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When reading a work by Edgar Allan Poe, one is drawn into a strange and disturbing world. Poe was a very talented writer with a vigorous imagination, along with an immense writing talent. The reader can actually visualize step by step everything that is happening, which is a result of Poe's unique style of writing. Poe mostly wrote poems and tales of dark and terror-inspiring subjects. Edgar Allan Poe's unique use of setting, atmosphere, and symbolism reflect his gothic sensibilities. In The Fall of the House Of Usher, Poe uses the setting to create an eerie, diseased, and bleak tale.
As frightening as Poe describes it, the reader is curious to see what happens next. As you vision the narrator riding on horseback through the dreary wasteland, you can only imagine how he feels as he approaches the house. His first glimpse of the Usher mansion provokes a sense of insufferable gloom. As he describes it, the house resembles a giant face of skull with eyelids windows and hair like minute fungi that almost seem to hold the decayed building together, as well as a barely perceptible fissure that threatens to rip it apart (Magill 293). The description of the house alone creates a gothic setting. Inside the house An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all. (Poe 211).
The windows were long narrow and pointed, there were dark draperies hanging on the walls, black oaken floors, and the furniture was torn, comfortless, antiques. The house of Usher is a symbol for that world which crawls and creeps in the depths of being (Bender 86). Poe uses the setting in The Fall of the House of Usher to create an atmosphere of gloom in the readers mind. He chooses every word carefully to create a dismal mood.
The narrator says that the Usher mansion had an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn (Poe 210). It was nowhere near being beautiful, wholesome, or pleasant but rather dark, gloomy and gothic. Poe's choice of words creates a very effective atmosphere in the story. Characters also add to the effect of the atmosphere.
As the reader begins the story, it becomes apparent that the narrator is a boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. He has not seen Roderick since they were children, however, because of an urgent letter that he has received from Roderick, which requested his aid, the nameless narrator decides to make the long journey. It was the apparent heart that went with his request which allowed me no room for hesitation (Poe 210). Upon the narrators entrance we meet Roderick Usher. Usher is very gloomy and mysterious. He is a frightening man with thin lips, large glassy eyes, and a pale complexion.
We soon learn that Roderick Ushers mental status is unstable, if not completely insane. He is ill with the nervous malady of his family. (Bloom 31). Roderick has one deep connection to his sister Madeline, also dying of a mysterious disorder. Madeline is not fully described; she appears and disappears in an instant. Eventually she dies, and Usher puts her into a vault where she lays dead; however, she is really alive.
Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door! (Poe 219). This atmosphere of fear is a significant contribution to the story.
Throughout the story are placed many symbols that foreshadow events to come. The story begins on a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year. (Poe 208). From the very beginning, the reader is aware of a sense of death and decay. Even before the narrator enters the house, we learn that Ushers house itself is a symbol for Usher. There never was a house quite like the House of Usher, for in truth the truth of literary convention is no house at all but a profound and intricate metaphor of the self. (Hoffman 297).
The house itself can be seen as an embodiment of the family. Poe emphasizes this symbolism by personifying the house, giving it the anatomy of humans: eye-like windows and clothing: a veil. Furthermore, the house is crumbling just as the family is. Finally, after Roderick and Madeline die, the house collapses, representing the fate of the family.
Whenever the discussion of literature involves the dark side of human nature, it is inevitable that Edgar Allan Poe will be mentioned. Through his creative use of imagery he enables the reader to become one with the story. His use of setting, atmosphere, and symbolism create a clear picture of what he wants the reader to experience. Through these writing techniques, Edgar Allan Poe reaffirms why he is one of the greatest gothic writers of all time.
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Research essay sample on Edgar Allan Poe House Of Usher
