...tale The Fall of the House of Usher is often considered as one of Poe's most sophisticated and therefore a lot of alternative critical interpretations are given. This tale might even be Poe's tale with the most reviews. These reviews mainly deal with the decay of the house or the role of Roderick Usher (cf. Magistrale 66). That is the reason why I have chosen this short story of Edgar Allan Poe. I was amongst other things fascinated by the complex composition and the impossibility of understanding the story with the first reading. I will analyze Poe's tale with regard to comparing the degeneration of the house to the degeneration of one of the main characters, Roderick Usher. At first I will sum up how the mansion and Roderick Usher are characterized, thereupon I will analyze how you can regain the description of the mansion in the description of Roderick Usher and why they have to collapse together in the end and explain it amongst others with the help of Poe's 'theory of totality' and symbolism. The Outside: Description of the House of Usher The description of the House of Usher can be divided into two parts. In the first one it is said that the mansion in which Roderick Usher is living together with his sister Lady Madeline lays in a grim and plain neighborhood. The narrator, who is an old childhood friend of Roderick Usher and sees and describes the scenery, tells the reader of a strong dark feeling which overcomes him, when he sees the House of Usher for the first...
Words: 1628 - Pages: 7
...Briana Eng 201 Final Paper 20 April 2015 Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher: Literary Elements Exemplify Gothic Style As the Romantic Movement swept through nineteenth century American literature, Edgar Allan Poe emerged as one of the central literary figures of the Romantic era. Along with other authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe’s Romantic style of writings often introduced his readers to the dark side of literature present during the time. As Poe sets out to explore and expose different elements of darkness within humanity, he familiarizes his readers with the experience of fear and horror that are so commonly present throughout his works. As a result of the recurrent themes of fear, horror and mystery that he elicits through his writings, Poe is often credited as one of the most important writers of Gothic fiction, an extension of the romantic style of writing. While most of his works of fiction are told from the perspective of a first person narrator, in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher he implores the use of the peripheral narrator to introduce his readers to the many elements in the story that exemplify his distinctly gothic style. By allowing readers into the mind of the narrator, Poe gives his audience the opportunity to discover, analyze and interpret different key literary devices used to highlight important characteristics that classify the gothic style of writing. Utilizing the peripheral narrators experience with mystery and suspense allows...
Words: 3239 - Pages: 13
...narrator by showing parallelism through many aspects of her surroundings. The narrator is a woman who is mentally unstable and has been diagnosed with a nervous disorder and her husband, John, believes the way for her to begin getting well is by taking her to a colonial mansion and keeping her away from the public eye. He puts her in a room in the top of the house that is lined with yellow wallpaper and keeps her there until he finds her to be well again. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Gilman uses the description of the mansion, the room, and the wallpaper to give the readers an insight into the troubled life of the narrator. In the short story, the readers are first introduced to the narrator when she and her husband arrive at the mansion. When they arrive there, she describes the outside of the mansion as the” most beautiful place and as a colonial mansion”(542). In the story, she states that “It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate houses for the gardeners and people. There is a delicious garden!” (542). The author uses this to help show the reader the parallelism between the outward appearance of the mansion to the outward appearance of the narrator, and how they are both beautiful. This could also show the complexity of both the mansion and the narrator. She also states, “That...
Words: 990 - Pages: 4
...Bennett Mansion Bee-Bennet Mansion, now converted into Sequoia Restaurant, was a 16 room Victorian wonder, and is now the home of Sequoia Wedgewood Wedding and Banquet Center. Back in its days, in the early 1850s, Colonel Fredrick Bee was one of the first merchants to set up his business in Placerville. He ran the pony express in California and set up the Bee telegraph company. The first tragedy hit the Bee family when his 2 year old son died of croup. Afterwards, the family moved out of the house and it passed on to many owners until in 1889, a judge renovated it and converted it into a 16 room mansion. The judge and his family lived there for many years, though tragedy struck them too. Their 3 year old son fell on the grand...
Words: 971 - Pages: 4
...The Morris-Jumel Mansion is located in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. It was built in 1765 as a summer villa, by Colonel Roger Morris and his wife, Mary Philipse. Their country estate was named “Mount Morris” and covered about 130 acres from the Harlem to the Hudson Rivers. Mount Morris was one of the highest points in Manhattan and offered views of New Jersey, Connecticut, and the New York harbor, something very helpful, especially in times of war. At that time the island of Manhattan was free of tall buildings and industrialization, there was an abundance of farm land though. When the American Revolution came around, Mary and Roger had to leave their home because they were colonists loyal to the British – or “tories”. After they left, between September 14 and October 20, 1776, General George Washington and his troops moved in and used the mansion as their temporary headquarters after his army was forced to leave Brooklyn Heights when they loss to the British Army in the Battle of Long Island. This particular area was a strategic location and from there, he planned out his army’s first successful victory which was known as The Battle of Harlem Heights....
Words: 724 - Pages: 3
...The Winchester Mystery House is a well-known mansion in Northern California. It once was the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. It was continuously under construction for 38 years and is reported to be haunted. It now serves as a tourist attraction. Under Winchester's day-to-day guidance, its "from-the-ground-up" construction proceeded around the clock, without interruption, from 1884 until her death on September 5, 1922, at which time work immediately ceased.[3] The cost for such constant building has been estimated at about US $5.5 million[4] (if paid in 1922; this would be equivalent to over $75 million in 2012).[5] The Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size and utter lack of any master building plan. According to popular belief, Winchester thought the house was haunted by the ghosts of the people who fell victim to Winchester rifles, and that only continuous construction would appease them. It is located at 525 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, California.[6] As of 2013, the house is under private ownership by Winchester Mystery House, LLC, a limited liability company owned by partners Edna May Raney; Gerard Raney; Ray Farris II; Sandra Farris; and M. Valerie Bovone. It is not operated by the County of Santa Clara or the U.S. National Park Service. Inspiration Although this is disputed, popular belief holds that a Boston medium told Winchester that she had to leave her home in New Haven and...
Words: 1554 - Pages: 7
...manager, considered the future of Nottoway Plantation of White Castle, Louisiana. Nottoway, which was listed in the National Registry of Historic Places, was an enterprise in the hospitality industry, attracting visitors to tour the mansion that contained many original furnishings. In addition to tours, the plantation offered overnight accommodations, dining and banquet facilities, and a gift shop. Nottoway competed with several other plantations for tourist trade along the Mississippi River, seven of which provided similar tours and elegant bed-and-breakfast facilities. Although Cindy and Faye felt that Nottoway was operating ‘‘in the black,’’ they thought they were missing an opportunity ; tour groups visited the plantation homes, but stayed overnight in the nearby cities of Port Allen or Baton Rouge in a Holiday Inn or similar facility. Couldn’t Nottoway expand its facilities to provide enough overnight accommodations for bus tours and other groups ? I marry there. The complete home consisted of a 53,000 square foot, 64-room mansion surrounded by graceful grounds, including formal gardens, a carriage house, and a caretaker’s cottage (20 years older than the mansion itself). Nottoway was a gem of Italianate and Greek Revival style. The mansion reflected the splendor, luxury, and innovation of its time, featuring coal fireplaces, gas lighting, and indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water. As Union troops approached during the Civil War, Randolph, who never officially...
Words: 5738 - Pages: 23
...Katie Valdesuso November 30, 2010 ENGL 439 Prof. Allan R. Life The Evocation of Terror in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher In his Philosophy of Composition, Edgar Allan Poe informs us that he begins writing with “the consideration of an effect” (430). Most of Poe’s poetry and fiction exemplifies his assertion that a preconceived effect upon a reader is undoubtedly fundamental to his creative work. Poe’s tales of terror in particular epitomize the supremacy of his craft in that each component of his narrative strategy functions to achieve the final effect of generating unmitigated terror in his readers. Focusing primarily on The Fall of the House of Usher, I argue that Poe employs a preconceived narrative strategy that ultimately functions to evoke terror; I assert that Poe elicits fear to challenge us to reexamine out perceptions of ostensibly impossible circumstances and recognize the limits of our intellect. I will first examine the aspects of Poe’s narrative style that culminate to achieve his desired effect of the evocation of terror. I will then analyze the narrator’s response to this evocation of terror and how this emergent response elicits fear in the reader. Last, I will illustrate how the narrator’s evolving response is emulated in the style through which the tale is narrated. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tactically exploits a first person narrator, setting, imagery, and tone to achieve a “unity of effect,” the aforethought effect...
Words: 2196 - Pages: 9
...Summary The Isaac Bell House, also known as Edna Villa, is a shingle-style mansion built in Newport, Rhode Island. It is one of the first and most notorious examples of the Shingle style. The house-turned-museum has a complex roofline with gables and proejcting porches. The ground floor is sheathed in brick, while the upper stories are of intricately patterned cedar shingles. The building is 2-1/2 tall with an additional attic story. The house is also one of the earliest of the gilded age Newport mansions. The house is in overall good condition for its age and retains much of its original intergrity and intent due to proper restoration and building campaigns. History The house was completed in 1883 for Isaac Bell, a cotton broker and investor. The house was designed by the renowned firm, McKim, Mead, and White of New York City, who would later become one of the most prolific architecture firms of the era. Bell, was only 35 years old when the building of the house began. He was only able to live in the house until his death in 1889. Bell was married Jeanette Gordon Bennett, the sister of the founder of the Newport Casino, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. The casino, built one year before the Bell House is also built by McKim, Mead and White and shares many details and design elements....
Words: 758 - Pages: 4
...American Dreams To many, America is the land of opportunity. In the early nineteen hundreds immigrants from all over boarded ships to come to America. These people had big dreams of making new lives for themselves in America. They knew they were going to have to work hard and most were willing to do whatever it took to become successful. If you are willing to put forth hard work and effort the American dream is possible for anyone to achieve. The American dream defined by many is the idea that anyone can succeed through hard work which potentially leads to a happy, successful life. Others also believe that freedom, relationships, and fulfillment play a role in the American dream. Critics often suggest that not everyone has the same opportunities of being able to “live the dream” because of class, race, religion, and ethnicity. In the story, The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald symbolizes the hope and opportunity that can be found in the new land, what comes to be known as the American Dream in the quote, “a fresh, green breast of the new world(Chapter 9).” The color green symbolizes the hope and opportunity that can be found in the new land, what comes to be known as the American Dream. An example of a metaphor in the story is Gatsby’s house. This image serves as a key symbol of aspiration, reflecting on both Gatsby's success as an American self-made man and the mirage of an identity he has created to win Daisy's love. Gatsby follows his American Dream as he buys the house to be across...
Words: 492 - Pages: 2
...Story The North Carolina Executive Mansion, commonly called the Governor's Mansion, was built in the late nineteenth century on Blount Street in downtown Raleigh. The first inhabitant of the mansion was Governor Daniel G. Fowle. He only lived there for 3 months due to his death in April 1891. Before his death he did order the construction of a be to accommodate himself and one of his children who had a tendency of climbing into bed with him at night to sleep. The bed stayed in the mansion for over three-quarters of a century, until Gov. Bob Scott, who was elected in 1968, had it moved to storage because he wanted a more comfortable bed. Shortly after buying a new bed, Governor Scott and his wife were reading in bed when around 10 o'clock they heard a strange knocking coming from the wall behind them. Scott and his wife thought little of it, but it kept happening night after night at the same time. Governor Scott assumed that it was just pipes running, but when he asked for the maintenance staff to see if something could be done, were no pipes running behind that section of the wall. The governor and wife were confuzed until Governor Fowle's elderly daughter paid a courtesy call to Governor Scott, like she did with all the new Governors when they took office. And, according to Governor Scott, part of the social call involved her demanding...
Words: 1264 - Pages: 6
...Robert Wise’s The Haunting has been one of the most haunted house films ever produced.I've seen this film with my classmates during my english class. This film is a black and white picture. The picture was once the most fearful film in the early 60’s. This film takes place in New England, in a big haunted mansion. Dr. Markway, does research to prove the existence of ghosts, at the Hill House, a large mansion with a history of violent death. Luke, who stands to inherit the house, Theodora and Eleanor, with psychic abilities make her feel somehow there are spirits around the old mansion. Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, and Rosalie Crutchley. The Haunting is a story about Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris), a lonely woman...
Words: 512 - Pages: 3
...“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story of Gothic horror written in first person point of view. The Narrator was a friend with Roderick, which they both met at camp many years ago. The Narrator came to a house alone with his horse where he got invited by his friend Roderick. Roderick was in a situation where he would be a different person from before and would be acting strange, since the narrator saw him. Roderick had a twin sister named Madeline. Madeline never knew the narrator as much as Roderick. A death is involved with Madeline which is supposed that Roderick probably killed her. Madeline was buried alive in a tomb. The narrator had changed over the days and would act the same as Roderick, but Roderick was getting worse and worse for the death of his twin sister Madeline. The narrator would see Roderick acting and would do such the same as Roderick for being there for him. Madeline was dead, but her spirit was still in the house just like Roderick. “Roderick has on the external world at all is his twin sister, who is less...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...The author portraits Gatsby personality of a stalker when he is showing Daisy the collecting clips he has kept from herself in the mansion .Daisy is surprised of Gatsby possession to them because she sees the way he looks at her like the first time they met in her house.Gatsby shows off his wealth and what he has done out of it by taking her in the mansion.Daisy wonders in the whole mansion and Gatsby keeps on admiring her from his view seeing her smiling.Gatsby wealth becomes compulsive to him because Daisy was his only reason to come back to the place that reminds him his heritage.Gatsby grew up poor with his parents and knew at a young age he wanted to be out of that poverty he was in. Gatsby departure with Daisy made him planned out the future for both because she was his only reason to his life.Being away from Daisy only made him realize he still loved her.So he continue the search for her until he found her through Nick and Jordan.This perceives Gatsby's love obsession towards Daisy because...
Words: 1411 - Pages: 6
...In Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening, Edna's two different houses symbolize her life greatly. Her first house, the mansion that she shared with her husband, symbolized her life before awakened and realized the kind of life she living. Her second house, the pigeon house that she lived alone in, shows her life after she awakens and realizes what’s going on with her life and that she was not happy before. As the novel starts out Edna is a housewife to her husband Mr. Pontellier, and is not really unhappy but knows something is missing. Her husband does not treat her well. She is nothing but a piece of property to him, he has no true feelings for her and wants her for the sole purpose of withholding his reputation as a man. Edna has no clue that she is being treated so bad in the beginning of this story. With Mr. Pontellier being gone from home she finds plenty of time to spend with Robert over the summer. During the whole summer she does not realize the feelings she is developing for Robert and only sees him as a friend(friendzone). She likes spending all of her time with him and gets along with him much better than her husband. It is not until she is back home and Robert leaves that she starts to "awaken" and realize her feelings not just for Robert but also for life. At first Edna misses Robert greatly and wonders why he never writes her. She does get to read letters in which Robert has sent others though. She is glad that he asks about her in his letters yet still upset because...
Words: 639 - Pages: 3
