Edgar Allan Poe Mood

Edgar Allan Poe, an anomaly amongst American writers of his period, has become one of the most well-known writers to date. Poe’s nineteenth-century stories of mystery and macabre laid foundation for the modern detective story, and many of his works became literary classics. Poe’s short stories and poems have sparked interest and imagination amongst readers across the world, becoming the topic of many classroom discussions due to his unique, and gothic way of writing. Using a somber or mysterious setting, Poe often paints a dark mood for his stories. When an author, like Poe, is describing the setting, or conveying a specific mood, the reader often assumes both are the same. Whereas setting is used to provide a visual foundation for the reader,

The story’s first sentence gives the reader a description of setting, and mood. “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, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.” From the beginning, the reader starts to picture the narrators surrounding, while stirring a sense of mystery. In the quote, the words “dull, dark, and soundless” along with the season of “autumn” paints the scene to be gray, and grim. The reader is also introduced to the “melancholy” House of Usher. “I looked upon the scene before me -- 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 -- with an utter depression of soul…” While providing a description of the house, these words also give the reader an austere chill. Poe uses eerie words to provide the dark setting, which, in turn, also provides an eerie mood for the

Amongst several highlights of the setting, the masquerade is held in seven color-themed rooms. These seven rooms are described as follows; “There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards… To the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor…These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decoration of the camber into which it opened.” The story goes on to talk about the specific colors of the rooms, ending on the seventh room which was “…closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls… The panes here were … a deep blood color… In the … black chamber, the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings… was ghastly… and produced so wild a look upon… those who entered.” Descriptions using words that are normally associated with mystery and horror add to the reader’s understanding of a scene; and Poe so well exercises the power of words as he uses the description of setting to appeal to the infamous mood of his