...Reading Response: “The Fall of the House of Usher” In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator is an unnamed character that visits a childhood friend, Roderick Usher, at his great mansion. The narrator describes in great detail the nature of the mansion that Usher lives in. In the first paragraph, the descriptive imagery that Poe uses—“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”—allows the reader to see everything in the narrator’s point of view. However, one must wonder who this narrator truly is. He does not reveal anything about himself to us throughout the entire prose, and although he notes that he was one of Usher’s close boyhood friends, he does not reveal anything else. He was asked to come visit Usher; when he mentions this fact to us, he sounds as if he wants to justify his coming to the house in the first place for he mentions that Usher wrote the letter with such earnestness—“it the apparent heart that went with his request”—that of course, he had to come. I found this segment a bit odd because here, I thought that the narrator was trying to justify this action to himself more than the readers; I thought it seemed as if he wasn’t sure why he had really agreed to visit Usher. In addition, one particular thing I noticed throughout this prose was the narrator’s apparent repetition of notifying the reader that he...
Words: 422 - Pages: 2
...In my opinion, the setting of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is an essential tool to uncover the mood behind the story. Right away Poe jumps into descriptive detail: “During the whole of a dark, dull, soundless day… a singularly dreary tract of country.” The gloomy, overcast of the mist and fog that surround the House of Usher wash over the narrator which, in turn, seem to seep into the very depths of his soul. The narrator’s description of his surrounding as well as of the house itself convey to the reader a sense of danger and impending doom. However, the setting delivers more than just an image of a dreary countryside. I believe, as Poe states within the story, that the atmosphere is actually representative of how the...
Words: 323 - Pages: 2
..."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
...Friends come with all personalities, most are nice, some are funny, some can be the ones that you never want to lose, others can be those that you wouldn’t mind losing, most can be those that pick you up when you’re down, others will leave you there to keep getting walked on. With friends, they seem to do things that help you and themselves at the same time. In the short story by Edgar Allan Poe called “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator is a friend who decides to go help his childhood buddy with his disease and depression, due to old age and the last of his family died. The two main characters, one who doesn’t give his name and the other being Roderick Usher- who is sick and dying - are at the Usher house that the narrator describes...
Words: 392 - 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
...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” 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 story. In the short stories “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe the setting affects the characters and storyline. The setting in the two short stories have many similarities throughout the settings. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Devil and Tom Walker” both talk about nature in their settings. Examples are, "Tom had long been picking his way cautiously through this treacherous forest; stepping from tuft to tuft of rushes and roots, which afforded precarious footholds among deep sloughs; or pacing carefully, like a cat, along the prostrate trunks of trees; startled now and then by the sudden screaming of the...
Words: 652 - 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
...of setting plays a crucial part in any story. It plays an even more important part as one of the most recognizable elements of traditional Gothic fiction. Traditional Gothic fiction settings include decrepit medieval castles in isolated and dreary locales, such as the one portrayed in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", in which an unnamed narrator visits two physically and mentally ailing siblings and discovers that something among them is horribly amiss. In this story, setting contributes greatly to the mood, creating an air that can only be described as melancholic and dismal. It also holds a critical position in Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Is Here?", a story about a contemporary family living in an old house who let in a quite uncanny stranger, after which peculiar events begin to happen. In today's modern Gothic fiction, although it isn't set in the same bleak castles and moors, setting is equally as important....
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...In the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the narrator who is unnamed in the story, tells a tale of an old childhood friend by the name of Roderick Usher, who admits he has a mental disorder. The narrator does not really know much about his friend because they have not spoken in many years. Usher had reached out to the narrator in the form of a letter in request of help. From the beginning of the story, the narrator continuously signals as though the residence had been haunted or something unnatural was happening. The narrator only gives us an outlook through his eyes rather than the entire picture of what is going on. As soon as the narrator arrive at the House of Usher, he senses this icy feeling, a feeling that he could not...
Words: 361 - Pages: 2
...“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is a prime example of American gothic literature. Poe is known for his great gothic works and “The Fall of the House of Usher is no exception. Poe’s work retells an unnamed narrator’s experience inside the House of Usher when he goes to visit his sick friend, Roderick Usher. “The Fall of the House of Usher” excellently shows the gothic elements of sin and guilt, mysterious/violent events, and madness and death. Along with Roderick there is another Usher, Madeline, in the house of Usher through which Poe conveys sin and guilt. Soon after we are introduced to the character of Madeline she dies and is buried in the basement in the House of Usher. At the end it is revealed that Madeline was alive the whole time and Roderick says: I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them – many, many, days ago – yet I dared not – I dared not speak!... Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my...
Words: 850 - Pages: 4
...symbolism and Gothic elements. In "The Fall of the House of Usher" Poe utilizes suspense in order to bring forth fear in his writing. In the story the narrator states "Vigilae Mortuorum secundum Chorum Ecclesiae Maguntinae...the wild ritual of this work...of preserving[Lady Madeline's] corpse"(Poe 304). Now this embeds suspense into the readers thoughts because they in turn understand that the narrator is also in fear of the insanity his friend is experiencing due to the death of his beloved sister. Later in the story the narrator explains a meeting with Roderick Usher stating "his countenance was...wan...a species of mad hilarity in his eyes... evidently[restraining]hysteria"(306). Suspense is yet again brought into the picture with the narrators explanation of Usher. Roderick is described as...
Words: 950 - Pages: 4
...Who’s there!? Come out at once! Swish Swish!!! The character was strolling around the house ,stops to analyze the dark blue sky, when he suddenly hears a fissure outside the house. He anxiously looks around and he sees a sudden glimpse of a running unearthly beast that appeared to look murky, with red fur, and blue mystical eyes. Instead of analyzing the mysterious beast that just past him and attempting to figure out if its presence is real, he instinctively runs away and tells his comrades about his sudden encounter. This character had a sudden shock that caused his brain not to think rationally, in which it created a scenario from fearful thinking. The sudden fissure in reality had showcased the idea that the character is mentally insane and can’t think normally. In the short story of “The Fall of the House of Usher” Usher is insane from the death of his beloved sister and commits decisions that will cause the fall of the Ushers. “Her decease, he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget,would leave him (him, the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race… While he spoke, the lady Madeline passed slowly… he had buried his face...
Words: 495 - 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
