Comparing The Fall Of The House Of Usher And House Taken Over

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Imagine being inside a house with a mysterious force. Things happening all around you that terrify you. Imagine not being able to explain these phenomena. Both short stories, The Fall of the House Of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe and House Taken Over by Julio Cortazar, provide examples of this horror. Poe’s story implements this through his use of Gothic literary style, including his ominous description of Usher’s house. Whereas, Cortazar uses Magical Realism to make the supernatural seem normal. These two stories have several similarities and many differences. After acknowledging and reading both stories, there are obvious similarities. To inaugurate, both stories create a feeling of mystery and terror. Towards the end of The Fall of the House …show more content…

The narrator describes, “For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold-then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened-there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind-the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight-my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder-there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters-and the deep and dark tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the ‘House of Usher,’” (Poe, 47-48). Carrying on, in House Taken Over, Irene and her brother’s house slowly get taken over by an unknown force, making it very strange and abnormal. According to the passage, “‘I had to shut the door to the passage. They’ve taken over the back part,” (Cortazar, …show more content…

Unlike House Taken Over, the setting is very standard and typical. Nothing seems off, as it's an everyday home. According to Poe, “The dining room, a living room with tapestries, the library and three large bedrooms in the section most recessed, the one that faces toward Rodriguez Pena,” (5) Both quotes indicate the difference in the settings. The Fall of the House of Usher creates a dark, depressing atmosphere, while House Taken Over starts somewhat tedious and gradually becomes unsettling. Secondly, the characters from each story had different reactions to the frightening events. While the characters from The Fall of the House of Usher responded expectedly, the characters from House Taken Over seemed unfazed by the intruder, and they didn’t respond

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