The Fall of The House of Usher written by Edgar Allan Poe, a short story, is written as a gothic romance. Poe included creepier elements in The Fall of the House of Usher than the rest of his works. A reader could take this story in a literal sense, but others could argue that the story is a gathering of hallucinations induced by the mansion itself. All the residents that stayed in the house never broke away from the core of the family tree. Of all generations of the Usher family, only two survived; twins, and both are falling ill. Poe has been known to write with abstract concepts and have disturbing elements to his literature works; The Fall of the House of Usher further strengthens this fact. Poe has a very strange mind and even stranger stories. This could\be considered one of the most disturbing stories he created. Looking closely at the story, one can see that there is only one line of family history throughout the Usher’s family tree. It contains no branches, which suggests incestual relationships, which can cause many illnesses in descendents. You see this when both of the surviving family members, Madeline …show more content…
He stayed with Roderick after his sister died to make sure he’d be okay. The narrator was doing everything he could to make Roderick happy again. As time progresses the narrator decided to read a book to the mentally unstable Roderick. The narrator was unable to realize the chaotic situation he was facing in the mansion. He hid a body for someone he hasn’t talked to in years, and now he is reading this man a book to attempt bettering his mood. As he was reading the book he was falling under the same illness as Roderick. He heard noises that went along with the story and so did Roderick. He kept reading to him even though he knew something was wrong. This scenario really shows his state of mind. He couldn’t reason good from bad. He couldn’t tell when he was in danger and when he was
In “Fall of the House of Usher”, the setting takes place at the house of Usher, whose friend, the main character, comes to visit because Usher is dying. He travels through the house, visiting the family members and sees the house is in a serious state of disrepair. A theory on the story
In the story, “The Fall of The House of Usher”, there are many mysterious happenings that go on throughout the story between the characters Roderick Usher and the narrator. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe uses themes such as madness and insanity to connect the house back to Roderick Usher. In the “Fall of The House of Usher”, the narrator goes through many different experiences when arriving to the house. The narrator’s experiences start out as almost unnoticeable in the beginning, turn into bigger ones right before his eyes, and end up becoming problems that cause deterioration of the mind and the house before the narrator even decides to do anything helpful for Roderick and his mental illness. In “The Fall of The House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe uses comparison between the physical House of Usher and the family of Usher to describe that looks can be deceiving and that little problems can lead to later downfall.
The works of Edgar Allan Poe consist of many aspects of gothic literature, The Fall of the House of Usher especially. The tragic, horrible nature of the characters, bizarre situations, and events in the story perfectly shape it into a masterpiece of gothic literature. Everything in this short story, from the description of the house, to when the house falls in the end, it all creates a dark, gothic theme and environment. “-and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the ‘House of Usher’”(Poe
It begins as the narrator is trying to calm down Usher. He reads a story and similarities begin to take place, “it appeared to me that, from some very remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears, what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which Sir Lancelot had so particularly described.” These similarities begin to further unnerve the narrator until he notices Roderick Usher has turned he chair to face the door and is saying nonsense. “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!” It is then that the narrator fully grasps the situation and after Roderick finishes they both look up to see Madeline Usher covered in blood standing in the door way. She attacks her brother in her last struggle and the narrator deathly afraid and paranoid for his sanity flees the house with great haste to watch it fall into the marsh as Usher had predicted with his gloomy sayings. This truly terrifies the narrator and leaves him horrified and truly shaken from what has happened. With this ending
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, a man named Roderick Usher sent an urgent letter to the narrator- an old childhood friend, asking him to come to his home to keep him company. Roderick explained he has a nervous illness and would appreciate the presence of a supportive friend. Even though the narrator only remembers Usher as a childhood memory, he immediately left to go see him. His time at the House of Usher was terrifying. After always seeing the house as a mystery from the outside and knowing that their family always ended in an “unsatisfactory conclusion,” (Poe 2706) the narrator experienced the disturbing trapped inside life of Roderick Usher and his twin sister, Madeline.
In the story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe presents the history of the end of an illustrious family. As with many of Poe’s stories, setting and mood contribute greatly to the overall tale. Poe’s descriptions of the house itself as well as the inhabitants thereof invoke in the reader a feeling of gloom and terror. This can best be seen first by considering Poe’s description of the house and then comparing it to his description of its inhabitants, Roderick and Madeline Usher.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
In the article, “Dead Woman Wailing: Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Fall of the House of Usher’” by Norman, head-on he reveals a haunting tone to this story. His statements led you to believe the language of the narrative immediately brings the reader into the surreal and horrific world of the Ushers as the unnamed narrator describes his approach to the exterior of the House of Ushers. Norman gives the reader an arousing feeling of apprehension and claustrophobia that conveys and supports some of the story's larger themes and expresses a unified artistic feeling. Norman conveys a comprehensive analysis of details that summarises the valid points of the story. The most immediately striking aspect of the introductory paragraph of the story is the expression of the haunting tone.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe writes of psychic and supernatural occurrences that the narrator and both Madeline and Roderick experience. Poe writes these scenes with a fair amount of ambiguity and horror so that the true reason for the family’s dismay is unclear. Being the man that he is, a horror expert who invokes fear and new phenomenon in the mind of the reader, “The Fall of the House of Usher” does just that. The greatness of Poe is that he is able to raise an unearthly terror, which comes from a vague and unclear source. The couple has been secluded for an extended period of time with little visitors, which could drive anyone insane. Insanity is the first impression the reader interprets from reading the short
In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the point of view is told from our unknown narrator, whom comes to help fix the house, and help comfort Roderick Usher, but does not end up helping him. Also the main theme is evil since the house is evil. After Roderick buries his dead sister, Madeline, she comes back to life and kills Roderick, the unknown narrator runs for his life, and watches the house collapse. In the other themes, madness and insanity, is because Roderick is having mental and emotional breakdowns because of his sister’s death. AN interesting fact about Poe is that he loved cats. Poe’s own cats name was Catterina.
Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of American Literature's legendary and prolific writers, and it is normal to say that his works touched on many aspects of the human psyche and personality. While he was no psychologist, he wrote about things that could evoke the reasons behind every person's character, whether flawed or not. Some would say his works are of the horror genre, succeeding in frightening his audience into trying to finish reading the book in one sitting, but making them think beyond the story and analyze it through imagery. The "Fall of the House of Usher" is one such tale that uses such frightening imagery that one can only sigh in relief that it is just a work of fiction. However, based on the biography of Poe, events that surrounded his life while he was working on his tales were enough to show the emotions he undoubtedly was experiencing during that time.
No matter what your interpretation of “The Fall of the House of Usher” may be, it is almost impossible to deny it as one of the greatest short stories ever written. It stands as one of the many great testaments to the literary genius of Edgar Allan Poe and helps affirm his high ranking of American history.
Edgar Allan Poe applies a variety of examples of this feel in the short story. An example of the feel of the genre is “the haunted mansion, haunted siblings, bewildering corridors, and eerie chambers,”(Fisher 88). The so-called feel of the Gothic genre is so well represented in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” that it makes a great argument that it positively is a representation of the Gothic genre and not for the Gothic parody. An obvious clue that Poe left behind was the death. In which, most Gothic genre ends with a death or some kind of terrible ending ,yet in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the conclusion of the short story is a basic ending to the story because this type of genre is dark. Therefore, the feel of the genre is heightened when the literary device, Gothic double, is used throughout “The Fall of the House of
Edgar Allen Poe is the author of The Fall of the House of Usher, he is known to write his tales in a vague manner, making it hard to interpret his stories the same each time. The Fall of the House of Usher fits in to this category perfectly. The story begins with a man going to visit and old friend after his friend, Roderick Usher, makes a cry of distress to him. When the reader is first introduced to Roderick we are told about his demeanor
The Fall Of The House of Usher is a terrifying tale of the demise of the Usher family, whose inevitable doom is mirrored in the diseased and evil aura of the house and grounds. Poe uses elements of the gothic tale to create an atmosphere of terror. The decaying house is a metaphor for Roderick Usher’s mind, as well as his family line. The dreary landscape also reflects his personality. Poe also uses play on words to engage the reader to make predictions, or provide information. Poe has also set the story up to be intentionally ambiguous so that the reader is continually suspended between the real and the fantastic.