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The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

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The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay
Edgar Allen Poe is a name that conjures up images of haunting dark rooms and dreary landscapes. His poems and short stories explore the inner workings of the human imagination, the parallelism of life and death, the fine line between sanity and madness, the delicate balance of beauty and terror, and the hesitation between a natural and a supernatural explanation of unusual events. “The Fall of the House of Usher” examines these themes in a collision and intermingling of manifold, complex circumstances. Poe uses duality and mirror images, symbolism, and a Gothic tone to convey the terror and fear that overwhelms and finally destroys the House of Usher. Studying the characters and the connections established between them, the symbolism and …show more content…
Rather than attempting to change Rodrick's point of view, the narrator only persists resistance to becoming “ushered.” The narratology shifts focus to the image of Rodrick. He proclaims his fear of going mad. In his mind, the house is causing him, body and soul, to mirror itself. The narrator, attempting to rationalize once again, concludes that Rodrick's condition is the condition of his world. It cause is in the nature of things. Rodrick hesitantly admits "a more natural and far more palpable origin," hence why he send for the narrator as a aversion. As the days go on, Rodrick entertains the narrator with art and poems, all of which the narrator observes reflect the polarities of Rodrick's mental state. As the narrator tells of his and Rodrick's activities and of Rodrick's behavior, his tone becomes increasingly desperate and his efforts to remind the reader of his presence, rather than just reporting the events, increase exponentially. He describes their artistic pursuits: “his long, improvised dirges will ring forever in my ears,” “I hold painfully in my mind,” “(vivid as their images now are before me).” The narrator's very efforts to escape into the present of the narration betray him, for what he wishes to escape in the past awaits him in the

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