Gothic Elements In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

One of the earliest gothic novels was Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto” from 1764. Since then the same elements used in that novel have been use to create gothic literature. In Professor Robert Harris’ article titled “Elements of the Gothic Novel” he describes ten elements that are present in one way or another in gothic literature. In the following paragraphs I will define these elements of gothic literature outlined by Professor Harris, and explain how Edgar Allan Poe used them in his short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” The setting of gothic literature, as described by Professor Harris, is a castle “sometimes seemingly abandoned, sometimes occupied. The castle often contains secret passages, trap doors, secret rooms,

Professor Harris describes the prophecy as obscure, partial, or confusing. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” it comes in the form of the disease suffered by Roderick. Roderick mentioned that it was “a constitutional and family evil.” In my opinion this constitutes a prophecy that was never blatantly stated, in other words obscure. His family has always suffered from the same disease and he will someday also, is the implied prophecy. Him actually suffering from the disease is the prophecy actually coming

He writes, “Dramatic, amazing events occur, such as ghosts or giants walking, or inanimate objects (such as a suit of armor or painting) coming to life.” The end of the story doubtingly ends with a dramatic and unexplained event. “There was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters — and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “House of Usher.” The question with out a logical answer is, why did the house that aside from a small fissure seemed stable suddenly fall? But even more dramatic and supernatural were the event preceding it. This includes the hearing of sounds by the visitor that coincide with the reading of “Mad Trist”. At one point the visitor explains, “it appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears, what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described.” From this moment on these coincidences increase and culminate with a shield falling in the story being read by the visitor. At this point he says, “No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than — as if a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver — I became aware of a distinct,