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Compare And Contrast The Raven And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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The story The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe begins with the Narrator describing his view of the House of Usher. The descriptions are very vivid when describing the spooky mansion. When he walks up he says “the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” (Poe 749). The Narrator calls the windows of the house “vacant eye like windows” and the walls bleak. While describing and admiring how spooky the house looks, he speaks of his friend Roderick Usher who he has known since they were children. Roderick and his Sister, Madeline, are the last of the Usher family. The Narrator tells how the Usher family is famous for their commitment to music, literature and paintings. He stated that Roderick …show more content…

His stories The Tell Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher all contain themes of macabre. In the Fall of the House of Usher, he starts off with a description of Usher’s gloomy mansion. Many people and critics have said and talked about how dark and gothic Poe’s writings are. “In practically all of Poe’s stories, there is a prevailing ambiance of final annihilation and decay, fragmentation and total destruction” (Philippov 223). Darlene Unrue has also stated that Poe’s settings are compiled with darkness, abyss, storms and so on. These setting characteristics have placed him into category of Gothicism ( Unrue 113). Poe uses words like Gloom, depression, and decaying to describe the setting of the short story The Fall of the House of Usher. These words and many others set the scene of the story and help to create better imagery for the reader. The dark and depressing macabre is seen throughout the plot of Usher and is an extremely vital piece of the story. Poe first brings in this dark depressing dominer at the very beginning when the Narrator is on his was to the house of Usher. He uses the words “dull, dark, and soundless”(Poe 749) to depict the path in which the Narrator is on. When the Narrator reaches the house he calls it “the melancholy House of Usher” (Poe 749). From the very first sentence to the last, Poe makes use of very descriptive words to help construct the theme of darkness and depression. The theme gets more intense when the Narrator states that he feels “a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” (Poe 749). The Narrator begins to talk about the feeling he gets from the house. He again describes the landscape and house itself and then tells the reader of the atmosphere surrounding the house. “I had worked upon my imagination as really to believe that around the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate

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Early on in the story, the narrator describes the feeling he has of the house, “I say insufferable; for the feeling of was unrelieved by any of that

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Mental illness, incest, pure horror, and maybe even vampires, “The Fall of the House of Usher” has very perplexing symbolism and metaphors that can be hard to decipher. The symbolism in his stories reflects his horrific past in a unique way for each piece. By using imagery and symbolism in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe creates very controversial topics to be discussed by the reader such as what Poe meant with the imagery he used to describe the appearance of The House of Usher, Roderick and Madeline's supposed mental illness, and "The Haunted Palace". To begin with, there is a great deal of symbolism in "The Haunted Palace". "

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In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher,”

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The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder,strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him.

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How does Poe use diction, imagery details, and figurative language to set a vivid setting in The Fall of the House of Usher? The first impressions given by the narrator give the story a bleak outlook for the ending of the story by the way Poe describes his surroundings and the house of Usher. As the narrator rides up to his old friend Usher’s house, he uses dark detailing on the surrounding area with darker words that help provide a sense of insecurity within the narrator as he wonders why he is so afraid of the house of Usher.

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Edgar Allan Poe, a unique individual with questionable stories, creates many outstanding works. Using the Gothic element of mystery and suspense abundantly, Poe also uses multiple other elements of horror in these texts to portray the stories. The Gothic elements contribute to emphasizing the story and feelings of the characters in their wild lives. In “The Black Cat,” The Raven, and “The Fall Of The House Of Usher,” these components reveal the insanity of Poe during his time. Poe uses metonymy of gloom and horror and the devil to portray the atmosphere of mystery and suspense in The Raven and in “The Fall Of The House Of Usher”;however, “The Black Cat” differs because the doppelgänger increases the mystery and suspense in the text.

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Denni Alvito Maulana 26022359334 Prose and Poetry Final Exam How Fear Alters Our Perception in The House of Usher Introduction The legendary author that popularized gothic horror in the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe, wrote many notable works that are still being discussed to this day. “The Fall of The House of Usher” was one of his greatest short stories that tells about The Usher family and their seemingly cursed house. Most of Poe’s stories and poems contain information and hints to his miserable and sad life. The Fall of The House of Usher in particular is inspired by Poe’s child bride as well as his first cousin, Virginia Clemm.

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One of the largest symbols in the book is the house that the Usher’s live in. Poe writes, “...and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the ‘house of Usher’” (Poe 494). Like the family itself, the house died with rest of the Usher family. Without the rest of Ushers to live there, it died in the fear of not having life live inside of it.

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Now, Poe’s “The Fall of House of Usher” uses a lot of the traditional settings of Gothic tales, the beginning of the story first starts with; “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback,

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Like the best very beginning of the romantic period that they then started to do works influenced on the weird and the supernatural, Allan Poe was attracted to this kind of things, so gives this kind of weird and spectral mood on this short story. Edgar Allan Poe was an influential romanticism writer. Known by giving his stories that theme of mystery. The Fall of the Usher House was not the exception. Allan Poe decided to give The Fall of the Usher House a mysterious theme and macabre.

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Poe starts off by setting the tone of the environment. It is towards the end of the year and in a dreary part of the country. His arrival at the House of Usher is one that is reminiscent of an old horror movie. The way he describes it one could get lost in imagination about the nightmarish horrors that may be inside. In describing the house, Poe uses words such as sad, cold and sickening.

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1669 Words | 7 Pages

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. However , the Narrator reveals something important about his first impression for the house by saying “ I looked upon the scene before me , upon the mere house, upon the bleak walls , upon the vacant eye-like windows ( 3 ).To illustrate , the words such as “ air of heaven , silent tarn , mystic vapor “ used as a reinforcement for making the ambience of the house as gloomy. In fact , in the light of these facts , it could be said that the house has an darkness appearance which might be an indication of its mysterious atmosphere.

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778 Words | 4 Pages

Poe uses imagery to explain the atmosphere of fear and the continuous breaking of Usher. Poe portrays the surroundings of the narrator as dark, giving an image of the setting “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year” (Poe 310). The image of a dark day is installed in the reader by this line. This line also gives the reader the image of being alone on a dark day in the autumn. Poe also uses imagery to make his readers a sense of fear “I know not how it was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” (Poe 310).

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The Symbolic and Metaphorical House of Usher Throughout all of Edgar Allen Poe stories, it is apparent that Poe uses symbolism and hidden meanings often in his work. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is filled with these hidden and interesting secrets. Poe uses these literary devices to his advantage, as they help add to the content of the story. Nearly every action or object has a symbolic to add to the plot or set the atmosphere of the story.

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In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the tone gives off an eerie and bizarre feeling. This is similar to many of Poe’s other short stories but this piece the most. The tone is gloomy compared to “The Black Cat” that Poe has also written. The author starts off the story with immense details of the setting. The readers get a dark vibe from these details.

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