Insanity In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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Gothic literature uses twisted themes of insanity, murder, sin, and guilt to create captivating stories that question the natural integrity of humans. Edgar Allan Poe is just one of the many gothic writers who turns Romanticism into a dark study of the human mind. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe contemplates the effects of insanity on a family that is already suffering tremendously. Poe’s short story illustrates a mysterious tone when both the setting and the plot are analyzed. Edgar Allan Poe uses the setting of this story to create an air of mystery that lends itself to the tone of the story. When reading the story, it becomes clear that no questions about the setting are ever truly answered, and while the reader is given …show more content…

Just like with the setting, the same can be said about the plot: no questions are truly answered. In the story, the narrator—whoever he is—never fully discloses the details of the lady’s illness. Instead of providing a vivid description of what’s wrong with the lady, he simply states, “She succumbed . . . to the prostrating power of the destroyer,” (418). By leaving out specific details of the lady’s “destroyer,” the reader is left in the dark, along with the narrator, who doesn’t appear to know much more than what is written. The narrator divulges a lot of information for things that are unimportant, but all key plot elements are kept secret, creating a tone of mystery. If the narrator knows what’s going on with the lady, more likely than not, he would tell the reader because he hasn’t left out any other details. Not only does the narrator leave out specific details, he also recognizes that he’ll never know much about what’s going on; he lets the reader know this by saying, “The lady, at least while living, would be seen by me no more,” (418). By acknowledging that he’s never going to see her again while living, he’s also admitting that he’s not sure what’s going on with her; he’s saying that he can’t understand the lady because he doesn’t know the illness she suffers with. If the narrator

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