“ The Fall of the House of Usher “ by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about a man named Roderick Usher who initiates some events such as evoking his friend The Narrator as a protagonist to the dreadful mansion. The images such as the house and gothic ambience are used to reinforce the idea of giving the mystery to the reader. Edgar Allan Poe uses gothic elements to show how they affect the atmosphere and the characters. In the beginning , the gothic atmosphere of the house is indicated with terrifying images such as “ dull, dark and soundless ” that the feeling of horror vaccinated into reader by the thoughts of the narrator.
The house of Usher looks creepy and dark, also it appears to give off a wave of gloominess. Roderick is dark and gloomy, just like his house, he gives others a feeling of dread and fear. In The Yellow Wall-Paper the narrator resembles the house as a physical person, one who is confined. “It is quite alone standing
“...’The House of Usher’- an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion.” (The Fall of… 415). The mansion and the Usher family essentially are one, and resemble each other. When the family falls apart and Roderick dies, the house does the same. “Be mine, and hereafter there shall be no veil over my face, no darkness between our souls!”
Edgar Allen Poe 's, "Fall of the House of Usher" symbolizes the narrator reaction to witnessing Madeline 's return from the grave and trying to comprehend the supernatural events that take place inside the estate. Also, this includes the narrator observing Roderick Usher losing his mind. His perspective is important because it is an interpretation of his surroundings while visiting the House of Usher and the allegories of the nature of art. From the very first paragraph, the overall suggestion of the story is that the tone is the story if going to be mournful and somber. This is supported by the narrator describing his journey on horseback towards the house.
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
In Edgar Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” the house starts to fall apart. For instance, “...of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base. While I gazed, the fissure rapidly widened”(30). However Julio Cotazar’s “House Taken Over” is similar because Maraline and her brother leave their house without taking anything because they believe something or someone was inside the house. This is proven when the brother goes to get a drink, “I heard noise in the kitchen; if not the kitchen, then the bath, the passage off at that angle dulled the sound.
Throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher,” metaphor and symbolism are heavily relied upon to express the extent of the madness that resides within the Usher House. In the short story, Poe creates a symbolic parallel between the art and stories that are seen and told. It can be implied, from a painting, in the Usher house, that Lady Madeline Usher is still alive. The reader can also imply that there is a hidden tunnel or room under the entirety of the house. “The Mad Trist” indirectly tells the reader of Lady Madeline’s escape from the tomb she had been placed in.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the tone gives off an eerie and bizarre feeling. This is similar to many of Poe’s other short stories but this piece the most. The tone is gloomy compared to “The Black Cat” that Poe has also written. The author starts off the story with immense details of the setting. The readers get a dark vibe from these details.
Darkness can consume a person . In the "Fall of the House of Usher" darkness is seen consuming throughout the story by suspension, symbolism and a gloomy atmosphere. Suspension can be seen consuming of darkness in the use of pacing. In the story of the "Fall of the house of Usher" the narrator 's "sense of insufferable gloom pervaded [his] spirit" (Poe293) by pacing and that "the feeling was unrelieved by any of half-pleasurable" (293). The narrator expresses why it was unbearable and not pleasurable to look at the unattractive house of Usher 's, that his senses becomes miserable and how he believes that he is going to become mad just like his companion Usher.
All elements considered, both authors of these stories are able to successfully create Dark Romanticism. Poe used the house to symbolize Roderick’s deteriorating mental state. The veil which felt like, “preternatural horror was interwoven with the threads of the black crape” (Hawthorne) represented the secret and dark sins possessed by humans. The Fall of the House of Usher does represent Romantic literature in the way it includes elements like imagination and intuition over reason, and torment of the mind and body. But The Minister’s Black Veil has Romantic elements as well, such as talking about the supernatural, individuality, and psychological torment.
The symbols from “The Fall of the House of Usher," written by Edgar Allan Poe, and “Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, sought to use Dark Romanticism to illuminate the mixture of good and evil in human nature. Dark Romanticism is a form of writing that consists of human nature, sins, death, and an abundance of evil to create fearful images that toy with the emotions of its readers. Edgar Allan Poe, a professional at creating such stories, used symbols within his stories to further his Gothic Romantic theme. In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe wrote, “I know not how it was – but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was
Poe is able to describe how anger feels, describe how it feels to love someone than lose them in a matter of seconds, describe how it feels to hate and despise someone with a burning passion, until the reader feels as though they will crack under pressure. Poe’s fantastic grasp on diction and the creation of images in the reader’s mind, can be seen in the The Fall of the House of Usher, when the narrator says “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…” (paragraph 1) . Poe was able to show how the sky looked even though the reader wasn’t able to see it through their own eyes. His words has a certain way to them, to make the reader believe they are standing right next to him as he is writing the story. The imagery in the piece can also materialize the thoughts of the reader to see how the characters are beginning down a slippery-slope toward nothingness.
The end of Roderick’s life is described as, “... in her violent and how final death-agonies bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe 430). Throughout the story, Roderick anticipated that his sister’s spirit would try to attack him because he had always heard her voice
The Role of Art in “The Fall of the House of Usher Art can be expressed within writing pieces, poems and short stories in various types of forms. Edgar Allen Poe uses music as a form of art to help the main character Roderick try to cope with his unstable state of mind. Roderick experiences moral dilemmas and music serves to distort his feelings unintentionally. Simiraily, the ancient greek philosopher Aristotle believed that for a balance of life one needs to encounter the bad experiences in order to feel better and move on to better times.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the author Edgar Allen Poe uses the euphemism “the family lay in direct line of descent” (Poe 1) to show the meaning of incest has on the entire story that which causes guilt, desperation, and homicide. The history of incest in the Usher family and the incest Roderick and Madeline are guilty of causes Roderick to try to dispose of his guilt. He expresses to the narrator that he wishes to destroy this malady he describes as a “constitutional and family evil, and one of which he despaired to find a remedy” (Poe 3). Though the reader could assume that Roderick just talks about the physical illness he possesses that is described. Roderick tries to bury his own personal guilt – his sister, “a tenderly beloved