Romantic Elements in Frankenstein and the Fall of the House of Usher

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year,” (412) is the first sentence in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. This beginning sentence sets the tone of dark. Gothic Literature’s style has elements of fear, horror, gloomy and death; it gives the feeling of suspense and fear. This story is a great example of Gothic Literature. In this story the narrator goes to Usher’s house, which is mysterious, and becomes aware that the house is like Usher who is sick. Poe’s technique of the unified effect accomplishes its intended purpose through the setting, plot development and imagery.

“I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in an unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows” (Poe). In the exposition of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the narrator travels to the house of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, and in an attempt to rectify the rise of negative emotions, gazes at a small lake, at the reflection of the eerie house surrounded by dead trees. Like the narrator, who uses unorthodox methods to obtain a clearer image, Roderick Usher’s strange behavior, surrounding his twin sister and the forms of art that he partakes in, appear as madness, but actually reveal deep insight.

In the first few lines of the story, Poe describes the setting as, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens”. Even before the characters are revealed, readers can sense that darkness will succumb the “melancholy House of Usher”. The story’s vagueness, which is part of the horror, leaves no indication in which the house and its residents lie. We do not know when or where the narrator arrived, but we do know that the narrator seems to be all alone. The mystery behind the house and its family is one of the many elements Poe uses to make his readers use their imagination.

The fall of the house of usher is perceived by the narrator as a supernatural and sensory experience in which the simultaneous

Throughout, The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe utilized his romantic philosophy on shallowest level to immerse the reader in a depressing environment, encapsulating his mind and plunging him into a strange story of ancestral tension

Edgar Allan Poe was a typical representative of the 19th century literary movement - Dark Romanticism. This essay will look at one of his short stories – The Fall of the House of Usher – in its broad cultural and literary context, its place among other Poe’s works, the story’s stylistic features, and the main themes and characters.

Edgar All Poe uses literary devices in order to create a pragmatically desolate mood in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe’s famed melodramatic writing style shines through with his use of idioms in this story; his masterfully described setting also helps to create a feeling of dread and isolation. The story begins with the description of a bleak house surrounded by an unkempt yard complete with rampant bushes, rotten trees, and a putrid tarn. The narrator of the story tells how the bleakness and wildness of the estate has inspired a sense of dread and isolation in him.

When Romanticism comes to mind, one would think of love; but this Period involved so much more than just intimacy and compassion. Stemming from the destruction of war, and the Industrial revolution, people began to voice their opinions about the world through the arts. Mary Shelley revealed this expression of romanticism mostly in her Well-known novel Frankenstein. “Romanticism was a literary movement that swept through virtually every country of Europe, United States, and Latin America that lasted from about 1750 to 1870.” (“The Romantic Era” 1).

In this extract an unknown narrator has just arrived at the home of his childhood friend Usher, who has acquired a mysterious illness. The narrator observes the house and takes in its antique and dilapidated state. He is then lead “through many dark and intricate passages” to meet the master. It is stated that “an atmosphere of sorrow […] and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all”. This atmosphere is present throughout the whole extract and thus sets the general mood of the story.

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe is a very dark and eerie story. This gothic tale is very complexly written, as many of Poe’s works are. In this story, there were two main themes that stood out: fear and friendship. The fear of Roderick Usher as well as the narrator’s fear and the friendship of the two. And although there are many elements of this story that are noteworthy, most importantly though is the authors vagueness throughout.

A poet so widely known for the horror laced upon the words of his writings, Edgar Allen Poe trained his pinhead to instill fear and fascination among his readers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” became on of his most well-known and prevalent works. It resides in compilations of famous short-stories and rests in the curriculum of every high school’s english department. However, beyond its accolades of simplistic quality, the mechanics of style reign prevalent within the writing. Poe uses the equational themes of gothic literature to craft his renowned story. First, Poe uses precisely concocted imagery to denote a gloomy, dark setting in which the remainder of the story will take place— the House of Usher. As the narrator begins the story, they are found riding on, “a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.

The story of “The fall of the house of Usher” is categorized as a tragic short story published under the name Edgar Allen Poe, and has proven over time to be a very illusive and vivid tale, as the extensively descriptive vocabulary eludes readers to entrance them into such a gloomy experience, of which the overtone of the story unpleasantly provides readers; as even then there is still no certain meaning from which a person may derive the actual circumstance of which the passage may bring unto them, while there are a multitude of different interpretations that are neither proved nor disproved, only ones sense of perception may provide them a viable understanding of which the passage may present them. Nonetheless the story no less significant or hazy, as it severely dwells on the emotions and thoughts of the narrator who has the apparent displeasure of experiencing the events that partake in this story, presenting such prolific portions of idea that can all but resist the urge to unease the individual who may unfortunately come across this particularly eerie piece of literature.

The opening of the story depicts and sets the gloomy atmosphere of the short story “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone” (Poe 109). That is, rather than having the transcendentalist ideas that build to an optimistic ending, The Fall of the House of Usher presents a lifeless plot that comes to be gloomier as the story develops. For instance, the description of the house and its residents are presented as a sarcastic criticism of that

The Fall of the House of Usher is a story “of sickness, madness, incest, and the danger of unrestrained creativity. This is among Poe's most popular and critically-examined horror stories” (Gordon). For example if you were to close your eyes while someone was reading the story you would see the house “decaying” in your imagination (Poe). From the start of the story the narrator’s strange “insufferable gloom” is introduced. He notes the darkness of his surrounding (Gordon). The stories are very deeply described and felt.

The narrator reaches his destination at Usher’s house but right away comes across himself triumphed over by an insufferable gloom. This surveillance and description sets up the story’s tone and the secrecy that will develop. The narrator’s account of the house and its foundation, Roderick’s very much distorted condition, and Madeline’s