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Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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During Edgar Allen Poe’s life-time he expressed gothic tendencies and his strong telling in The Fall of the House of Usher. The suspense of the book gives an eerie feeling to readers. Even though the narrator in the story might be scared along with the readers, the narrative gives off an understanding that everything is delirious and strange in ways. Throughout the short story, the narrator interferes with grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events. Imagery has a well-known effect throughout the story, it shows you how it happens through words. The cool, dark, & gloomy, autumn breeze night occurs, with the evening dew on the overgrown grassy plants gives our narrator and the reader an eerie feeling that is unbearable to escape. Riding up to his “old friends” mansion he notice different things that sets the mood from bad to worse, with the decayed trees with white trunks, along with the rank sedges, sends an utter depression to the narrator. Once he reaches the house, the scent is …show more content…

Mr. Usher and Roderick travel down to the abandoned basement they both realize the beating and banging is coming from Lady Madeline’s coffin. They slowly make their way to the coffin. “There did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of Lady Madeline of Usher” (422). At a glance Madam Usher jumps out at her ill brother, killing him on sight. The narrator, terrified as can be darted out of the erie chamber, through the rooms of the mansion, he fled outside with the fiercely storm upon him. Looking back at the worn down castle he notice the fissure against the house starts increasing in size and length, from the top of the house to the bottom in a zigzag direction. Seconds after the Usher residents’ splits and sinks into the tarn below, leaving fallen

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1224 Words | 5 Pages

Roderick and the narrator spend some time together until Roderick informs him that Madeline has died. The men avoided burying Madeline until she was declared dead by doctors, because she had an illness causing catatonic fits, but they finally put her in a coffin in a sealed basement. While they were laying her in the coffin, Roderick told the narrator that he and Madeline had always shared a telepathic twin power. Towards the end of the story, Roderick becomes more anxious and uneasy and unable to sleep, the narrator reads Roderick a story foreshadowing the events about to come. Roderick tells his friend that he can hear Madeline trying to escape and he is terrified of her.

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

In gothic literature, such as “The Devil & Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, certain elements are used to create some sort of effect on the reader. No matter what the author may be writing about when creating gothic literature, they will use things such as the supernatural, women being in distress, mystery, tension, personification, and/or suspense with the intent to scare the reader. In these two writings, the suspense is made clear, everything being written about prior to the main point is to build up to the situation. In “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, there are many moments where the narrator describes things, such as the house, or Rodrick Usher, to create a sense

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621 Words | 3 Pages

The imagery Poe crafts into the story sets a mysterious,and almost melancholy mood complemented by the tone. In The Fall of the House of Usher, the story is started by the quote “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.” immediately creating a creepy, melancholy tone to make the reader get a feel of the solemn sadness of the story as soon as the story starts. Annabel Lee, a sad story where the narrator loses the love of his life, is turned creepy when the narrator sleeps with a dead Annabel Lee in her tomb. The quote “And so, all the night-tide, “I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,” makes the reader shift from feeling sad for a man that just lost his young wife, to creeped by a man who takes death cannot end our love

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375 Words | 2 Pages

Imagery in Decay Topic: How Poe uses Imagery to further the plot in The Fall of the House of Usher Tentative thesis: Through the use of imagery Edgar Allan Poe shows a decrepit, dying family; by portraying the decay of both the house and those who reside in it Poe sets up the final fate of the two main characters in his short story. Topic sentence 1: Throughout the short story Poe uses the landscape and the very trees to give the house a supernatural life and induce horror in the reader.

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944 Words | 4 Pages

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

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886 Words | 4 Pages

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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1396 Words | 6 Pages

In paragraph five of Poe’s story, as the narrator takes in the sight of the house, he realizes that their was a large crack from the top of the front roof, all the way down “in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters. ”(Poe,5) The narrator has arrived at the house and can not believe how daunting the house looks and it makes him wonder how bad-off his friend actually might be. This is a use of symbolism because later on in the story we are shown how Roderick Usher acts and how poor his health actually is. The owner of the house, Roderick, has a very strong illness of schizophrenia which makes him lose his mind; the cracks in the house resemble the “cracks” in Usher’s mind.

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In his short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allen Poe uses foreshadowing to show how Roderick is sad to let go of Madeline. A quote showing this is: The disease which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of her youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house (Poe 403).

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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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702 Words | 3 Pages

that the stem of the Usher race . . . had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. (Poe 2) Despite the incestual means of their conception occurring in the past, resulting genetic defects oppress the Usher siblings Madeline and Roderick—both physically and mentally—well into the future. Although the narrator provides no physical description of Madeline Usher prior to her entombment, of her brother Roderick he reports deformed features in line with those of products of

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1500 Words | 6 Pages

Roderick and Madeline Usher have been riddled with many illnesses as a result of the many generations hailing from a “direct line of descent” (Poe 196). The twins are the last members of their family and are on the edge of extinction. It can be possible that the Usher’s had turned their backs on God and “betrayed the Holy Ghost in themselves” (The Fall of the House of Usher 167). As the last of the Usher House, Madeline and Roderick symbolize the end of “an Enlightenment tradition still standing but about to collapse” (The Fall of the House of Usher 167).

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

The Role of Art in “The Fall of the House of Usher Art can be expressed within writing pieces, poems and short stories in various types of forms. Edgar Allen Poe uses music as a form of art to help the main character Roderick try to cope with his unstable state of mind. Roderick experiences moral dilemmas and music serves to distort his feelings unintentionally. Simiraily, the ancient greek philosopher Aristotle believed that for a balance of life one needs to encounter the bad experiences in order to feel better and move on to better times.

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1459 Words | 6 Pages

Of all gothic writers, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most groundbreaking of them all. From The Cask of Amontillado, a story with integrated historical references of the time, to The Fall of the House of Usher, a deep and morbid story full of imagery. Anywhere from The Tell-Tale Heart, truly a story of both unique syntax and perspective, to The Raven, a poem full of symbols and eerie repetition. Through these and many more, Poe has been using his writing style to immerse people into his stories and poems alike since 1839. However, Poe is only able to accomplish this through his unique writer’s style, particularly his forceful imagery and meaningful syntax.

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910 Words | 4 Pages

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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942 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout American literature and cinema history, the premature burial of someone has been displayed. In the American gothic short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe, this is portrayed as well. Roderick Usher buries his twin sister, Madeline Usher, alive because he believes that she has died. In Poe’s, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” it showcases Poe’s troubled past with the death of loved ones due to disease. Thus, it contributes to the theme one can never trust anyone, even one’s own family.

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