Edgar Allan Poe is a major American Poet of the Nineteenth Century. He is also known for his achievements in short fiction and criticism for American Literature. In Poe's tales he uses setting to set the mood and to foreshadow certain things in his essays.
In the two stories, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, setting is used in great detail to help set the mood and tone of the stories. The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Poe's best-known and admired stories. This story is about a young nobleman, haunted by a family curse. In the story he buries his sister after she falls into a cataleptic trance (Critical 1644). The first part of the story is devoted to a description of the house and surroundings (Magill's 2105). This quote is taken directly from the story; “upon the vacant eye-like windows -upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees- with on utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation…”( Stoudt 73). In this quote he is explaining the description of the house, but is also using symbolism to resemble a person (Szumski 175). He is describing the house, as a person, because the house is believed to be haunted.
“It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression…” (Stoudt 74). In this quote he is explaining the reflections that is being seen. In the pool's reflection inverted images are seen. The images seen are described as a human head. Vacant and eye-like windows, the web-like fungi resembling Usher's hair are just a few examples. The House of Usher is referring to both the family and the family mansion. These are yet more symbols of the interior of a disordered mind (Szumski 171).
Another Example of short story, written by Poe, is The Cask of Amontillado. The plot of this story