What Is The Atmosphere In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Edgar Allan Poe once said, “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?” In the story of The Fall of the House of Usher, the author, Edgar Allan Poe portrays his audience with a sense of darkness and death through the literary techniques he implies.
The description of the house of Usher is described scowling to enhance the reader's attention. When the narrator arrives at the Usher’s house, he presents the setting as “ a dull, dark , and soundless day. (1)“ As he looks “ upon the bleak walls-upon the vacant eye-like windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon

opium--the bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil, (1) “ the house brings down the view of darkness in the presence. This shows that the house of Usher is isolated from the world and the normal of reality. The sudden death occurring slowing from the illness of Roderick and Madeline’s, is creating a separation with nature. This darkness is implying a visual image of the house similar as if it’s a haunted house. If you can imagine a haunted house in your mind, you can see a very small sphere of darkness that no one would dare to go in.
When the narrator sees for himself that Madeline was alive, he is completely shocked to see that death can rise above the ground. He indicates, “ There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold-then, with a low, moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse , and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. (40) “ These lines tell me that Madeline was buried alive by Roderick and the narrator. Roderick knew he buried his sister alive, which brings out the darkness of his soul. What kind of person would entomb their sister’s body within the walls of the house? Roderick was mentally ill and he didn’t wanted to hear the name of his sister be mentioned around him. His darkness came from his mental issues, but all that came into an end. As Madeline fell on top of Roderick, they both die. These two characters were mentally disordered, although it was handled completely different, but there was a sense of “twin connection” that ended their lives. The death of Roderick and Madeline brought out the tone of sorrow at the end.
The narrator was aghast from the death experience of the last generation of the Ushers.

He implies, “ While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened-there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind-the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight-my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder-there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters-and the deep and dark tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “ House of Usher.” (41) “ Since the two twins had a connection with each other, it was also connected to the house of Usher. The mental illness that was killing Roderick and Madeline was also killing the house. This explains why the view of the house was dark and dull because it was within these twins. The twins were also isolated in the world which is why the house is surrounded only by trees. The death of Roderick and Madeline caused the House of Usher to die with them. The death or the fallen collapse of the Usher’s home is an allusion to the death of Roderick and Madeline. The House of Usher is a reference to the twins because they connect with each

other.
The information I am missing out from the story is how Roderick and Madeline received their illness from. The previous generations of the Ushers had slept with each other and this can be the possibility of their cause of illness. To start off, if their illness was caused because of their family sleeping with each other , then this is a dark secret to the reason of their death. Also, I am missing out on the thoughts of Roderick and Madeline throughout the story. The story is in a first-person point of view underneath the the narrator’s experience. Without knowing either Roderick and Madeline’s perspective, then I can’t conclude Roderick’s dark mind as he buries his sister alive nor Madeline’s mind as she tries to get herself out of the entomb.
In a combination of death and darkness, Poe uses these two ideas to imply his literary techniques of the story. Overall, death and darkness is seen through the gothic nature of the Usher home, the return of Madeline from her entomb, and the crumbling house of Usher.