(An Analytical Essay on the Importance of Setting) Several key components make up the two stories of The Fall of the House of Usher and Where is Here?. Components like dialogue, character description, word choice, plot, etc, but one of the big players in these two short stories is most definitely setting. Dialogue and plot are certainly important to these stories, but without their specific and clever setting styles, these stories would be just another Young Authors honorable mention. The setting of both The Fall of the House of Usher and Where is Here exhibit interesting qualities, essentially showing the importance of setting.
Initially, both short stories share a fair amount of obvious differences. The setting of Usher is set in no specific time, although it can be derived that it is well into the past. Most of the rising action and climax happen in a large, dark, creepy house, the house of Usher. The setting of Where is quite different; set at what is assumed present time, the story takes place in an ordinary family home, as directly quoted, “For years they had lived without incident in their house in a quiet residential neighborhood...” How does this exhibit the importance of setting? If …show more content…
The fact that both the stories share the odd and disturbing settings, but those settings are completely different as well, makes for an interesting mood. The atmospheric setting of Usher is one of great gloom, depression, and horror. The narrator speaks of how the house itself seemed to be effecting him, “Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste...” If the setting of this story was in a brightly meadow, the words would have no effect. The atmosphere of the setting in the story is essentially what makes up the story, and determines how powerful it can