...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 of which is terror. The narrator in Usher acts as the primary medium through which...
Words: 2196 - Pages: 9
...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
...Reflections of the fall of the House of Usher In the beginning I thought this story would be very difficult for me, so I read the Chinese translation version first. Actually at that time I couldn’t understand it and the impression that it left with me was vague. I still dwelled on the end part of the story and I found this kind of fiction is much to my appetite, so I read the original edition of it. Now I would like to write down my reflections of this story in three aspects. Firstly, I find the symbolism is adopted in this fiction. The title is the fall of the House of Usher. I think the fall not only refer to the house’s collapse, but also the fall of the Usher family. The house also refers to both the house and the family. Besides, the bridge over the tarn symbolizes “I” who is the narrator in this fiction. It also means the bridge like the narrator is the only connection for Usher family to outside world. The ghastly images inside is a hint of the madness of Roderick and Madeline. Secondly, the description of atmosphere in the fall of the House of Usher is very carefully. Many words are repeated in the description like ghastly, fancy, agitation etc. I think these descriptions and repetitions emphasis the Gothic horror. They help readers to draw a picture of the house in their mind — typical Gothic architecture, ghastly gallery… When I read these description, I connected them with supernatural power. It is plausible that Roderick's sickness is a result of the...
Words: 449 - Pages: 2
...The Fall of the House of Usher “In the Fall of the House of Usher, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.”(Poe). This story is Gothic Literature using grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events. The narrator describes the grotesque or Roderick Usher Madeline Usher, the strange sounds, and the crashing of the house and the violent event of Madeline being buried alive. Inside the House of Usher there are two grotesque characters. Roderick Usher is a man with a corpse-like appearance. He has pale skin, thin lips, and bright eyes. He suffered from sensitive skin to certain textures, odors to flowers, his eyes were sensitive to light, only certain sounds sooth him and insipid foods. Madeline, Roderick’s sister...
Words: 349 - Pages: 2
...them. Although people should never assume, they should always speculate and investigate. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses an imperfectly informed narrator because he wanted the reader to play with – and question – reality, to use their senses and imagination, and be able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. One theory on why Poe makes his narrator limited is that he wants the reader to search for the truth, not just have it handed to them. For instance, the reader – nor the narrator – knows anything about Roderick Usher. The narrator says, “Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend”. What, then, would cause the narrator to travel to the House of Usher after Roderick had written him a letter? A person such as the narrator can only truly call Usher an acquaintance. In reality, who would drop everything and anything for an associate? The unknown information on Roderick Usher only causes more questions that, in the end, still remain unanswered. Little by little, as the tale goes on, the reader, as well as the narrator, discovers that Roderick and his late sister, lady Madeline, are twins. After nights of turmoil, Madeline appears to the narrator and Usher, who she ends up killing. The death of the twins causes the Usher House to fall. One can only wonder why the death of the inhabitants would cause a house to crumble. James W. Gargano says that, “Through the irony of his characters' self-betrayal and...
Words: 1978 - Pages: 8
...with Roderick Usher from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," one must first understand the motivating factor each man has of the world around him and how they react to that world. Both Brown and Usher suffer from disillusionment and an emotional seperation from family due to a traumatic experience they were unable or unwilling to recover from, thereby tarnishing their lust for life. Neither man is able to rise above the feelings that resulted from these occurrences. Although Usher and Brown are two different men, they fear the same thing, death. Usher had an irrational fear of death itself, whereas Brown was afraid of falling victim to sin and burn in Hell for all eternity. Young Goodman Brown is a true Puritan, motivated by his faith. Brown is innocent and somewhat naive in his view of the world around him. He partakes of a journey through the dark woods one night with a man presumed to be the devil himself. This experience awakens him to the abundance of deceit and sinful behavior of not only those he once respected but his family as well. While discussing Brown's solid christian family history, the stranger comments "I have been as well acquainted with your family as ever a one among the Puritans" (391). Brown realizes that even good christian men and women fall to the temptation of sin. However, knowing this does not lessen the fear and shame he feels that he himself might also succumb to sin before the sun rises. With Roderick Usher, he is motivated...
Words: 601 - Pages: 3
...narrator arriving at the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, having received a letter from him in a distant part of the country complaining of an illness and asking for his help. Although Poe wrote this short story before the invention of modern psychological science, Roderick's symptoms can be described according to it. They include hyperesthesia 感觉过敏(hypersensitivity to light, sounds, smells, and tastes), and acute anxiety.急性焦虑 It is revealed that Roderick's twin sister, Madeline, is also ill。The narrator try every possible method to cheer his friend, and Roderick sings "The Haunted Palace", then tells the narrator that he believes the house he lives in to be sentient有感情的.Roderick later informs the narrator that his sister has died and insists that she be entombed for two weeks in a family tomb in the house before being permanently buried. The narrator helps Roderick put the body in the tomb, and he notice something strange. Then the writer use a storm to introduce the climax of the story. Both the narrator and Roderick notices that the tarn surrounding the house seems to glow in the dark although there is no lightning. The bedroom door is then blown open to reveal Madeline standing there. The narrator then flees the house and roderick is scared to death. At the end, a flash of light cause the narrator to look back upon the House of Usher, in time to watch it break in two, the fragments sinking into the tarn. "The Fall of the House of Usher" was published widely in...
Words: 445 - Pages: 2
...“The Fall of the House of Usher” possesses the key features needed in order to create a Gothic tale: a spooky house, a dull landscape, and a mysterious illness. The narrator, in Poe’s eerie short story, upon looking at the Usher house describes it as “an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation” (702). This depression the narrator speaks of is the same type of depression the owner, Roderick Usher, has felt his entire life while living in the house. The romantic element of nature that covers the house has affected Roderick psychologically and physically. The narrator portrays the house with vivid details of imagery: “…bleak walls…,” “…vacant eye-like windows…,” and “…a few rank sedges…” (702). Anyone living in such...
Words: 1046 - Pages: 5
..."The Fall of the House of Usher" is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, in 1839. In autumn of the year, it was a dull, dark, and soundless day. The unnamed narrator comes across "The House of Usher". The house of his boon companions in boyhood (friend), Roderick Usher. He observes upon the scene; the house is decaying in places. He received a letter from Roderick, requesting his company to come to the house. He spoke of a mental disorder, illness, and his desire to see him which allowed him to come with no hesitation. The unnamed narrator knew little about Roderick, but was unware that the Usher family is ancient and become "the perfect keeping of character of the premises" to confuses the people with their home. Roderick's sister, lady Madeline...
Words: 381 - Pages: 2
...The Fall of the house of Usher The Gothic style found in the majority of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories is obvious to the average reader. The grotesque, the desolate, the horrible, the mysterious, the ghostly, and, ultimately, the intense fear are all the primary aspects of the stories which are emphasized. Edgar Allen Poe's autobiographical short story is the quintessential haunted house story featuring dreary scenes, mysterious sicknesses and untimely deaths. The vagueness of the story is the main part of its terror with its unidentifiable Gothic elements. It is not clear to the reader when or where the story takes place. Poe instead describes dark barren landscapes and inclement weather to set the mood. All the reader knows and understands is they are alone with the unnamed author and neither knows why. The unnamed author describes his mind and personality as he rides toward the somber house. He meets his own insanity, superstitions, and horror when he describes his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Poe asks the reader to question Roderick's decision in contacting the unnamed narrator in his time of need as well as the unnamed narrator's response. Poe contrasts the standard form of the gothic tale, with a plot of inexplicable, unexpected interruptions. The short story begins without a reason for the narrator's arrival at the house and this uncertainty drives this short story's plot, which blurs into the real and fantastic. Roderick Usher shows his sanity slipping when he...
Words: 684 - Pages: 3
...The Fall of the House of Usher Summary BACK NEXT How It All Goes Down An unnamed narrator arrives at the House of Usher, a very creepy mansion owned by his boyhood friend Roderick Usher. Roderick has been sick lately, afflicted by a disease of the mind, and wrote to his friend, our narrator, asking for help. The narrator spends some time admiring the awesomely spooky Usher edifice. While doing so, he explains that Roderick and his sister are the last of the Usher bloodline, and that the family is famous for its dedication to the arts (music, painting, literature, etc.). Eventually, the narrator heads inside to see his friend. Roderick indeed appears to be a sick man. He suffers from an "acuteness of the senses," or hyper-sensitivity to light, sound, taste, and tactile sensations; he feels that he will die of the fear he feels. He attributes part of his illness to the fact that his sister, Madeline, suffers from catalepsy (a sickness involving seizures) and will soon die, and part of it to the belief that his creepy house is sentient (able to perceive things) and has a great power over him. He hasn’t left the mansion in years. The narrator tries to help him get his mind off all this death and gloom by poring over the literature, music, and art that Roderick so loves. It doesn’t seem to help. As Roderick predicted, Madeline soon dies. At least we think so. All we know is that Roderick tells the narrator she’s dead, and that she appears to be dead when he looks...
Words: 467 - Pages: 2
...Transformation Transformation occurs in many stories. In the stories “fall of the house of usher”, “Frankenstein”, and the picture story “boy with the hooded figure” transformation takes place. For example, in the house of usher changes that occur are when ushers sister is sick and dies she changes for that fact that she dies. Also usher changes because when he gets sick and thinks that Madeline is coming up from the dead (in which she does). Also the house takes some transformation when in the beginning of the story the house only had a crack down the front and at the end the lake swallows the house up in the story “Frankenstein” transformation also takes place. In Frankenstein, there’s a few thing that transform. The first thing to transform is that when the monster had tried killing Frankenstein but towards the end he talks to him and ask him for a partner. Also, when he wanted to make a woman but at the end of making “her” she turned the monster into a guy. Lastly, when he wanted to make a monster and then as the monster came alive he had gotten into a fight with it and “killed” him....
Words: 461 - Pages: 2
...The Dark Side of Poe Edgar Allen Poe took romanticism to the next level by inadvertently helping to create Dark (Gothic) Romanticism. Poe was not a big writer in America because people in America did not appreciate his writings at that time, but in France he was one of the biggest writers. “Even though many contemporaries in America did not appreciate his work, Poe was hailed as a genius in circles of French intellectuals” (Grieneisen 22). Dark Romanticism helped people let go of the things that were bottled up on the inside. Poe’s interest into the dark side of writing probably came about to try and intrigue Americans to get behind him and his writings. The creation of monsters, vampires, werewolves, etc. was a way for writers and readers to let out their inner “demons.” Romanticism is based on emotion, nature, and the human psyche among other things. Romanticism came at a time where people needed an outlet for additional forms of entertainment. Before romanticism most writings were based off of things people believed whole heartedly in or everyday life. There were the normal forms of entertainment, i.e. music, art, and plays, but nothing that a person could truly make their own. With romanticism people could use their imagination to evoke their emotions and become connected with the work. Edgar Allen Poe used emotion, imagery, and medicine to explore the dark side of Romanticism. Poe dealt with a lot from the beginning of his life. At the age of one his father disappears...
Words: 1591 - Pages: 7
... ——Review of The Fall of the House of Usher 英81 高云君 2008012742 As one of the most famous works by Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher is the a masterpiece in American gothic literature. The prose is full with of elements and details which are unsettling and macabre. It was slightly revised in 1840 for the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Poe’s gothic novels have always been my readings before bed since I was younga child. In my childhood, following the unnamed narrator and walking towards that old and creepy house, I was immersed in the horrible storyline and experience the fantastic feeling of nightmare. Today when I look back on this literature work, I get some deeper understanding and . Ⅰ. Hellish environment setting ：Use of double space The whole environment and different scenes in the story are so hellish that the reader feels a kind of inexplicable asphyxia. I summarize some typical elements Poe uses to build a gothic atmosphere. Day: a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn. Location: a singularly dreary tract of country. House and surrounding: upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees. The precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn. If that can be called the exterior space, then the internal space inside the house of Usher is more somber. ...
Words: 2596 - Pages: 11
...was good. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," the unnamed protagonist is troubled by this sudden letter from the head of the Usher family, constantly grows weary of the house being "alive," and Usher's supposedly dead sister. In "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator here is troubled by his own hatred for the eye of the old man, even though this man has done no wrong. In "The Raven," this narrator is troubled by the death of his beloved Lenore, and of the raven, symbolizing lingering death, who haunts him. Both The Nightmare Before Christmas and Edgar Allan Poe's stories contain the same type of imagery of horror and creepiness, specifically in the atmosphere and in the architecture. Poe's stories concerning the atmosphere are read as being murky, gloomy, and depressing, or at times questioning. He paints fear and tension through lengthy descriptions and his usage adjective, as well as his choices for settings. For Halloween Town in The Nightmare Before Christmas, the colors that make up the palette of the town are blacks, grays, and dull purples and blues, and even though light is still visible, it is constantly obscured by clouds hanging over, and puts a more dim mood on Halloween Town. This gives off a spooky, haunting even whimsical feeling for Halloween Town. The architecture in Halloween Town is shown as being based off Victorian-styled houses and building, as well as tall, arching, crooked and slanting, and colored gray. In "The House of Usher," the Usher mansion is most likely...
Words: 835 - Pages: 4
