The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

The Fall of the House of Usher: The Fall of the Usher Family Symbolism is an artistic style of using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe uses symbolism together with his mysterious style, tone, subconscious motivation of characters and grim fear-provoking themes to swing his readers towards a demented point of view. The “father” of the American short story carefully makes every sentence in the story contribute to the overall sense of gloom, horror and nervous anticipation of disturbing events. Initially, the narrator’s descriptions of the house suggest the story is about the overall physical condition of the house of Usher. However, Poe’s clever use

The mere image of the house of Usher provokes a sense of nervous anticipation of impending gloom. “With the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives.” (1001) The narrator continues his description by emphasizing specific features of the house and its surroundings. The house's structure seems to be in a dilapidated condition, yet structurally sound. The narrator notes “the crumbling condition of the individual stones.” (1002) The most prominent descriptions are those of the windows and the crack. He describes the windows as “vacant” and “eye-like.” (1003) The crack is described as “a barely perceptible fissure,” which extends from the roof and down the wall in a zigzag direction,” until it's “lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.” (1003) While the physical description of the house of Usher provokes a sense of nervous anticipation of impending gloom, the cause of the gloom is only realized at the conclusion of the