Compare And Contrast The Fall Of The House Of Usher And House Taken Over

Mental illness, incest, pure horror, and maybe even vampires, “The Fall of the House of Usher” has very perplexing symbolism and metaphors that can be hard to decipher. The symbolism in his stories reflects his horrific past in a unique way for each piece. By using imagery and symbolism in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe creates very controversial topics to be discussed by the reader such as what Poe meant with the imagery he used to describe the appearance of The House of Usher, Roderick and Madeline's supposed mental illness, and "The Haunted Palace". To begin with, there is a great deal of symbolism in "The Haunted Palace". "

The description of the House of Usher gives readers an idea of what the house looks like and relates back to the setting. It suggests that the house looks deserted and mysterious. At last, as Poe watches the House of Usher crumbles, he says that there is a “full,

Edgar Allen Poe wrote many stories throughout his lifetime, all of which tie to the gothic horror genre. Two prime examples of these stories are The Masque of the Red Death and The Black Cat. Each story provides evidence of characteristics representing the writing type of gothic literature. The stories expose the traits such as unusual psychology, horrible death, dark isolated setting, and exaggerated emotions. All of which create the eerie, dark, or almost demonic tone.

Roderick and Madeline Usher both have very unparalleled physical characteristics that concludes they are vampires. First, Roderick has multiple characteristics similar to those of a vampire. The text states: A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. (Poe 4).

But most of all, each work is about himself, almost an autobiography. Some would argue that “The Fall of the House of Usher” is Poe’s most well-known piece of writing, and this may be because of the excessive amount of personal links between his life and the events in the story. The setting of “The Fall of the House of Usher” clearly reflects the background Edgar Allan Poe was surrounded with as he grew up. As stated in the text, while the narrator comes upon the House of Usher, “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart --an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.”

Mental illness, incest, pure horror, and maybe even vampires, “The Fall of the House of Usher” has WORD symbolism and metaphors that can be hard to decipher. The symbolism in his stories reflects his horrific past in a unique way for each piece. By using imagery and symbolism in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe creates very controversial topics to be discussed by the reader such as what Poe meant with the imagery he used to describe the appearance of The House of Usher, Roderick and Madeline's supposed mental illness, and "The Haunted Palace". As previously stated, Poe uses symbolism to show the house's relationship with Roderick's mental illness, but more importantly he uses it again in "The Haunted Palace". "

All elements considered, both authors of these stories are able to successfully create Dark Romanticism. Poe used the house to symbolize Roderick’s deteriorating mental state. The veil which felt like, “preternatural horror was interwoven with the threads of the black crape” (Hawthorne) represented the secret and dark sins possessed by humans. The Fall of the House of Usher does represent Romantic literature in the way it includes elements like imagination and intuition over reason, and torment of the mind and body. But The Minister’s Black Veil has Romantic elements as well, such as talking about the supernatural, individuality, and psychological torment.

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.

Imani Vaughan Professor Richard Barefield English 251 5 October 2016 Influence of Elements Together with horror and literature there comes about the gothic work. The term ‘Gothic’ originated in literature in Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, of 1765. Gothic in its most popular influential years of the late eighth-teen and early ninth-teen centuries inveigled such authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The first effect the narrator brings to the story is when he describes how the weather was the day he arrived at the house of Usher. He says, "During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,"¦."The narrator also says that the plant life around the property is not kept up with decaying trees and single stemmed sedges around the perimeter of the estate. The setting in the house is described by the author as "I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity- an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn- a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernable and leaden-hued." This description given by the author shows how the up keep of the house is not that great which gives the house an even scarier effect of horror. The elements of Romanticism have a big influence on how the story is seen through readers' eyes.

“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.

The Symbolic and Metaphorical House of Usher Throughout all of Edgar Allen Poe stories, it is apparent that Poe uses symbolism and hidden meanings often in his work. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is filled with these hidden and interesting secrets. Poe uses these literary devices to his advantage, as they help add to the content of the story. Nearly every action or object has a symbolic to add to the plot or set the atmosphere of the story.

Adrianna Helms EN031 Mid term The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe The Fall of the House of Usher written by Edgar Allen Poe was a gothic horror story. It tells the tale of sickness,madness,incest and danger of the family with unrestrained creativity which was Poe's most popular and critically examined horror stories. While Poe provides the recognizable building blocks of the Gothic tale, he contrasts this standard form with a plot that is inexplicable, sudden, and full of unexpected disruptions. The story begins without complete explanation of the narrator’s motives are for arriving at the house of Usher, and this ambiguity sets the

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.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the Fathers of Gothic writing. This short story is a prime example of American Gothic Fiction due to some of the characteristics it contains that also defines Gothic literature. The story is about an unnamed narrator, arriving at the home of one of his old friends, Roderick Usher, and his experiencing of the abnormalities of living in the House of Usher. Eventually, the Roderick and his sister, Madeline, die together and within minutes the house cracks in half and caves in on them, thus ending the Usher family line.