Examples Of Foreshadowing In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Baltabek Bagytbay

The Fall of the House of Usher

3) What instances of foreshadowing can you find in this tale? Start with the title.

There are many instances of foreshadowing in “The fall of the House of Usher.” For example, the title tells us that the Usher House is going to be destroyed in some way. At the end of the story the house becomes destroyed by a storm and the last two remaining members of the Usher family die. This tells us the title was meant to foreshadow the death of the usher legacy and the destruction of the house.

Another example of foreshadowing in the House of Usher is when Rederick is describing lady Madeline’s disease and he mentions that it is probably the last time he will see her. This is an example of foreshadowing

because he states that he MAY never see her again while she is living There is also a faint blush on her face, indicating that Lady Madeleine may still be alive. In the story Rederick sees lady Madeline again when she tries to attack him just before the house collapses. This proves that this is an example of foreshadowing.
Another example of foreshadowing occurs when the narrator is reading to his friend. As he reads, he hears sounds that match what is happening in the book. At first he thinks it is his imagination, but then realizes that it is happening too many times to be a coincidence. This is happening at the same time lady Madeline is escaping her tomb. This is an instance of foreshadowing because it shows that lady Madeline will escape from her tomb which is under the narrator's room.
Another example of foreshadowing is when Rederick is playing songs that are supposedly random, but the narrator thinks that they are rehearsed. This is an example of foreshadowing because it is abnormal in the story that the narrator thinks that seemingly random songs are rehearsed. The song is foreshadowing what will happen to Rederick at the end of the story by showing you how it parallels to Redericks life and what will happen later on in the story. In the song you can see that Rederick used to be happy and smart, but then his mental sickness took over and made him become crazy. The evil in the song can match the mental sickness that Rederick is facing right now. It eventually shows Redericks collapse and eventual demise at the end of the story.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” there are hints of foreshadowing from the title to near the end of the story. Some have come from the narrator and some have came straight from the author. They are important because they show how important events will happen later in the story.
2)
The narrator in the story tends to focus more on the House of Usher, shifting our perspective to align with his. Because of the limited amount of information about the narrator in the story, the audience will focus more on the House of Usher rather than the narrator. This gives the reader a sense of the House of Usher.
The narrator also makes the story seem more bizarre or strange. Many times over the narrator makes claims about how difficult it is to understand the House of Usher. For example, “I lack words to express the full extent, or the earnest abandon of his persuasion.” He does this repetitively, making it seem as if the events that take place in the story are stranger or worse than they appear.
The narrator also makes many prophetic statements in the story. He states that the random song that Rederick played was rehearsed, which foreshadowed the death of Roderick. He also starts to notice that events were happening in correspondence to the book he was reading to Rederick, which was at the same time Lady Madeline was escaping from her tomb. This can make the story all the more strange and spooky to the reader.
Another way the narrator affects the story is giving us the feeling of being helpless. In the story the narrator is nameless and we are given little information about him. When he visits the house he does not impact many events in the story, he just narrates or views them. When the narrator comes to the House of Usher he is unable to help Roderick in any way. His attempts to cure him or comfort him fail. He also goes unnoticed by Lady Madeline twice in the story. When Lady Madeline was alive the narrator is unnoticed while she was walking in the corridor. Possibly because he was too far away or it was just something else. He also goes unnoticed when Lady Madeline returns from the dead, and she completely ignores him despite the fact that they are in the same room and goes after her twin brother.
It is also possible that the narrator serves as a FOIL for Roderick who is losing his sanity, while the narrator is a rationalist. This helps the reader become more distraught by Rodericks loss of sanity in the story.
The narrator’s role in the story also contributes to the unity of effect. Since we know little information about the narrator we tend to focus more on the House of Usher. This allows the author to create a gloomy mood in the story by allowing the author to change the way we perceive the House of Usher.
The narrator affects the story by making it more mysterious, intriguing, and bizarre. He gives surprising information on events that will happen in the future. He makes the story seem more ambiguous, contributes to the unity of effect, and tells the story from the perspective of an outsider.
In most of Poe’s stories the narrator’s are often deranged murderers or crazy men, however in “The Fall of the House of Usher” this does not seem to be the case. Based on The House of Usher we can tell that the narrator is sane, but mysterious. Although we know he is sane we do not know his name. We also know the narrator is very different from the Usher family. The narrator is rational and sane, but is incapable of understanding the mental world of the Ushers. Based on this, the author probably wants to give us the perspective of an outsider and wants us to trust the narrator. The author probably also wants to make events in the story seem more realistic and gloomy by shifting our focus to the House of Usher.
Since we know the narrator is sane the reader will probably focus more on the House of Usher rather than the narrator. This helps the author set up the unity of effect. Which causes the mood of the story to seem more gloomy, by which the author makes the House of Usher seem more dark and depressing. The author does this by creating the setting, character personality, and plot to have one effect. In this case the author uses a gloomy effect by making all the other elements of his story darker.
It also gives the reader a sense of helplessness and claustrophobia because all of the narrator’s attempts to help the Ushers fail.

The narrator is feels trapped by the need to help his friend and is only able to escape the house at the last minute before it is destroyed. In addition to this, all of the narrator’s attempts to help Usher family fail, leaving the narrator alone at the end of the story.

Due to the fact we can trust the narrator, the events in the story seem more realistic and depressing. The author also makes statements about how futile it is to describe the house of Usher. He does this repetitively, emphasizing how mysterious and strange the House of Usher really is. Which makes the story more mysterious.

I believe the author choose a different kind of narrator to make the story seem more gloomy and mysterious, while also giving the reader the feeling of helplessness and claustrophobia. He did this to use the unity of effect to make the story more dark and mysterious. He achieved this effect by making the narrator more sane and giving us an outsider perspective of the House of Usher.

1)
Although many of Poe’s stories contain stereotypical characters, “The “Fall of the House of Usher” is different from most of Poe's stories. In most of Poe’s stories the narrators are often deranged murderers or crazy men. However the narrator in the story is rational and sane. Many other characters in Poe’s stories are also different. Roderick is an almost ordinary person suffering from a strange mental disease, while Lady Madeline is a character who dies early in the story and becomes and ghost and scares Roderick to the point of death. These three main characters are examples of characters you do not often see in many of Poe’s stories.
In the story the “The Fall of the House of Usher” , a nameless character comes to visit his friend when he receives a message from him. The message tells him that he is sick and wants to see him. He arrives at the mansion at the same time that Lady Madeline dies(Roderick’s sister). The narrator tries to help Roderick from his depression and his insanity, but his efforts are in vain. At the end of the story Lady Madeline appears and Roderick dies from fear. The narrator flees the house when he sees Lady Madeline right before it is destroyed from a storm.
The narrator is a contrast from most of Poe’s stories that contain deranged murderers or crazy men.

It makes the story a lot more different from the other ones. Since the narrator is unable to understand the mind of the Ushers we get to see the House of Ushers from an outsider perspective. In the story he also makes the story seem more realistic and mysterious. Since the narrator is sane we believe he is trustworthy, and this makes the fact that he saw Lady Madeline as a ghost more scary and spooky. The narrator also differs from Poe’s stories because he also has the ability to foreshadow important events in the story, make the story more mysterious, and give the reader the feeling of helplessness. This helps make this story significantly more different from his other

stories.
The narrator often foreshadows many important events in the story, such as the fate of Roderick and Lady Madeline’s escape from the tomb. When Usher is playing a random song, the narrator thinks it is rehearsed, hinting that the events in the song are going to come true. He also realizes that the events in the book he reads also come true. Which foreshadowed Lady Madeline’s escape from the tomb. This is interesting because the narrator is rational and does not believe in superstitious things, yet he is forced to believe them and see them. This makes the story seem even more mysterious while creating the unity of effect Poe wanted.
Roderick is also very different from many of Poe’s stereotypical characters. He lives in a house and has an ordinary sickness, most likely from incest. He does not do anything outwardly strange in the story and lives in a big castle. This is fairly different from most of Poe’s characters who are deranged murderers.
Lady Madeline is also different from many of the narrators in Poe’s stories. She dies early in the story and becomes a ghost.
I believe “The Fall of the House of Usher” is over critiqued for having stereotypical characters. The three main characters in the fall of the house of usher are far different from many of Poe’s stories and are unique to the story in their own way.