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The Effect Of Fear In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

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Dark and dreary, a man rides up on his horse. He comes across a dingy piece of country and sees the dismal mansion of the “House of Usher.” In Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” a man finds himself in a ghastly situation. Receiving a letter from an old “friend,” Roderick Usher, the narrator visits him to help with his strange predicament. This story arouses many different effects and tones from various literary elements. However, ultimately the use of of mood and atmosphere, romanticism, and the theme that fear is powerful created the single effect of eeriness. Firstly, the author uses mood and atmosphere to portray the single effect of eeriness. As the narrator approaches the ghostly looking “House of Usher” he describes his surroundings as “no earthly sensation more …show more content…

When the narrator first meets his old “friend” he notices his terrible condition and the concern of his future that makes him “feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when [he] must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR” (Poe 5). The fact that his terror, could lead to him soon abandoning his life all together shows his recognition of the power of fear; this gives this abnormal story an uncanny effect. Towards the end of the story, the narrator and Roderick Usher bury Lady Madeline, Roderick Usher’s sister, in a vault. During a stormy night, Lady Madeline seemingly breaks away from her vault as a ghost and violently “bore [Roderick Usher] to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe 15). The terror that both Usher and the narrator had foreseen, evidently occurred when Lady Madeline ostensibly killed her brother. These anticipated events shows the power that fear had over both characters that ultimately led to Lady Madeline’s and Roderick Usher’s death created the single effect of

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

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He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is a hypochondriac, is very depressed. "I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR.” This quote is showing, “FEAR” emphasizes that it’s the primary feeling Poe is attempting to evoke in this story.

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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.

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In the story, The Fall of the House of Usher, a mood within the story is the sense of surprise, then horror. Usher and the narrator were surprised when, “... the tall figure, in its grave- clothes, of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white dress, and the signs of her terrible efforts to escape were upon every part of her thin form. For a moment she remained trembling at the door; then, with a low cry, she fell heavily in upon her brother; in her pain she died at last, she carried him down with her, down the floor. He too was dead, killed by his own fear.

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The wording sounding like a high class person was speaking with a lot of intelligence placed. Edgar Poe gives the eerie feeling (“ dark, mute autumn”) from the creepy setting. Now the story show paranormal activity by indicating that there is a (“dark figure standing”) which the Usher kept seeing as well (“ hearing noises so often”) giving another scary element and a understandment why it's about ghosts, a haunted house. So, not only was the house haunted Mr. Usher was (“mentally ill”) could have been just imagination that could have caused him to think that there’s ghosts within the house, that the noises and body figures was just all in his head. Also could have lead him to his deathbed (“ death upon fear”) usually when a person has so much build up of fear and stress a heartache is presented.

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Deep within every person there is a sense of fear that terrifies them for life. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Fall of the house of Usher”, the narrator enters the home of a lifelong friend, Usher, who has fallen to the fear he has held within him. Usher’s twin sister, Madeline, has Usher on edge thinking that she is dead. When they bury her, she comes back to life and takes him away to die with him. They are the last two of the family of Ushers.

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“The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s greatest gothic tales. It captures exactly what it means to be a gothic short story; it has a gloomy musky surrounding, seems to always be night time, there's a mansion/castle that is falling apart, and two sick dying people that are struggling to live in it, and an unnamed narrator. The characters on the story are on the brink of insanity, or a mental breakdown. Poe’s constant obsession of death, and the insane measures humans will go through to avoid it are not scarce in this short story. When the story first begins, we learn that our narrator is visiting his old friend Roderick Usher.

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The Narrator arrives at the “melancholy” House of Usher, and immediately feels a sense of sorrow. He describes the house as having, “Bleak walls -- upon the vacant eye-like windows -- upon a few rank sedges-- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees -- with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to after-dream of the reveller upon opium”(Poe 1).What is meant by this quote is that the depression felt upon first glance at the house is one that can only be compared to the depression felt after coming down from a euphoric drug-like high. Regarding the physical landscape of the The literature that Edgar Allan Poe has produced has been some of the most interesting literature in American history.

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Like the best very beginning of the romantic period that they then started to do works influenced on the weird and the supernatural, Allan Poe was attracted to this kind of things, so gives this kind of weird and spectral mood on this short story. Edgar Allan Poe was an influential romanticism writer. Known by giving his stories that theme of mystery. The Fall of the Usher House was not the exception. Allan Poe decided to give The Fall of the Usher House a mysterious theme and macabre.

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“There was a coldness, a sickening of the heart, in which I could discover nothing to lighten the weight I felt” This line perfectly sums up the overall tone of The Fall of the House of Usher. The story at its most basic level is about a man who visits his old friend in a house which is seemingly under some sort of supernatural hex. The way Poe goes into such detail describing the characters and their personal reactions to the events that take place during the story help the reader to stay close to the actions of the story. Additionally Poe describes the house so well that the reader can easily picture the dilapidated mess as if standing in front of it.

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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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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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Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” describes an unnamed narrator’s visit to his friend’s (Roderick Usher) house. Roderick, sick with “a morbid acuteness of the senses” (5), has requested that the narrator come to the House of Usher for company. As the narrator enters the house, he notices that the house possesses an “irredeemable gloom” (3). The narrator also spots Roderick’s female twin, Madeline, who suffers from catalepsy.

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