Literary Analysis Of The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are most famous for his gothic horror style of writings. He uses detailed description and allows the reader to focus and be more drawn into the story. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren’s analysis of “The Fall of the House of Usher” talked about their version of the breakdown of the story. The tragedy of Usher didn’t have any suspense nor any understanding toward the character of Usher. The suspense was absent due to the hints provided for the instability of the house and the owner’s slow deteriorating health. The character’s background comes from a strange ancient family that has a single branch that carries a strange illness to its descendant. Usher brings his death to himself by his actions. First, the horror presented in this …show more content…

Long- -long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it--yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I dared not--I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--I dared not speak!” (Poe 1205). This makes Usher’s character unlikable, and unsympathetic toward his tragic death. Madeline the wife, He dearly loved, but didn’t come to her aid when she was struggling to stay alive. He deserved the death “he had anticipated” (Poe 1205). It is hard for the readers to show sympathy toward Usher for his tragic death because he, disregarding his wife’s struggling to escape from her death in the casket. Brooks argue that the “story lacks tragic quality…misfortune of a weak person, or the death of a child (Brooks 1700). The character might have been easy to sympathize with if the protagonist went through a devastating event that leaves him worse than death for absurd reason. The readers could then easily be sympathetic toward the character’s struggle, and

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