“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. 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. He makes sure to mention that the trees out front are dead, almost as if to foreshadow about what lies ahead. The house itself …show more content…
Upon seeing her, he falls to the ground, literally scared to death. At this time the narrator flees the House of Usher as it crumbles behind him as he makes his escape. This peculiar ending leads one to draw their own conclusions as to shy the house fell and what held the house up during the story. One possible solution to this query is that the house was never there, that it only existed in the mind of the narrator. Another may be that the narrator is dead, and the house is in a part of the spirit world. One could hypothesize for hours on the house of Usher but one thing is for certain, it is an excellent sample of the darkness and mystery surrounding so much of Poe’s