One central theme seen throughout this story is that madness can derive from one’s environment, including not only physical surroundings but the surrounding people as …show more content…
In the story, Roderick fears fear itself and what could possibly happen in the future, which leads to the narrator feeling the same way. Just as the characters in the story feel frightened, the readers begin to have a sense of fear of what will happen as well. Poe’s usage of dark setting, dismal imagery, and suspenseful plot all work together to instill the single effect of fear within readers, which can be seen as Poe’s ultimate goal (1773).
Poe uses the literary device of setting to convey the themes of the story, some of which include themes revolving around madness, family, and fear. He utilizes a dark and dull environment to set the tone of the plot and introduce a sense of fear within not only the unnamed narrator but the readers as well. Many of the themes in The Fall of the House of Usher are dependant on the extensively detailed setting Poe provides the readers. Poe effectively uses setting not only to accompany and highlight the theme, but uses it as a crucial aspect of the story as a