Summary: (1) The Narrator experiences the doom and gloom of a man he once knew in childhood. His surroundings and feelings are told of his visit to the House of Usher, upon receiving a letter beckoning him to come, for the man he once knew, did not have another friend in the world to reach out to. (2) When he arrives he has an unnerving feeling about the estate itself, noting the iciness and the dreadful, sorrowful impression of the house. (3) He is re-acquainted with his friend Roderick Usher and notices on sight of him that he is a shell of the person he once knew in their childhood. (4) For the next few days the narrator painted and read with Roderick, or he just listened to him play his guitar, trying to help him out of his slump. During this time we find out that Roderick does not live in the house alone his sister, Madeline, who we find has a mysterious sickness, walks by them a single time and is not see or heard from again until her death. (5) Roderick’s sister dies and he asks his friend to help him in the arrangements of her temporary…
The Fall of the House of Usher is another horror fiction story written by Edgar Allen Poe. It is set in a large, decaying, old house where many crazy and creepy things begin to happen, and the fear factor is raised while reading this story due to the fact that Poe wrote it in the first-person point of view. This viewpoint brings out more terror and instills more fear into readers because they feel what the main character or narrator feels. This can send chills up and down readers' spines for the mere…
Most Edgar Allen Poe stories contain a haunting and eerie tone and this short story proves no exception. “The Fall of the House of Usher” revolves around the narrator's childhood friend, Roderick Usher. Roderick suffers from an undisclosed mental illness and Roderick’s sister, Madeline, is near death, when introduced. When Madeline appears to be dead Roderick decides to bury her in an underground vault. The days following this incident Roderick’s normal countenance fades and he goes mad. Afterwards, Madeline escapes from the vault, kills Roderick and the house splits down the middle and sinks into the ground. In Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, various critics argue that the story contains supernatural influences demonstrated…
Death, murder, and depression are a few of Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite areas to write about. This is a vital reason his pieces are considered Gothic Literature. Gothic Literature, also referred to as “brooding romantics,” explored the capacity for evil. These writers arranged their works with emphasis on emotion, nature, and the individual. However, they did not center their matters on positivity as the other romantics did. Instead, they often included elements of fantasy and the supernatural. Poe’s short story, Fall of the House of Usher, contains all of the assets essential to a Gothic Literature piece, including grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events.…
In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the house is compared to the owner in a few different ways. Edgar Allan Poe, the author, uses the House of Usher as a symbol to the owner. He uses personification on the house and compares it with Roderick Usher’s eyes, hair, and overall appearance.…
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 7th ed. Ed. Nina Baym. New York & London: Norton. 689-701…
The Fall of the House of Usher, written by Edgar Allen Poe is more then a spooky bedtime story. Published in 1839, it made itself famous before the Revolutionary War. This time period, often referred to as the American Renaissance, was the period during which many of the literary works most widely considered American masterpieces were produced. In the text, we get this description of the Ushers mansion, which almost seems to have a character of its own. The detail Poe put into the mansion, means that it is more then just a place to live but a symbol of what the people inside are like too.…
Poe uses his word choice wisely to make the tone of his short story more horrific to the reader. He uses his word choice in a frightful way to scary or make everything suspenseful like a horror film. An example of Poe’s suspensefulness to illustrate the tone:…
Even though we do not know the name of the Narrator, it is almost as if we are looking through his eyes as he approaches the House of Usher. He has been lifelong friends with Roderick Usher, who sends him a note asking for him to help. Roderick’s sister, Madeline, suffers from catalepsy and he suspects that she will die soon. Considering they are the last of the Usher living bloodline, Roderick feels that he and Madeline should make a baby to keep the name bloodline going. When she denies him, he gets mad at her and when she “dies” he buries her not knowing that she is still alive.…
The short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, uses a rational first person narrator to illustrate the strange effects the house has on the three characters within it. Everything about the house is dark and supernaturally evil, and appears to convey some fear that is driving its occupants insane. The narrator enters the story as a man with a lot of common sense and is very critical of the superstitious Usher, but he himself senses these same powers only he tries to escape the reality of the phenomena by reasoning or focusing on something else. Edgar Allen Poe, the author of this short story, is trying to show through the narrator that the denial of our fears can lead to insanity, much the same way it has already turned Usher insane and is slowly but surely acting upon the narrator.…
The supernatural, the emphasis of nature, and exotic locations were used in Edgar Allan Poe's works. Poe's story "The Fall of the House of Usher" involved the work of the supernatural. Usher was saddened by the loss of his sister to an illness. Strange things begin to happen as the narrator arrives: the outside is filled a strange, ghastly…
One way in which Edgar Allan Poe presents the setting is with the description of lighting. (538:2) “I put in a dark lantern, all closed, so that no light shone out.” As the main character went into the house he was trying to not draw attention to himself. (538:3) The narrator describes the room as “black as pitch with a thick darkness,” which gives the reader an idea of the time of day and where exactly the story is taking place. (541:3) “It was four o’clock -- still dark as midnight.” He uses an expression to explain how dark it was in the room.The lighting gave an important clue to the time and the type of place the characters were in.…
At the beginning of the story, the narrator comes upon “the melancholy House of Usher”(Edgar Allen Poe 264). Immediately Poe’s description of the house sets the atmosphere for the story and begins building on Poe’s single effect of terror. “With the first glimpse of the building a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit”at the mere presence of the house the narrator is over come with sadness(264). As the narrator goes into a deeper description of the house, the reader can begin to visualize the dark and scary house with rotting trees surrounding it and old molding bricks creating its structure. “Dark draperies hung upon the wall,” shows the house’s visual appearance and atmosphere do not get any clearer within. The interior of the house compliments the house’s dark and decaying outwardly appearance. The narrator describes the house as having “many darken intricate passages”with very large sad tapestries and ebon…
“The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Young Goodman Brown” both are examples of Gothic Fiction; which combines horror, fiction, death, and sometimes romance. It is expected to find mysterious characters and creepy settings in this genre. In “The Fall of The House of Usher”, the setting is in a spooky old mansion. The…
Poe’s use of single effect in “The Fall of the House of Usher” is quickly seen through the setting from the first line of the story. Poe conveys a creepy tone when he describes the setting as a “dull, dark, and soundless day” leaving the reader with a eerie feeling. The author expresses a vigorous manner…