Figurative Language In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

It was a dark and stormy evening when a mentally unstable main character pondered whether word choice and extravagant descriptions would have any effect on the reader of his written works. He looked at the purple velvet curtains his long dead love had hung years ago when he was still sane and concluded that this was indeed the case. The shadows cast upon the floor by the dying coals in the fireplace helped him to understand that a reader’s first impression is characterized by the first descriptions of setting, and how vivid the description is determines the involvement in the story. He thinks of Edgar Allen Poe, and his story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and how intriguing the descriptions are. Poe uses figurative language and diction …show more content…
It helps you to see exactly what these characters are seeing, and what their lives are heavily impacted by. As written, “I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—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 more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium—the bitter lapse into everyday life—the hideous dropping off of the veil.” (POE lines 7-12), this house has obviously not been taken care of for a very long time. The walls are blank and boring, the windows seem to be looking at you, but not see anything, the plants are weak, the trees have all been cut down and the stumps left, and the main character is riding along thinking that this must be a similar state to that which his friend is in. Had Usher decided to take care of his house, the story could be significantly different. He could paint the walls, clean the windows, water and trim the plants, and this would distract him from the horrors inside his head that caused his condition. He would have no need to call his friend, until Lady Madeline’s death where he wouldn’t have someone to help lower the coffin into the basement. Lady Madeline might …show more content…
These elements take place in nearly every story you will ever read, because any good story must have a good setting with great detail, or else it’s not a good story. It’s like with comic books. If you see only the characters with no background, you have no idea whatsoever of when they change scenery, where they even found that plant they’re holding, and so on. It’s exactly the same with stories like this one, without the setting, you don’t know where that plant came from, you don’t know why the character is holding, and you don’t know what they could possible do with it. You couldn’t imagine what the Cornucopia in The Hunger Games really looks like, you have no clue as to what the landscape in Cat’s Cradle looks like after the ice-nine got to it, and you’re lost in a blank nothingness where there is nothing but characters. The setting is at least half of what makes a fantastic story what it