The Usher house is described in great lengths by Poe; he depicts it as gloomy, depressing, eerie, and gothic. As the narrator approaches the mansion he automatically feels the negative energy radiating into him as he states, “with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” (Poe) He goes on to describe the walls as “bleak” and the windows as “vacant and eye like” as he moves closer and closer to the spooky mansion. The house reminds the narrator of , “the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air” (Poe) and this vivid image gives the reader the idea that this house is much like a mind that has been eroding for decades with no disturbance or interference from the outside world. The house is falling apart on the inside without showing barely any defects on the exterior.…
Alex Medina Literary devices are a high importance in an author's work. We can use them to analyze and further investigate why an author decides to make word choices. These devices closely reveal how a story's plot is developed into a great work. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe is notorious for his use of them. In all of his works, there is always symbolism and other elements that make this great author unique.…
In the short story,”Usher II,” it helps readers visualize the setting by using allusion from other pieces of literature so that they could connect it to the story. In the story, Mr, Stendahls biggest challenge is to stop the people who are burning everyone's books. As he is talking to Mr. Bigelow about how important the books are for people, Stendahl states, “As of this day beware. The House of Usher is open for business.” (Bradbury 3).…
The House of Usher is a story with many themes and elements in it. They include the theme of entrapment. There is also the theme of the dead’s power over the living. The narrator has many traits of which he is characterized by cowardice is shown when he leaves the premises of the house with such speed that people would think he was being chased by a “monster” and in a way he was. The narrator was also characterized by being extremely loyal he dropped everything he was doing and went to comfort his friend from childhood.…
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…
Edgar Allen Poe used setting and exposition to paint vivid pictures of exactly what he encountered durng his stay at The House Of Usher. Poe began our journey describing a "dull,dark, and soundless day in autumn". He proceeded on the describe the decaying mansion covered in fungus that laid in wait befor him. Edgar explained that he was on his way to visit his ill friend whom he had not seen in many years; so for that purpose only he shook off his trepidations he had for the place. Claiming that it was all in his head "I was forced to fall back upon an unsatifactory conclusion, that while beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects ehich have the power of thus affecting us , still the reason, and the analysis, of the…
Fear, horror, death, and gloom are prominent traits of Gothicism, a dark type of Romanticism, a style prominent throughout the 18th and 19th century. Edgar Allan Poe, a well-known gothic writer has written many works, two of his works, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”, are perfect examples of gothic literature. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe introduces the Usher family, an ill and suffering family, both physically and mentally. With only two heirs left, Poe brings the reader through the tale behind the mental paranoidness of Roderick, and the strange physical illness of Madeline. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe introduces the judging of the narrator before sinister judges.…
Throughout the story, it is clear that there is a strong connection between the house and Usher’s insanity which culminates in the house’s collapse after his and Madeline Usher’s deaths. Usher himself realizes that the house is somehow tied to his declining mental state, going so far as to claim that it is alive. The narrator’s relationship with the house follows this pattern in that he feels fearful and sees evidence of the supernatural in the house’s appearance. At the start of the story, the narrator states, “I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” (Poe 234).…
Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is perhaps one of his most debated of all time. There are many completely different interpretations of what Poe might have meant when writing this story. The most agreed upon of these interpretations are natural or psychological and supernatural. The beauty of this story is that both of these takes are perfectly valid in their own ways and have plenty of evidence to back each claim. What makes this short story so good is its openness for interpretation by the reader.…
The Fall of the House of Usher , written by Edgar Allan Poe, digs deep into the mind. Poe is known for his dark, mysterious writing style and this short story is a great example of that. Describing dark and gloomy features all through the story, The Fall of the House of Usher displays a great understanding of isolation through its characters. Loneliness is a destructive force that can cause mental and physical illness or distress. These qualities play a major role throughout, forming a peculiar storyline that unfolds in an unexpected way.…
Edgar Allan Poe’s techniques have indeed proven their efficiency. Not only do they allow the reader to accept the uncanny side of the story, but they also inspire future writers to write similar works based on Poe’s texts. To name a modern classic book that resembles Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, one must not look farther than Stephen King’s 1977 horror novel: The Shining. The critically acclaimed book, which instantaneously lifted Stephen King’s rank among horror authors worldwide, parallels a myriad of devices used in The Fall of the House of Usher.…
The narrator states that the outside of the house looks gloomy and depressing, as well as the inside being spooky and mysterious. Everything that surrounds the house seems to have some kind of deathly, evil look to it. There were decaying trees, murky ponds and the house was disintegrating all together. As the reader meets Roderick and Madeline is obvious that the house could possibly symbolize the lives of the Ushers. Madeline who is sick dies in the story and Roderick decides to bury her in the tomb below the house so scientist would not want to examine her.…
Edgar Allan Poe is the most established Gothic writer of his time, he had the ability to bring the dark and gloomy environment of his tales to life like no other writer. “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Masque of Red Death,” the author has design an unknown world for a reader to enter. Poe had use the color, weather, nature, and the human emotion to bring structure to the dark tone to the setting of these stories. “The Masque of Red Death,” the setting has a figure known a “Red Death” this led to countless souls to dead by this disease. Then “The Fall of the House of Usher” has a setting of mansion isolated from the world there lived Usher’s twins, and their lives become consumed by their own deaths.…
After Madeline returns from the dead and takes the life of her brother, the House itself collapses. Through Poe’s decaying descriptions of the House, it is evident that the House and its surrounding landscape is a symbol of the Usher family lineage (Robinson 69-70). The end of the Usher family lineage is represented by the falling of the House of Usher. The presence of a gruesome death is also apparent in “The Tell-Tale Heart”. In this story, Poe describes in detail the preparation for the murder, and the extent of detail develops fear.…
Symbolic Interpretations of “The Fall of the House of Usher” Edgar Allan Poe is well known for his cryptic, gothic tale of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The narrator arrives at the ghastly house of the Usher family, where his old friends Rodrick, is suffering from a chronic illness. As the story progresses, the narrator as well begins to lose his mind as a result of the cryptic events that occur in the house. The book is filled deeper symbolic meanings.…