Examples Of Figurative Language In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

In the short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe, many descriptive words are used to create an eerie mood. Poe’s use of figurative language allows readers to delve into his chaotic view of loss and to experience the mood of despair.
Poe uses figurative language to quickly draw the reader into the story. For example, in the beginning of the story, he personifies the house in saying that it has “vacant eye-like windows,”(Poe 294) and that the house’s horrific appearance is that of “the hideous dropping off of the veil.”(294) His descriptions of the house are luring in the reader in preparation for the story that has already begun.
Poe uses words that draw attention such as “dull”(293), “dark”(293), “dreary”(293), “melancholy”(293),

“rank”(294), and “utter depression.”(294) Words like these reel in the reader, keep them hooked, and strengthen the mood that is being developed in the story.
Poe also uses figurative language to create mood that evokes certain feelings from the reader.

In the beginning of the story, the narrator says that he “...at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.”(293) This leaves the reader imagining the appearance of the house and wonder why the house looks so gloomy and desolate. The figurative language use of the shades being “drew on” also attracts attention and evokes feeling and image. The evening does not have actual curtains to be drawn, but the darkness of the evening does close in. Also, near the start of the story, the narrator describes the large, low, vaporous cloud that is wrapped around the mansion; “--an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn --a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.”(296) The cloud oppresses the reader, making them anxious with anticipation. The cloud is frighteningly described with human like

traits.
Poe’s use of figurative language develops characterization.

Characterization developed in Roderick Usher is represented in the narrator’s descriptions of Usher’s looks. “The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.”(298) The hollowness of Roderick’s face, careless hair hygienics, and the simple inhumane looks that he possesses reveal pieces of his personality that do not connote a healthy or normal man. The narrator’s voicings of Roderick’s actions also reveal a great deal about his demeanor. “He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odours of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.”(298) Usher was very particular and these facts reveal even more of just how strange and mysterious he

is.
Characterization developed in Madeline Usher is well represented in the explanation of her illness and in her wrath towards the end of the story when she “comes back to life.” Madeline’s illness is said to cause “a gradual wasting away of the person,”(300) showing that she appears to have weakness. However, Madeline was still very much alive and not as weak as she seemed. “There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame.”(309) Madeline has a persevering personality.
Characterization developed in the narrator is revealed when he first comes upon the House of Usher. “I know not how it was --but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.” The reader can see that the narrator has little control over his emotions and is easily saddened. “...when I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy --a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me.”
Poe’s creative use of figurative language quickly draws in the reader, evokes mood, and develops characterization. In doing all of these, he concocted a marvelous, creepy short story that has a clever and shocking end.