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Symbolism In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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Joshua Pellecchia The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is considered one of his best works. The success of this story is due to his use of allusion, symbolism, and irony to establish an eerie setting where the tragedy of the Usher family could horrifically transpire. Allusion to real-life texts and musical compositions work hand-in-hand with his use of irony and symbolism to foreshadow the fates of Roderick and Madeline Usher, and that of the house itself. These elements Poe employs to guide the story work so well together to create an enveloping story rich with tension and looming horror that it has to be one of Poe’s greatest works. Symbolism through setting is how Poe mainly reveals the story to the reader, but he never revealing too much; success of this story can be accredited to his ample use of symbolism, while still leaving a lot to be questioned. The setting Poe gives the House of Usher is a key element for foreshadowing the fate and condition of Roderick Usher and his manor. The unnamed narrator’s journey to the House of Usher is one described as: “a soundless day when the clouds hung oppressively in the heavens...in a dreary tract of country...found myself upon the melancholy house of usher” (). Upon …show more content…

Where Roderick will end up is unclear, but this serves to foreshadow the death of Roderick and Madeline. While Poe gives ample insight of the fate of this house and its tenants, he never revealed the method, only the possible results. This access to the story’s inner-workings only tells the reader so much as to keep them speculating. Every inch of the Usher household and the environment surrounding it seem to serve as symbols to the unfortunate fate of the House of Usher. While most of these elements serve as symbols, Poe also uses allusion conjointly to achieve the same

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The depressing mood in “The Fall of the House of Usher” also insinuates fear in the opening paragraph by describing the atmosphere and appearance of the house. Poe uses “dull, dark and soundless” (Poe 1) descriptive words to describe the atmosphere around the Usher house. He explains the “clouds [hanging] oppressively low” (Poe 1) and the sense of “insufferable gloom” (Poe 1) coming from the house. Poe employs this to set a melancholy tone and prepare the reader for the gloomy description of how the usher house appears, which the reader will find expected. The usher house is personified as a person by its “bleak walls…vacant eye-like windows…rank sedges…

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In the short story, Usher II the author uses allusion to help the reader visualize the setting of the story. The author of the short story, Usher II sets the story by using allusion to other scary short stories to help the reader to visualize the house. In the first example of allusion, Bradbury creates a connection to begin to set the story off with describing Edgar Allan Poe’s quote of his take on the house. Stendhal stands upon a low black hill reciting a quotation from Poe’s story The House of Usher.

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Poe is a fan of personification, while Irving would rather use more satire in his stories. The narrator of “The Fall of the House of Usher” helps Roderick Usher through his malady through multiple activities, one of which includes listening to him read a poem called “The Haunted Palace”. In which, a “Radiant palace–reared its head” (Poe Paragraph 19). This palace is ruled by a king that is killed and taken over, representing the taking-over of Roderick Usher’s mind. This foreshadowing and the personification of the palace also builds up suspense.

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When the narrator sees Usher for the first time in years, he “gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher!”. From the moment Roderick is introduced, he is described with ominous tones. Although the reader has no idea what Usher had looked like before his illness, the thoughts of the narrator invoke an unsure and suspenseful mood. After spending more time with him, the narrator had also come to learn that “He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated—an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit—an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence.”.

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When the narrator first was reconnected with Rodrick, they were talking and the narrator learned something disturbing about the Usher family. “The entire family lay in the direct line of descent” (Poe). Showing the family dynamic and how it was forced upon the Usher twins since their whole family had done it before. As the narrator is feeling like he is going insane he meets with Rodrick for the last time learning what is truly happening in the house. “The rendering of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault!”

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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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People have many factors in their lives affecting their motivations and decision-making processes. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” the main character is a man named Roderick Usher. This man is affected by emotional influences, family illness, and a gloomy environment. The emotional theme of fear runs through the entirety of this story. Mr. Usher is influenced by an illness that affects his sister and his own self proclaimed mental illness.

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“ The Fall of the House of Usher “ by Edgar Allan Poe is a short story about a man named Roderick Usher who initiates some events such as evoking his friend The Narrator as a protagonist to the dreadful mansion. The images such as the house and gothic ambience are used to reinforce the idea of giving the mystery to the reader. Edgar Allan Poe uses gothic elements to show how they affect the atmosphere and the characters. In the beginning , the gothic atmosphere of the house is indicated with terrifying images such as “ dull, dark and soundless ” that the feeling of horror vaccinated into reader by the thoughts of the narrator.

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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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That is, rather than having the transcendentalist ideals that build to an optimistic ending, The Fall of the House of Usher presents a lifeless plot that comes to be gloomier as the story develops. For instance, the description of the house and its residents are presented as a sarcastic criticism of that movement. The house is described as a haunted house with a gloomy atmosphere. It seems to be connected with the Ushers and falls with

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“In the view of Richard M. Fletcher, Edgar Allan Poe was neither a symbolist nor an allegorist; he was a synonymist, that is, a word painter or a manipulator of vocabulary, who employed a rag-bag of generally shabby techniques to write his tales and poems, some of affirm his stature as a writer of genius.” (Stauffer, 48) Edgar Allan Poe’s writing style was not something that everybody used to, he had his own techniques to write, playing with the words and painting a poem or a tale by using his brush. “The Fall of the House of Usher” has 3 major characters in the story which is Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher and the narrator. Everything starts with a letter from Roderick Usher to the narrator.

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