ipl-logo

Literary Analysis On The Fall Of The House Of Usher

532 Words3 Pages

Literary analysis “The Fall of the House of Usher” In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” Poe utilizes dark imagery and diction to create a bleak and hopeless mood. Poe is a master of constructing a dark mood and generating suspense and “The Fall of the House of Usher” further illustrates that. Poe also changes the sentence structure as the state of mind of the narrator changes. Furthermore with each scene description Poe paints an extremely vivid picture for the reader “the clouds hung oppressively low in heavens, I had been passing through a singularly dreary tract of country” (1). Poe’s use of strong adjectives such as oppressively and dreary presents a darker mood for the reader. The wide range of vocabulary Poe commands …show more content…

The deeper the narrator dips into the dreary air of the house of Usher the closer he gets to diving into the ocean of insanity. “His countenance was, as usual cadaverously wan —but, moreover there was a mad hilarity in his eyes — an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor. His air appealed me — but anything was preferable to the solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief” (8). As the narrator begins to lose his sanity Poe adds dashes into the thoughts of the narrator to emphasize the fact that the thoughts of the narrator are becoming more spacey and nonsensical. "Not hear it? — Yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long —long — long —many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it —yet I dared not — oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! I dared not—I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb!” Not only does Poe change the narrator’s thoughts, but he alters the dialogue of Usher as well (10). As Usher reveals to the narrator that they in fact put lady Madeline in the tomb while she was still living Poe frequently inserts dashes like he did before with the narrator to

Show More
Related
679 Words | 3 Pages

Edgar Allen Poe is considered to be one of the leading writers of the Gothic Romantic period of literature. One of Poe’s famous short stories, The Fall of the House of Usher, creates a dark and sorrowful atmosphere, with a deep story of connection between brother and sister intertwined within. Poe conveys this atmosphere through powerful and elaborate use of diction, to tie into the overarching theme of tradition. Poe is renowned throughout history for his beautiful and elaborate use of diction and symbolism. He uses copious amounts of description to conjure up vivid scenes in the reader’s mind.

Read More
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.

Read More
159 Words | 1 Pages

The story begins with the narrator admitting that he is a "very dreadfully nervous" type. This type is found throughout all of Poe 's fiction, particularly in the over-wrought, hyper-sensitive Roderick Usher in "The Fall of the House of Usher. " As with Usher, the narrator here believes that his nervousness has "sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them." Thus, he begins by stating that he is not mad, yet he will continue his story and will reveal not only that he is mad, but that he is terribly mad. His sensitivities allow him to hear and sense things in heaven, hell, and on earth that other people are not even aware of.

Read More
1022 Words | 5 Pages

When the narrator arrives at the house of Usher he describes it by saying, “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 eyelike windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with and utter depressions of soul” (paragraph 1) The way Poe uses personification to create suspense is that he uses the house to make it look like it is looking at the narrator causing the narrator to feel uneasy and creeped out. It also creates tension for the reader because it makes the reader fear what will happen to the narrator once he goes inside this house that the narrator describes that is looking at him. Tom's marriage and wife were described as “He had a wife as miserly as himself: they were so miserly that they even conspired to cheat each other. Whatever the woman could lay hands on, she hid away; a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg.”

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

In paragraph 11 Roderick Usher realizes his fear of the outcome of his future, “not in [the events] themselves, but in their results.” He is scared that his sister will die and leave him as the last Usher. Since Roderick is becoming more and more fearful that his sister is going to die and he will be the last Usher, he is also leaving the readers tense at the consequences of his fear. Poe uses another example of foreshadowing in the text to create suspense in the story. In paragraph 5 the narrator adds “Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation.

Read More
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.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

Words like “dull” and “oppressive” along with phrases like “soundless day in the autumn of year,...” (Poe, line 1) help prevail the darkness lingering outside the house of Usher as if all the evils of the world would be spent on one final blow on the Usher family. As the story progresses however, both Usher and the narrator end up going crazy as the gloomy weather and the reawakening of Usher’s twin sister both contribute to the evils destroying the Usher family.

Read More
407 Words | 2 Pages

In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” a classic written by Edgar Allen Poe, he employs clever descriptions in order to create the perspective for the rest of the story. With the inclusion of a dark, gloomy tone as well as developed metaphors, he is able to illustrate the archetypal morbid, horrific aesthetic impact of his work. Setting the scene right away, Poe introduces his story with the opening line, “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.” The single sentence conveys several symbols carried throughout the plot, painting the image of a dark, autumn setting and a sense of isolation. In the specific excerpt, “the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,” gives the reader a sense of depression, creating a claustrophobic the-sky-is-falling feeling which references the foreshadowed fall of the House of Usher.

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

The story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a narrator who is going to visit his friend, Roderick, upon hearing about his worsening mental health. When he visits his friend, he discovers the family's curse and witnesses the end of the Usher line. In an attempt to cheer up his friend, the narrator engages Roderick in various activities such as reading, painting, and making music. One such dirge created by Roderick, “The Haunted Palace” is not only symbolic of the Usher line but is also symbolic of the change of Roderick.

Read More
732 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1500 Words | 6 Pages

“A Haunted Place” shows Roderick Usher falling from sanity as he plays the lute beautifully, a reflection of well being, and harshly, a reflection of madness. The stories that Poe includes in the short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, are not

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

In this essay I will be telling you about the different ways Edgar Allen Poe used literary elements to show you how and why he wrote The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe uses certain settings to express the mood and feel of the story. The claustrophobic room, old paintings and books, a tomb in the basement and labyrinthine

Read More
559 Words | 3 Pages

In the excerpt Poe also uses the component of character’s internal thoughts to add to the character of the unnamed narrator. For example, In the the last paragraph, when the narrator begins to be agitated by a ringing and Poe writes, “ But, ere long, I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in my ears:” (Poe 26-28) In this quote, the narrator is clearly getting agitated and extremely bothered by a ringing in his ears. This quote portrays the narrator’s dramatic shift in character; he literally becomes the opposite of what his character and composure were before.

Read More
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.

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

In the “Fall of the House of Usher,” Roderick Usher prematurely buries his sister, Madeline Usher, because he thinks she has died from an unknown illness. Poe describes the burial as, “We replaced and screwed down the lid, and having secured the door of iron, made out the way with the toll…” (Poe 425). When Roderick bolted the iron lid upon his sister’s coffin, all trust that had previously been built between the two had been broken. In Poe’s life, after the burial of his wife and mother, he felt like he could never trust anyone as well.

Read More

More about Literary Analysis On The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Related Topics

Open Document