Fall of the House of Usher Literary Analysis Essay

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year,” (412) is the first sentence in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. This beginning sentence sets the tone of dark. Gothic Literature’s style has elements of fear, horror, gloomy and death; it gives the feeling of suspense and fear. This story is a great example of Gothic Literature. In this story the narrator goes to Usher’s house, which is mysterious, and becomes aware that the house is like Usher who is sick. Poe’s technique of the unified effect accomplishes its intended purpose through the setting, plot development and imagery.

For it is only within the context of this nightmare that one can explain why “Usher,” occupies such an important place in the 19th century development of the Gothic genre. With great attention to economy of expression and unity of effect, this pattern would be revisited by countless other Gothic stylists” (Dougherty 6). This means that Poe used the fantasy of impending doom in “The Fall of the House of Usher” to change it from being just an upper class dream, to a tale of horror which brought together some of the political situations in the nineteenth century such as those of race and class. Hawthorne and Poe successfully incorporated gothic elements in their writing which provides greater insight to the meaning and interpretation of their works.

The Fall Of the House Of Usher is a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1839. The short story is complexly written, with challenging themes such as identity and fear. Poe utilises many elements of the Gothic Tradition such as setting and supernatural elements to create a more mysterious story, and uses language to his advantage, employing adjective filled descriptions of literal elements that also serve as metaphors for other parts of the story.

     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.

Edgar Allan Poe was a unique man that most people could not understand. Many recognize that he is a talented writer with a very strange and dark style. One of his most well known short stories is “The Fall Of The House Of Usher.” Many argue the different meanings of this story and how it is symbolic to his life. Poe was a very confused individual who needed to express himself, he accomplished this through the short story of “The Fall Of The House Of Usher.” Through this story, Edgar was trying to show the fear he had for him self, he did not understand him self so therefore Poe ran from his own personality and mind. This story enables the reader to take a look at Poe’s mind and

Poe’s use of foreshadowing, the act of providing hints of future actions, in “The Fall of the House of Usher” foretells the “death” of Madeline Usher, along with her grandiose return. “She succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer”. The "destroyer" here is Roderick Usher, referring to the end of the story, when he buries his sister alive. Poe uses foreshadowing again when Roderick “stated his intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight, in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of the building”. By “preserving” Madeline’s corpse, Roderick leads the audience, as well as the narrator, to believe that she is still alive, thus giving her the ability to “rise from the dead”.

In fact, the first five paragraphs of "The Fall of the House of Usher" are devoted to creating a gothic atmosphere. An ancient, decaying castle paints an eerie, moldy picture. The surrounding moat seems stagnant and sullen. The time period also ties into this mood. It's autumn and the weather is cool and dreary. How many horrors take place in the daytime? Not many, and this story is no different. It's dark, or at least semi-dark. Immediately Poe entraps the reader. There is a sense of being confined within the walls of the Usher house. Outside a storm is raging and inside there are mysterious rooms where windows suddenly whisk open, blowing out candles. Creaking and moaning sounds fill the air. The wind is whipping, and the landscape is barren. This is gothic writing and these are its trappings. The darkness of everything symbolizes death to come. Upon entering the gothic archway of the deteorating mansion, the narrator is led "through many dark and intricate passages" filled with "somber tapestries" and "ebon blackness". Over everything, Poe drapes his atmosphere of sorrow and irredeemable gloom. He evokes his primary effect, the anticipation that some fearful event will soon transpire.

After evaluating the work of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, he utilizes with imagery to build up the feeling of terror. First of all, the passage is about an ill man, Roderick Usher, who invites his old friend of his to come meet him. In this passage both him and his sister, Madeline Usher, are the last remaining of the Usher race and is diagnosed with an unnatural illness. The narrator begins to feel terror with the supernatural things going on in the house of Usher and the illness of the Ushers. Although the narrator feels the sense of terror from the moment he entered the house, through the use of imagery, Poe is able to bring emotion to the reader. Throughout the passage, the author continues to build up the sense of terror by asserting the image and setting of both the passage and the atmosphere. For instance, he starts the passage by stating “a dull, dark, and a soundless day...clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens” (Poe 194). In relation to the previous quote, the quote illustrates the image of the atmosphere and the setting of the story. In particular, because Poe expresses the sense of terror by describing the atmosphere as dark, quiet, and gloomy, the reader can get an image of the surroundings and get the feeling of the darkness and horror. In addition, according to Poe, during the first glimpse of the house of Usher, the narrator describes it as gloomy and unpleasant. In particular, Poe states “the shades of the evening drew on… a sense of insufferable gloom” (Poe 194). Additionally, the description of the house adds on to the sense of terror that Poe established in the beginning of the story. Based on the past two quotes stated by the author, the reader can begin to picture a dark and dull day with a gloomy house adding on to the darkness. Lastly, in regards to Edgar Allan Poe, the house of Usher is

The short story Fall of the House of Usher, starts with the quote : “Son coeur est un luth suspendu” can translate to ‘his/her heart is a poisoned luth’ (Poe 18). Madeline, whom the quote refers to, her character vaguely described and rarely shown in the Fall of the House of Usher proves to be the most influential and in fact the most important character of the short story, as the entire plot concerns her. Rodrick, Madeline’s brother, and their relationship with one another, obvious as incestuous as described by signs in the story, is toxic. Poe utilizes limited personal narration and descriptions of Rodrick’s guilt and Madeleine's death to hide and lessen his accountability in the situation.

Edgar Allan Poe loved to create many gothic literature that would provoke the readers to think deeper to find meaning. This reality is made clear in Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher. " In this story, a nameless character visits his sick friend, Roderick Usher. Only to find the house(family) of Usher to be in eerie shambles. The narrator finds the house to be producing a gloomy and depressing atmosphere as does Roderick, who blames the house for his sickness.

“The Fall Of The House Of Usher” is a suspense, novel written by the famous dark romantic “Edgar Allen Poe”. Poe is a master at making the creepy, even more horrifying by using specific tone. His tone is is the idea of prevailing darkness and pure gloom. Just about everything in this story is draped in darkness to add to his sinister plot. And at no point is there a happy feeling, the plot just keeps dragging the character into a deeper pit of despair.

In “Fall of the House of Usher”, Madeline and Roderick Usher have lived their entire lives in their family mansion. As he looks upon the Usher house for the first time, even the narrator is intimidated by its appearance. Making the use of personification, the narrator describes the eerie and ominous features of the house in front of him. Therefore, making the house seem solitary, as if it is different from reality which is seen when stated “upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant, eye- like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation” (Poe, 412). Nothing on earth can be compared to the eerie features of the house, such as its personified window eyes or a sense of an insufferable gloom that pervaded his spirit has he looked upon the house (Poe, 412). Roderick is suffering from madness, “acute body illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him” (Poe, 416) which is

Have you ever seen a house with human qualities? “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered Edgar Allen Poe’s best short story. Poe was the master of Gothic Literature, and wrote during the Romantic Era. In 1846 he wrote “The Fall of the House of Usher”, it takes place in Autumn at Roderick Usher’s house/castle. Or another suspected setting could just be in our Narrator’s head. During this short story the Narrator goes an visits and old childhood friend. He has not seen this man since they were children, but Roderick Usher ( friend ) has become ill and would like to enjoy the company of his dear old friend. The Narrator and Roderick enjoy some times together reading, and painting. While there the narrator also encounters Madeline Usher, Roderick’s sister. Who seems to be almost ghostly, until she dies. Or did she? Roderick also ends up dying, and the narrator suspiciously ends where he begins, in the front of the house watching it crash to the ground. This short story is very worthy of its title, for many reasons. Three are because of Poe’s use of “Unity of Effect”, the suspicion he leaves of if the story is reality or just an illusion, and the way he uses the house and one of the characters to relate to each other, or are they just the same? Poe’s best short story is considered “ The Fall of the House of Usher” because of its literary devices and how it leaves its readers feeling.

Firstly, Edgar Allan Poe uses many different subtle details to give the story it’s Gothic tone. This may be when he is describing the setting of the story: “There was an insufferable gloom.”() This helps describe the feeling one would get from being there, it’s a feeling that many people are familiar with. “The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so cast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within.”(16) Poe now tries to show the size of the house through a description of the house’s windows, showing how oddly tall and long they are, and how they are so high up that the floor seem ‘inaccessible from within.’ Poe’s description of Usher’s everyday life also brings a comfortable eeriness to the writing. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe decides to put a

Gothic literature often gives strong examples of the topic. "The Fall of the House of Usher," written by Edgar Allen Poe, is a short story that reflects this theme. To briefly summarize, the story focuses on the narrator and his visit to his estranged friend, Roderick Usher. The narrator gradually progresses into a darker and more psychotic situation, until the House of Usher both literally and figuratively collapses. As a start, the theme is most clearly shown through the mental changes of Usher and the narrator as the story progresses. Usher is already in a state of general despair in the beginning of the narrator's visit, although much saner than he will come to be. Following the supposed death and burial of his sister, he quickly