poe describes in the statement above establishes a spine-chilling mood. Poe uses words such as “insufferable gloom”
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.
Edgar Allan Poe is notorious for his use of imagery. As he begins his account of his reunion with Roderick Usher in “The Fall of the House of Ushe...
Poe sets the setting as dark and gloomy, most likely to give the reader the death is in the air vibe in the beginning of “The Fall of the House of Usher”. “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart - an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it - I paused to think - what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?” The narrator, who is nameless throughout the whole story, receives a letter from an old childhood friend. According to the letter Roderick, the narrator’s childhood friend, has invited the narrator
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.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, death was a frequent visitor to those he loved around him. When Poe was only 3 years old, his loving mother died of Tuberculosis. Because Poe’s father left when he was an infant, he was now an orphan and went to live with the Allan’s. His stepmother was very affectionate towards Edgar and was a very prominent figure in his life. However, years later she also died from Tuberculosis, leaving Poe lonely and forlorn. Also, later on, when Poe was 26, he married his cousin 13-year-old Virginia, whom he adored. But, his happiness did not last long, and Virginia also died of Tuberculosis, otherwise known as the Red Death, a few years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became isolated and reckless. Due to Edgar Allan Poe’s loss of those he cared for throughout his life, Poe’s obsession with death is evident in his works of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in which in all three death is used to produce guilt.