Poe joined the United States Army in 1827. After he got dishonorably removed. He decided to continue his studies at West Point. He lasted a year until he was thrown out. Poe moved in with his aunt and her beautiful daughter, by the name of Virginia.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest gothic tales. It captures exactly what it means to be a gothic short story; it has a gloomy musky surrounding, seems to always be night time, there's a mansion/castle that is falling apart, and two sick dying people that are struggling to live in it, and an unnamed narrator. The characters on the story are on the brink of insanity, or a mental breakdown. Poe’s constant obsession of death, and the insane measures humans will go through to avoid it are not scarce in this short story. When the story first begins, we learn that our narrator is visiting his old friend Roderick Usher.
Take for example, the castle. From the beginning of the story, the narrator purposefully describes the castle in great detail. He states, "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime," (249) speaking of the exterior of the castle. In this scene, the reader understands how the house and its surroundings, is symbolic of the deteriorating physical and mental health of Roderick and the Usher siblings. Another example of symbolism in "The Fall of the House of Usher," is evident in the description of the interior of the house by the narrator.
The story’s first sentence gives the reader a description of setting, and mood. “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.” From the beginning, the reader starts to picture the narrators surrounding, while stirring a sense of mystery. In the quote, the words “dull, dark, and soundless” along with the season of “autumn” paints the scene to be gray, and grim. The reader is also introduced to the “melancholy” House of Usher.
Edgar Alan Poe sets the stage for a dark and dim reality of fate in his work “The Fall of the House of Usher.” He uses many descriptive scenes to lay place to the eerie gothic tale that unfolds. The narrator describes the exterior of the house as having “vacant and eye-like windows” (92), and being covered in “minute fungi” (93). Before even entering the mansion the reader is filled with a tremor. Stepping into the house one will find “sombre tapestries”(94) and “phantasmagoric armorial trophies” (94).
The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder,strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him.
Although only subtle, details such as "bleak walls," "vacant eyelike windows," and "white trunks of decayed trees" still manage to set the initial mood. Immediately afterwards, more vivid descriptions of this house are brought upon the eyes of the reader. The mood is intensified tremendously with descriptions of "an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven," "discoloration of ages, " and "extraordinary dilapidation." Throughout the rest of the story, the characteristics of the story only submerged deeper into the quagmire of sinister feelings until the
The eye belongs to a living human, yet with the narrator 's uneasiness, he finds a way to not only get rid of the eye, but the old man as well. Throughout the entire story, the author was able to incorporate description, symbolism, and inner thought, to build suspense. To start off, Edgar Allan Poe used an abundant amount of inner thought, which was able to build suspense when reading. Inner thought is often used to reveal what the characters are thinking during certain parts of the story. In “The Tell Tale Heart”, what the author does is incorporate a first person point of view.
Poe describes the House of Usher, “The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. ” (416). Poe describes one of the rooms in the house using words that make the room seem uninviting. This makes the setting of the room sound dull and unwelcoming. The settings Poe uses throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher” sets the atmosphere of horror and
In Poe’s gothic tragedy, “The fall of the House of Usher”, it entails the unfolding story of a tragic family downfall and the connections between the family and of the estate. The narrator takes the readers onto a journey that illustrates Roderick’s mental anguish afflicted by an ‘unknown’ presence in the mansion-whom consequently is later revealed to be his deceased sister, Madeleine. This excerpt is written to analyze the themes of identity and its connection to the representation of humanity’s dual nature. Throughout the story, the term “House of Usher” is used a reference to both the mansion and the family bloodline, the Ushers. The addition of the word ‘fall’ alludes to both the physical destruction of the house as well as a metaphor
These elements Poe employs to guide the story work so well together to create an enveloping story rich with tension and looming horror that it has to be one of Poe’s greatest works. Symbolism through setting is how Poe mainly reveals the story to the reader, but he never revealing too much; success of this story can be accredited to his ample use of symbolism, while still leaving a lot to be questioned. The setting Poe gives the House of Usher is a key element for foreshadowing the fate and condition of Roderick Usher and his manor. The unnamed narrator’s journey to the House of Usher is one described as: “a soundless day when the clouds hung oppressively in the heavens...in a dreary tract of country...found myself upon the melancholy house of usher” (). Upon
It was never my intention throughout the process of adapting The Fall of the House of Usher into a screenplay to fundamentally alter the source material; rather I sought to take the classical gothic elements that Poe employs in all of his narrations and take them to the next level. The Fall of the House of Usher holds a bit of a special place in my heart as it was the first time I was introduced to Edgar Allan Poe’s writings around the age of twelve or thirteen. I fell in love with the sheer drama of it: the idea that the macabre could be tied up with madness in such beautifully written and described packaging as Poe did it. Aside from the source text of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, I relied heavily on another piece of literature
His father left Poe and his mother early in his life. After that, when Poe was three years old his mother passed away. Following the death of his mother, he was separated from his siblings. Poe went to live with John and Frances Allan. John Allan was a successful tobacco merchant that lived with his wife in Richmond, Virginia.
Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, critic and editor. His best work comes from his short stories and poems which made people around the world read his works. One of his best written novels is called “Tell tale heart” and is about a man whom was irritated by a old man’s eye. The man could not bare seeing the old man with his “evil eye”, and therefore thought that the only way of getting rid of it was to kill the old man. When the police later on came to investigate what has happened, the man hears the sound of a beating heart which gets louder in his head for every minute that passes by.
This is in the beginning of the story, where the narrator has arrived at the house and his describing its depressing appearance. The house reflects upon the character of Usher, as a metaphor. The description of the house is not only sad and as if it could crumble, but a bit creepy, which could also be used to describe Usher. Usher’s character is basically insane and his mind is falling apart just like his