What Is The Climax Of The Falling House Of Usher

Superstitions are a mysterious part of any culture, and those mysteries greatly influence mysterious writers. Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most famous mysterious authors, use the many mysterious encounters he faced as an asset for his short stories. A major influence was his time in Charleston, South Carolina, where he learned of the many superstitions and rituals of both the blacks and the whites of the area. His interests in horrific rituals like premature burials and zombication (which mainly involves voodoo, familiar to the Lowcountry Gullah culture) helped him to write horrific short stories, like “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Poe’s gory and eerie setting of the house itself and the off-putting characteristics of the Usher siblings expressed Poe’s knowledge of paranoia and interest of the “living dead,” which comes in the weird rituals of the Gullah culture.

In “Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe uses parallels between Roderick Usher and the House to illustrate how one affects the other. The House particularly compares to the physical appearance with Roderick Usher. To illustrate, Rodericks physical appearance is crumbling, much like the Houses “crumbling condition of the individual stones” (Poe 323). With human like qualities, the Houses “vacant eyelike windows” are a direct parallel to Rodericks “large eye, liquid and luminous” (Poe 322-324). In other words, the Usher family is so connected to their home that Roderick begins to physically look like the worn down, dark and mysterious House that is his abode. Not only does the House have similar physical parallels, but Rodericks

To properly convey these complex themes, Poe employed the use of the Gothic Tradition. That is to say, he used elements such as the supernatural, and traditional gothic settings to create a mood in his story to help the reader become immersed in the story. The Fall Of The House Of Usher is told in the first person, with a nameless narrator who is never properly described. This helps the reader to feel part of the story, as it is as if they are listening to themselves describing the story. Poe has also set the story in a very claustrophobic way, including

In the haunting House of Usher resides Roderick and Madeline Usher, who are both just as disturbing as the house itself. Their house is used to symbolize Roderick Usher. Throughout the story, the house is described as dark with many layers and hard to reach corners much like Roderick’s mysterious character. “No portion of the masonry had fallen; are there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones” (265). While the house is still acceptable as a whole, little pieces are falling apart one by one, much like Roderick.

One of the first things to note is how the house is used to represent the state of Roderick’s mind and physical appearance.

Usher represents the inner self of Edgar A. Poe, he is the personality for which Poe knew, and possibly became. Poe quite possibly became Usher but he did not realize it until he re visited his inner self and mind. “Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting” (236). Roderick Usher can represent Poe’s madness, Poe knew him in the past but finally along his journey he is coming to terms with his insanity. Edgar is excepting his madness although he still is frightened by the truth. “The writer spoke of acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him-and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his only personal friend” (236). Poe realized that his insanity did exist but he needed to address it and come to terms with it.

Poe’s use of personification, the act of giving human characteristics to nonhuman things, assigns the house of Usher a powerful and evil presence. In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator describes the

In the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" there is suspense and symbolism that can be written about, this story also provides many Gothic elements. In "The Fall of the House of Usher"

The narrator of the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a interesting character. Throughout the story the narrator interacts with Roderick and Madeline and witnesses their mental illnesses and Rodericks physical illness and how the incest between their ancestors have caused major problems in the family. What the narrator witnesses in the story is traumatic and in certain ways very life changing or altering. As a result of the events that occur in the Usher family home the narrator becomes unreliable as a narrator. The narrator is unreliable as a narrator because of the traumatic events that occur in the Usher family house and how they could have compromised the narrator's credibility as a narrator by changing or traumatizing him, and the events that occurred right before the Usher family house collapsed.

The narrator comes to the House to aid his dying friend, Roderick Usher. As he arrives at the House he comes upon an “aura of vacancy and decay… creating a pathologically depressive mood” (Cook). The state of the House is daunting to the narrator – he describes it with such features as “bleak walls”, “eye-like windows”, “rank sedges”, “decayed trees”, and “an utter depression of the soul”. These images foreshadow a less than pleasant future for the narrator and his dear friend Roderick. Poe continues to foreshadow the narrators turn of events with a description of the House’s “dark” and “comfortless” furniture. The House becomes a living hell for the narrator as he watches Roderick’s condition evolve and struggles to understand the mystery tying unfortunate events together. However, as the narrator gradually becomes more enveloped in Roderick and the House’s malady, he seems to develop a malady of his own. While the narrator’s illness is less prominent than that of Roderick and his sister Lady Madeline, the sicknesses are one in the same.

After evaluating the work of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, he utilizes with imagery to build up the feeling of terror. First of all, the passage is about an ill man, Roderick Usher, who invites his old friend of his to come meet him. In this passage both him and his sister, Madeline Usher, are the last remaining of the Usher race and is diagnosed with an unnatural illness. The narrator begins to feel terror with the supernatural things going on in the house of Usher and the illness of the Ushers. Although the narrator feels the sense of terror from the moment he entered the house, through the use of imagery, Poe is able to bring emotion to the reader. Throughout the passage, the author continues to build up the sense of terror by asserting the image and setting of both the passage and the atmosphere. For instance, he starts the passage by stating “a dull, dark, and a soundless day...clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens” (Poe 194). In relation to the previous quote, the quote illustrates the image of the atmosphere and the setting of the story. In particular, because Poe expresses the sense of terror by describing the atmosphere as dark, quiet, and gloomy, the reader can get an image of the surroundings and get the feeling of the darkness and horror. In addition, according to Poe, during the first glimpse of the house of Usher, the narrator describes it as gloomy and unpleasant. In particular, Poe states “the shades of the evening drew on… a sense of insufferable gloom” (Poe 194). Additionally, the description of the house adds on to the sense of terror that Poe established in the beginning of the story. Based on the past two quotes stated by the author, the reader can begin to picture a dark and dull day with a gloomy house adding on to the darkness. Lastly, in regards to Edgar Allan Poe, the house of Usher is

Edgar Allan Poe, renowned as the foremost master of the short-story form of writing, chiefly tales of the mysterious and macabre, has established his short stories as leading proponents of “Gothic” literature. Although the term “Gothic” originally referred only to literature set in the Gothic (or medieval) period, its meaning has since been extended to include a particular style of writing. In order for literature to be “Gothic,” it must fulfill some specific requirements. Firstly, it must set a tone that is dark, somber, and foreboding. Next, throughout the development of the story, the events that occur must be strange, melodramatic, or often sinister. Poe’s short stories are

In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator visits his childhood friend Roderick Usher, who has recently fallen ill. The house in which the Ushers reside had a supernatural aspect. The house is responsible for the deterioration of the family. The house causes both the physical and mental degeneracy of those within it. The comfortless house caused the people within it to become increasingly mad as time passed. Poe never outright says what this force is, but throughout the story, he suggest the house many be a vampire of sorts, consuming the strength and vitality of the narrator, rather than consuming blood as a typical vampire would. The house could possibly be possessed by an evil spirit, which controls Madeline and causes

The "fabric gave little token of instability"-- or the mansion itself did not tell of the turmoil it concealed. The story takes place in autumn, a season associated with death. When the story's tension is about to reach its crescendo, a storm comes up, a "rising tempest." This is a symbol for the "tempest" brewing in Roderick Usher's mind. Poe's use of foreshadowing is just enough to clue the reader into what will happen, but not enough to give it away.Character traits are displayed through how the setting affects, influences, and reveals the characters.

Faithful to the principles of the author, the first detailed words of description of the setting announce the decadent character of the composition- “All the main lines of action are supported by a systematic elaboration of detail” (Robinson, 79). The Fall of the House of Usher begins with the description of the place where all the facts of the story will develop: “It was a dark and soundless day near the end of the year, and clouds were hanging low in the heavens… through country with little life or beauty; and in the early evening I came within view of the House of Usher” (Poe, 22). At exterior levels, the presence of a crack crosses the whole structure of the house: “a crack making its way from the top down the wall until it became lost in the dark waters of the lake.” (Poe, 23). The dark aspect is present in the obscure interiors of the house: “Dark covering hung upon the walls. The many chairs and tables had been used for a long,