Symbolism In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

An author's use of literary devices creates mental images for the reader and keeps the reader interested throughout the narrative. In "The Fall of the House of Usher", Poe uses suspense, symbolism, and Gothic elements, such as dark atmospheres, because his purpose is to make the reader anticipate upcoming events in the story.

Suspense is created by a lack of details and making the reader believe there is more. In his visit, the narrator notices that usher is painting a "vault or tunnel"(Poe301) and finds it very suspicious that there is "no outlet"(301) for the confined space, and wonders why Usher would paint a vault. The vault Usher painted is underground and beneath the mansion and is where Usher plans to seal his sister's corpse until

Upon the narrator's visit, he realizes the house had "an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which reeked up from decayed trees, and the gray walls, and the silent tarn"(Poe296) that was also a grayish color. Further into his arrival the narrator feels as if he "breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all."(297) those who entered the ambiance of the house of Usher. This demonstrates that the objects are all of depressing nature and that Usher is affected negatively because he is surrounded by them everyday, resulting in Usher becoming stir-crazy and feeling imprisoned by being encapsulated by the gloomy objects constantly. In the little time the narrator is approaching the house, he describes the house negatively with "bleak walls"(Poe 294) and the "white trunks of the decayed trees"(294) that are to be associated with depressing manner. This expresses that the atmosphere is melancholy and is only capable of producing a gloomy effect to those who enter it. Poe's use of imagery created a dark atmosphere for the entire story and made the reader recognize the