Ligeia

According to Webster Merriam, embodiment is defined as “someone or something that is a perfect representative or example of a quality, idea, etc.” In many ways Roderick Usher embodies his own house because of his unstable foundation, isolated nature, and morbid personality. Poe continues to point out similarities of the narrator to his house as he focuses on Roderick himself, the estate’s atmosphere which Roderick’s personality creates, and the peculiar events which take place within the…

In the Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator was visiting his childhood friend, Roderick Usher. This visit took place at the Usher’s estate where Roderick’s sister Madeline was ill with a mysterious disease. The whole story is about the narrator describing the gloomy Usher’s estate and the depressed condition of his friend Roderick. One of the themes in this story is about madness because Roderick Usher is overwhelmed with depression which caused him to go insane. His…

The Real Story of the "Fall of the House of Usher" "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe is a story about the narrator visiting his dear friend, Roderick Usher and Roderick's twin sister, Madeline, who are both very ill. Through the book Madeline passes away and the narrator and Roderick bury her under the house to keep her safe from doctors from stealing her body for an autopsy. Yet, Roderick keeps hearing voices and believes that they have buried her alive and she is trying to…

The short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is gothic fiction and is written by Edgar Allan Poe. Certain elements in the story and the actions of Madeline causes Usher to go completely insane and almost brings the narrator to the brink of insanity. Through specific gothic elements such as emotions and the eerie, mysterious setting, and the supernatural, Poe successfully achieves a suspenseful mood within his short story. At the end of The Fall of the House of Usher, when the house sinks and…

The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story by the famous American author, Edgar Allan Poe. This short story encompases themes of death, incestry, illness, and physical destruction. However, an observation will show that with some of Poe’s other pieces of literature, it can also show a prominent link between the storyline of The Fall of the House of Usher and Poe’s theories and beliefs of the creation and destruction of the universe. Poe has a strong concept of unity in the human perception…

Evil is a present theme in each of these gothic style stories. They all clearly portray the sinful nature of mankind and the wicked each person has within them. The “Fall of the House of Usher” is unique in a way because of the haunted house feeling Poe gives. Though it deals with fear and spiritual entities, the lay out Poe describes so vividly separates this horror story from the rest. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” are the most similar due to the corresponding theme of…

The literary works of Edgar Allan Poe often focus on characters that suffer from some form of mental or physical illness. In his poems and short stories, Poe uses repetition and extensive description to create a relevant atmosphere for the reader. This is especially evident in Poe 's “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Using a narrator to provide an account through a first person perspective, Poe tells a story of two friends whose sanity becomes exceedingly more questionable as the story continues…

“Hell in Isolation” In his short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allen Poe investigates the negative effects of self-isolationism. Roderick Usher, a mentally ill, incestuous, and secluded man, requests the narrator’s help. Upon his arrival, the narrator notices eerie attributes of the “melancholy” (3) house of Usher, while walking through clouds of miasma. The narrator then witnesses Roderick’s extreme paranoia, which stems from his solitude. The narrator also catches…

Edgar Allan Poe often demonstrates a type of madness in his short stories. Many times it comes from the first-person narrator. While the narrators are similar in the fact that they are both insane, they also have a lot of differences in the way that they are insane. A great way to compare the way the insanity differs in the narrators, is to compare two of Poe’s stories. Stories such as “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” do a good job showing the similarities and differences between the…

Point of View in ¨The Pit in the Pendulum¨ Edgar Allen Poe's first person narrator in ¨The Pit in the Pendulum¨ is a strong survivor but being in captivity is driving him insane. In first person the readers become the strong survivor, that is the unreliable prisoner of Poe's famous short story and they get a deeper, and more visceral experience because of it. In first person point of view the reader sees the story through the eyes of the narrator, their view and interpretation of the events.…