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Literary Analysis On The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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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

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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.

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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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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.”

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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.

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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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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.

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