Similarities Between Frankenstein And The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Transformation in stories is meant to scare the person reading it. Transformation uses what we as humans don’t quite understand, against us. It uses death, supernatural elements, and the unknown, all things we don’t understand, to scare us. “But i do believe in the paranormal, that there are things our brains just can’t understand.” This quote by Art Bell explains just how little we know.

In “The Fall Of The House Of Usher” the characters transform, when the narrator Rodrick’s friends comes see him he starts feeling sick just like Rodrick. His twin sister transform too because she dies and comes back to life as a zombie, and Rodrick got a heart attack and dies from seeing his zombie sister. In Frankenstein the characters transform

The short stories “ The Fall of the House of Usher “ and “House taken over” are both stories that focus on a basic story of a sister, a brother , and a house . although there are differences that separate the stories , there are also similarities that bring them closer together.

Transformation plays a role in stories meant to scare us by playing with our imagination safety and mood of a story. Imagination appears in both Edgar Allan Poe’s, gothic fiction story “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Usher’s isolated environment and in Joyce Carol Oates gothic literature story “Where is Here?,” by foreseeing who people are. Transformation also plays a role by it assists knowing our own selves are safe in a scary situation. This is shown in, “ Why do Some Brains Enjoy Fear?,” by Allegra Ringo and in “ House Taken Over,” by Julio Cortazar. Transformation plays with our imagination and our safety it also plays a role in the mood and setting. This appears in , “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Dream Collector,”

One of the scariest transformations we can experience is human transformation. In The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe the narrator starts to change and he takes on the symptoms and characteristics of the other occupants in the house. When the narrator first arrives at the house he is his normal self. The longer he stays at the house he starts to change mentally and becomes crazier. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelly the monster transforms from knowing as much as a baby to learning to read and talk. The monster transforms mentally as well and becomes more educated. As he transforms and becomes more educated he develops a grudge towards Victor, and also transforms from being a nice monster and helping people to wanting revenge on

What causes fear? Often times fear is caused by ones imagination. This is evident in the Edgar Allan Poe short story “The fall of the house of usher” and the movie “The sixth sense” directed by Minight shyamalon. Imagination over comes reason when people are afraid. Imagination overcomes reason when people are afraid.

Gothic literature is a style characterized by multiple elements, such as fear, death, gloom, as well as romantic elements like nature, individuality, and high emotion. Magical realism, on the other hand, began as a painting style. It then evolved into the literary style associated with Latin America, which puts fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. One of the most important elements of these genres is the setting of the stories. In The Fall of the House of Usher and House Taken Over, the setting creates atmosphere, reflects genre, and reflects characters.

Fear is something that we all ponder about it, we are often pulled in with many authors different way of trying to explain it. In the gothic setting of “The Fall of the Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and the magical realism of “House taken over” by Julio Cortazar lies a type of dark force within the extensive houses. In the fall of the house of usher we are introduced to the usher siblings and how they deal with the evil within their vast mansion in the middle of nowhere. In house taken over we met two siblings that live within the city and how they deal with their unstoppable force of evil. Both siblings have a different way of dealing with their house, some go mad because of it. The plot of both stories is similar but the way they explain their thoughts make the stories very different from each other. The authors try develop through the characters, setting, and plot that although both stories are different in many ways both captivate the reader with fear in different ways and create an overall different tone and atmosphere for the reader.

In “House Taken Over”, Cortazar wrote about two siblings, Irene and her brother, the narrator, who lived together in a large house all by themselves which happens to be taken over by the unknown. The narrator and Irene choose to ignore it and live day in and day out as any other person would with the realization that they aren't alone in their “safe space”. They try hard to distract themselves during the day with their cleaning, reading, and knitting habits, but by the time they go to sleep the noises they hear increase in volume; the noises caused by the unknown are what

In Poe’s works each of these characters are dealing with the same issues with the case of murder. The first being The Tell Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher with hyperacusis which is the sensitivity to certain frequency and volume ranges. In these short stories both of these characters claims to hear sounds coming from the tombs of the ones they murder, which eventually grows louder until it becomes almost unbearable. In The Tell Tale Heart the question raises of whether the narrator was hearing other sounds that sound like a heartbeat, his own heartbeat or that of the old man, which could have also been false perception of sound. “He evidently suffers from distortions of perception (chiefly auditory hallucinations) and what are

“Fear is not real. It is the product of thoughts you create. Danger is very real, but fear is only a choice.” Fear is not something that is always real, such as when Usher was scared but there was nothing to fear yet, but the danger at the end of the story, especially for Ushers friend, was something to fear for. In the Gothic Literature short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, the setting is somber and creates an illusion of darkness. On the other hand, “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar, portrays the idea of magical realism in, which setting is more realistic and less gloomy. Although Gothic Literature and Magical Realism are similar, there are also many differences, especially in their settings.

Supernatural elements is something that cannot be explained by the laws of nature. These elements, such as religious figures and activities, ghosts, witches and anthropomorphized animals have been used to develop themes throughout literature. These supernatural elements are often used to outline the conflict within the plot and creates an atmosphere of mystery and suspense throughout the text, which establishes the gothic. Supernatural components leave us to question what is real and what is our imagination.

“I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead, despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.” This quote by Erica Jong exemplifies how change has always been a cause for fear in people and even shows how incorporating transformation into stories is used purposefully to cause the audience to have the unsettling feeling. Transformation always occurs in stories, whether it is the transformation of a character, the setting, or the plot. In stories meant to make us feel fear, transformation can mean the change from a nice setting that feels tranquil, to the dark corridors of a creepy mansion. It can also mean the intense alteration of a character. Transformation elicits fear because it can

Humans have made stories that revolve around transformation for millennia. Many of these more recent stories have been created for the specific purpose of startling the observers. In these stories meant to scare the audience, the concept of transformation serves as a device that evokes fear in both characters and readers alike by connecting it to the frightening unnatural.

As you can see, a prime idea in horror storytelling includes the utilization transformations. Despite being unique and distinct, all three deal with major shifts in characters’ forms, appearances, or even setting.Whether your fear of transformation is because of the shear thought of your own body turning against you, or the fear of losing your own identity, we can all agree it is very evident in the horror stories we love to