Transformation In The Fall Of The House Of Usher: A Short Story

“When we look across time and across the world, we find that people can truly become afraid of anything.” This quote by Allegra Ringo explores why and how people get scared. In writing, something used to create fear in the reader is transformation. Transformation in stories is when something changes from itself into something else. Often when something changes from itself into something else, like a werewolf, it is scary. Authors can use transformation to create fear through supernatural events, death and the unknown. Transformation can be used through supernatural events in stories. For example, ghosts, like the entities in House Taken Over, are used in many stories. Ghosts scare people because they are supernatural forces that have gone

The stranger in “Where is Here” is not introduced as a particularly malicious character, but people are naturally scared of things they don’t know, such as strangers.A character in “Where is Here” states, “He could be anyone, after all. Any kind of thief, or mentally disturbed person, or even murderer” (Oates 70). When people are introduced to something unfamiliar or mysterious, they are scared because someone normal like the stranger could transform into someone evil through their actions or words. In “The Fall of the House of Usher, reailty is questioned as the main character experiences his childhood friend’s house and mental anguish.When reality, something seemingly set in stone, is questioned, people are scared because it is foreign. The narrator questions his own mind in the story, stating, “I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity…” (Poe 15). Going from being sure of what’s happening to not having the assurance of reality is transformation being used by Poe for fear in movies. In the movie “Fear of the Dark” it is based around a phobia of the unknown that lies in the dark. A quote from the movie is, “You don’t understand, the dark isn’t just the dark,” showing the character is afraid of what he doesn't know. Consequently, the dark goes from being the

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Lady Madeleine goes from being dead to being alive. This happens as the narrator states, “It was the work of a rushing gust- but then without those doors there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the Lady Madeleine of Usher” (Poe 30). Death is a terrifying concept for people and the transformation of both alive to dead and dead to alive is scary. Moreover, when Georgie dies in “IT” it is scary because he is the first to die. In this scene Pennywise says, “Want your boat, Georgie?” (King “IT”). This part of the book is very important because it transforms the story from an almost regular story to a story where children are killed by clowns and this allures the reader. Additionally, another case of someone going from alive to dead is the stranger in “Where is Here.” This is different because he was previously believed to be alive while he was not. This was established in the quote, “We’ve all been dead- they’ve all been dead- a long time” (Oates 73). This is used in many stories because a character that's been dead the whole time is scary. Death is used in so many scary stories because it is a concept that all people- to some extent- are scared of, and death appears in stories using transformation. The use of transformation in scary stories is important because without it the story is not alluring or interesting. Elements such as death, supernatural events, and the unknown have