A Haunted House Analysis

The interior of the house, much like the exterior, has a very strong presence of female symbolism. The interior symbolism correlates more to the more intimate aspects of Roderick’s character. Inside the house, a symbolic womb is created and then is offset by more of the stagnation that plagues the outside. The narrator enters the house through “the Gothic archway of the hall” (Poe

First of all, the dark setting of the old man’s room manifests terror in the story. “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the windows were close fastened, through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, ….”(56-59). The author directly portrays the dark scene of the old man’s room as black pitch, and the word “thick” emphasizes the deepness of the dark. The fact that the old man could see nothing because there’s no light makes the readers feel anxious. People depend on the light for their own protection, and they instinctively feel fear when it gets dark around

Besides creating a narrator that reveals the complex dynamics of female oppression, the writer also employs symbolism to enhance her message and depression that is given the fact that the narrator feels trapped and it is easy to assume that the woman she sees in the yellow wallpaper is a symbol of herself, not climbing thought the pattern therefore the yellow wallpaper and the character are two separate object. In ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’, the narrator states that ‘I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep,  and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all,’ showing the connection between the family and the house which suggested that Usher and the house are one. While comparing to ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ seems lack of these connections to show the intense rather than expressing the woman feeling oblivion of being trapped and faced oppression behind the

Lightness and darkness is a common theme throughout literature, most writers use it through symbols in their writing. In Poe’s story “Masque of the Red Death” and Hawthorne’s story “Minister’s Black Veil” both portray themes of lightness and darkness using symbolism throughout.

Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.

Light is used in the story to symbolize hope in a world full of despair and dark times. “We could not see our body nor feel it, and in that moment nothing existed save our two hands over a wire glowing in a black abyss” (Rand 60). Equality has discovered electrical light which was destroyed and hidden many years ago. The light also meant to symbolize Equality’s new found in a society where hope is outlawed leaving people sad and depressed with no knowledge of other emotion. A light in a world of “darkness” has

Throughout the story Baldwin illustrates that darkness is approaching when he says, “And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside”(7). The darkness and light Baldwin describes works as cycle, similar to night and day, after light comes darkness and after darkness comes light. The pattern of darkness and light is painted to symbolize the cycle of suffering and salvation, showing without one the other cannot exist. It is how to achieve this balance of light and dark that the narrator struggles with throughout the story. The narrator witnesses many instances of darkness, when his daughter died he wrote, “I was sitting in the living-room in the dark, by myself, and I suddenly thought of Sonny. My trouble made his real”(14). This instance of darkness the narrator depicts shows that suffering hold a present everywhere, it’s universal, and people can cope with their suffering though relating to one another. Furthermore, the recurring idea of darkness throughout the story shows that suffering will always exist and it is a vital part of the human experience. However, one can find the light, escaping the darkness for a moment, through relating to one another and showing compassion. In essence, the symbols light and darkness are used to develop Baldwins theme that suffering is

The protagonist of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is Eleanor Vance, an emotionally underdeveloped young woman with a dark past. As a character, she has a deep connection to the broad theme of family within the novel, and more specifically, how the lack of family when it is desperately needed leads to emptiness.

Whenever the light is mentioned in the story there is always darkness to go hand in hand with it. The light equals to positive relief whereas the darkness exemplifies the dread and misery that always threatens to extinguish those encouraging things. These references to the light and darkness give the reader a sense of the mood and tone of the story. These symbols make the story an important part of

Darkness can be a comfortable place for anyone. Without having to look at yourself or have people see you, one may not feel as judged or insecure. Light is revealing. In a bright room, you can’t hide tears, blemishes, or emotions. Blanche, from A Streetcar Named Desire, knows the pain of light all to well. Blanche flees a failed company and a failed marriage in attempt to find refuge in her sister’s home. Through her whirlwind of emotions, the reader can see Blanche desires youth and beauty above all else, or so the readers think. In reality, she uses darkness to hide the true story of her past. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses the motif of light to reveal Blanche’s habit of living in a fantasy world until the

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

The White House is the home and workplace of the President of the United States since 1800, which was first inhabited by John Adams. This house was home for forty-three of the forty-four Presidents of the United States, two of which have actually died in the Executive Mansion, but also the presidents did have family members who died within the walls of the White House. With all of the this house’s rich history, it may not be a surprise that it is rumored to be haunted, and is considered one of the most haunted houses in the United States. There are reports of sightings of past Presidents and spouses by different Presidents, their families, and foreign dignitaries.

The Winchester house is one of the oddest and one of most haunted houses in the world. It is located in northern California. It cost over $20,000,000 to make. The owner, Mrs. Winchester, was rich because her family made the Winchester repeating rifle known as “The gun that won the west”. The house has 160 rooms and there are spirits in each room. The builders had to keep remaking rooms that if Mrs. Winchester kept them all she would have 600 rooms. So when they were done with the house, which took over 30 years to make, there were stairs that led to the ceiling and doors that led to walls.

The poem, "The Night House" by Billy Collins, is very symbolic and meaningful, and most people can relate to because everyone has something they are not content with in life. Collins is a great, straightforward writer that people can depict with in his poems because he is practical and uses simple things or everyday experiences in an easy way. This poem in particular is very symbolic and effortless to analyze because it is the everyday life--- going to work, coming home, and then going to sleep--- the cycle then repeats over and over. He talks about "the body works" at the beginning (which sets the tone for the rest of the poem), which symbolizes that our hearts and minds are not always into what we are doing. He talks and illustrates figurative parts of the body: the heart, mind, conscience, and soul. When he talks about the woman sleeping, all these figurative body parts are restless and come out at night to do what they really want to do.

The triangle is the strongest geometric shape. It cannot physically collapse, and stresses are equally distributed over all three legs. But the triangle, like many things that have roots in the number three, requires a dichotomy of balance and instability. To illustrate this dichotomy, take two triangles, one that sits upright with its single point above its base, and the other that is inverted, with the wide base above the single point, on which the shape balances and teeters. In Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), the solitary points of these two triangles are personified in Mrs. Ramsay (in the upright, stable triangle) and Lily Briscoe (in the inverted triangle). The novel itself takes on a triad form, separated into three sections: “The Window,” “Time Passes,” and “The Lighthouse.” Mrs. Ramsay rules in the first section, and Lily Briscoe in the last, with the middle section—a mere twenty pages that covers ten years of time, including the death of Mrs. Ramsay—acting as a transient moment of flux in which the careful balance established during the dinner party scene in “The Window” fades and leaves Lily Briscoe the sole triangle. It is in “The Lighthouse” that Lily Briscoe finally finishes her painting and has her “vision” (Woolf, 209). This vision, and the creation and protection that both Lily and Mrs. Ramsay specialize in, are essential to their queering of their family unit.