Dark remote settings, maniacal events, mental and physical torment, and robust language containing treacherous meanings are ingredients that encompass the Gothic style. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, demonstrates how he adopts components of the Gothic style as a way to deliver fear to the narrator and the reader. As the narrator, we are never given his name, views the House of Usher for the first time, he is absorbed with despair as a result of the spectacle before him. “I looked
Written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839, The Fall of the House of Usher, is one of the most important gothic stories in the American Literature. The story shows the virtuosity of Poe in “the creation of a psychological state of terror, loneliness and wickedness of his characters” (Howarth), and also the excellence in the using of figurative speech to create parallelism between the characters and the rest of the elements in the story. The aim of this paper is to examine how the incest instead of keeping a bloodline intact, eventually destroys an entire family generating its complete disappearance. In The Fall of the House of Usher incest is explored in a very subtle way. Traditionally “incest has been done by Royal or aristocratic families in order
“ 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. Additionally , the house that the narrator mentions is illustrated as “ mansion of gloom “ which might be a sign that the aura of the house has something dreadful in it.
Poe was interested in madness, detective stories, and has perceived themes like death and decay.58 A new innovation to the gothic that appears in the mid-nineteenth century is the Sensation novels. Sensation mode is derived from Radcliffean style of evoking terror , suspense, and mystery. It is regarded as a sub- genre of the gothic . Sensational novel deals mainly with senses. It is called so, because it makes the readers feel intense senses: fear, horror, excitement, suspense and anxiety.
The symbols within the stories of these great writers revealed the impending darkness and gloom that characterized Dark Romanticism. 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.
Edgar Allan Poe uses art in “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Haunted Palace” to create an emotion-filled setting changing readers perceptions and illustrates imagery of the decline from happiness to sadness. Art in “The Fall of the House of Usher” is structured to create a mysterious atmosphere at the beginning of the passage to carry through the rest of the short story. The author uses the description of the setting to trigger emotions for the reader by using an eerie landscape surrounded by darkness. Specifically, the short story conjures a sense or fear for the reader as depicted when the narrator describes the setting, “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 subline” (Poe 160). His description of the setting is used to create a picture in the reader minds of not only what his eyes are seeing, but also what his emotions are as he arrives at The House of Usher.
Hume also supports this claim by stating that the creature, which was meant to be beautiful, reflects in its outward form Victor’s inward deformity. He gives an example with the early history of the monster that craves love, which is an ironic reproduction of Frankenstein 's personality, for he can neither express love, nor respond properly to human emotions. The result of this intercourse between Gothic and Romantic elements is a novel that is far more complex and sophisticated than the work of many of her contemporaries by provoking philosophical, ethical and moral questions left to the reader to answer, as said by Nicole
“The Tell-Tale Heart” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, which a story that revolves around the vivid memory of the narrator’s calculated moves, from inception to the murder itself. The narrator bares his soul, and his strong sense of paranoia to justify his sanity, but in the end, confirms his ‘madness’ by the vile act of murder he commits. The narrator reveals the profound truth, of how untruthful and deceiving the human heart could be, and at the same time, how it can be brutally honest at the point of death. Edgar Allan Poe’s works prove to be products of a highly creative and imaginative mind. His innovative style of writing and his tales of suspense and mystery form the backbone of modern detective stories.
Notice how the narrator crafts his struggle around abandoning life and reason. Is the use of suspense effective in Poe’s short story? Why or Why not? Yes, suspense is effective in this short story. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising.
Gothic Literature is a style of writing that is characterized by components of fear, horror, gloom, and romantic features, such as nature, individuality, and very intense emotion, which can be, but are not limited to suspense and fear. For something to be considered gothic literature, it needs to have some gothic components. Such as a gothic setting, which would be something gloomy, like rain, or a storm, etc. Also there could be gothic architecture in the work, such as a house with pointy windows and arches, and could be creepy or mysterious. As well as there can be gothic people, who dress in a gothic manner, which would be dressing in