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How Does Poe Use Imagery In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of The House of Usher is a haunting story about a man that get invited to a mysterious mansion and his experience staying in this ancient, gloomy place. Poe uses imagery and other literary devices to entrance readers in the mind of the narrator and undergo the same feelings as him. As our narrator approaches the mansion, Poe sets the scene for a very gothic and somber setting. Poe uses words like “melancholy” and “insufferable gloom” to preface the narrator seeing the mansion. As the narrator approaches the mansion, the words he uses paints a clear picture of the house. The narrator describes the bleak walls and the decaying trees along the mansion. Poe is obviously creating an uneasy feeling within the readers by explaining all the eerie details of what the narrator is seeing. The narrator feels anxious getting …show more content…

Roderick lives in the mansion with his twin sister Madeline. Even though the narrator says that Rodrick was one of his closest friends, he does not know much about him. The narrator did not know Rodrick had a twin sister which shows just how closed off Rodrick must have been when it comes to his family when he was younger and even now. Roderick Usher invited the narrator to the mansion to cheer him up. Roderick had sent him a letter explaining that he was not feeling well mentally or physically and would love if the narrator came to the house. Rodrick is physically very weak and mentally he cannot distinguish reality and fantasy. Madeline on the other hand, has a condition where her muscles move involuntarily. This can be due to the incestuous lineage of their family as the narrator explains that their family tree has no branches. Madeline and Rodrick have opposite disabilities at the start but when Madeline “dies” we see Rodrick get weaker than he was. The twins mirror each other’s ailments because while Madeline has a physical impediment, Rodrick has a mental

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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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There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect.” In the description of the house in “The Fall of the House of the Usher” is very displeasing as well. “…And upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—which I can compare no earthly sensation more properly then to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium.” Even the narrator describes a depressing feeling from the look of the Usher house. There is a similar eerie setting in “The Man of the Crowd.”

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He receives a letter from Roderick telling him that his sister is sick and he needs help. She ends up dying from catalepsy putting them both in a stressful situation. They end up burying her alive under the house. She crawls out and attacks Roderick and he dies from fear while she ends up dying completely . The narrator runs away from the house as it falls apart behind him.

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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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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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Throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher,” metaphor and symbolism are heavily relied upon to express the extent of the madness that resides within the Usher House. In the short story, Poe creates a symbolic parallel between the art and stories that are seen and told. It can be implied, from a painting, in the Usher house, that Lady Madeline Usher is still alive. The reader can also imply that there is a hidden tunnel or room under the entirety of the house. “The Mad Trist” indirectly tells the reader of Lady Madeline’s escape from the tomb she had been placed in.

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It is also alluded that these buildings have secrets and unknown tragic backstories that still plague the house. The use of a gruesome setting implies what is going to occur later in the story. “The Fall of the House of Usher” occurs during a “dull, dark,

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Reality is merely an outward expression of what we have chosen to accept and focus on in the world, but sometimes our imagination interferes with our ability to distinguish fact from fiction. The Isolation Roderick sustains, contributes significantly to his developing insanity and frailty to differentiate reality from imagination to Edgar Allan Poe's short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Uniquely, the environment in which Roderick confines himself in contributing to his psychological predicament. Even though the house itself is large, Roderick feels almost claustrophobic and overwhelmed by the melancholy atmosphere the house bestows.

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The reader and the narrator are in the same boat when it comes down to Roderick’s. Because the narrator apparently does not know much about Roderick’s he basically only knows about his twin sister. The story begins out

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Ever since the beginning of the story we could see that the atmosphere projected by the house goes beyond the narrator’s comprehension: “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day [...] I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country” (Poe, 3). Moreover, we can see that the narrator finds himself trapped in an alternative reality : “[...] an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime” (Poe, 3). Also, the human logic seems to have no further means of explaining the house’s fantastic atmosphere : “ nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered” (Poe, 3).

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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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The end of Roderick’s life is described as, “... in her violent and how final death-agonies bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe 430). Throughout the story, Roderick anticipated that his sister’s spirit would try to attack him because he had always heard her voice

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