Summary Of ' The Fall Of The House Of Usher '

The author gives a description of short story writer, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe's place in the history of the U.S. is presented. As literary editor of "Graham's Lady's" and "Gentleman's Magazine," Poe became a major figure in American letters. Although his heavy drinking cost him his job, Poe continued to write in a cool style that was the polar opposite of his romantic poems and horror stories. Thomas Fleming gives details for his main idea that Poe’s works are widely known due to his technique of writing. Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Black Cat” is perfect examples of his suspenseful writing technique that grabs his audience, holds on to readers throughout the entire story and leaves the audience on the edge of their seats. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are always thought of as being suspenseful and extremely dramatic. To achieve the suspense in Edgar Allen Poe’s, he uses gothic imagery to help add an unknown, eerie effect. The author, Thomas Fleming, gives an example with “…with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable

The short stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar are two well known works of literature that encompass unique literary styles. Poe utilizes Gothic literature in his story, a style of writing that incorporates elements of darkness, gloom, drama, and intense descriptions. On the other hand, Cortazar uses Magical Realism and its realistic characters, setting, and fantastic and unusual events to tell his tale. Despite the two being completely different genres, they share many similar traits, specifically relating to fear.

With our imagination we can have many thoughts in our mind, we can think of how we want to be in the future. Everybody in this world has their own way of thinking. “In the Gothic stories, “The Fall of The House of Usher written by Edgar Allan Poe and “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar the authors write about how both stories have some type of interest that makes the reader want to be very eager about the story. The imagination can overcome reason through issues such as: fear, paranoid, delusion, etc. The House of The Fall of Usher talks about how Mr. Usher is trying to get over his “dead” sister and the narrator is trying to help him. They begin to hear things inside the house, and realize that the sister was alive at the end. House Taken Over about a bother and sister that share a house that’s been passed over from previous family members and normally they have a typical daily routine but at night they come across “spooky” occasions.

“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.

The Fall Of the House Of Usher is a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1839. The short story is complexly written, with challenging themes such as identity and fear. Poe utilises many elements of the Gothic Tradition such as setting and supernatural elements to create a more mysterious story, and uses language to his advantage, employing adjective filled descriptions of literal elements that also serve as metaphors for other parts of the story.

     One of the central themes underlying the short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, is that of the nature of the house. The way it is described and the way it is so mysterious. Another central theme about this story is the nature of the people that live in the house. They are portrayed very much in the same manner throughout the story. Thus, they have several similarities with each other. All of which are of a bad feeling, showing how bad things are for the people and the house. These similarities are very well laid out in the story and are, I believe, meant to be something to be considered when reading it.

In “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Poe is describe as gothic fiction because it sets in a house that looks like haunted house. This story was fill with dark gloomy scenes. Everywhere around this house was scary to the narrator. The lake and the nature that surrounds the house was dark and scary looking. Even the hall of the house was fill with darkness that gave fear to the narrator. Not only Poe’s work is gothic fiction, Hawthorne’s work, “Young Goodman Brown” is gothic fiction. The reason is because it is set in wilderness where Young Goodman Brown sees a devil and a witch influencing him to be like them. Because of these two works from Poe and Hawthorne gives fear and mood of darkness, these stories are classified as gothic fiction.

If a fear cannot be articulated, it can't be conquered”- Stephen King. In the short stories, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, by Edgar Allan Poe, and “House Taken Over”, by Julio Cortazar, haunted houses caused the characters from both stories to get tugged into fearful situations that they don't even know themselves why that is. As both stories progress, the fear of the unknown tends to grow stronger the more the characters try to ignore it. All the running and hiding leads to the character's own downfalls. Although, both stories fall into different genres they do share the same idea; the fear of the unknown. Cortazar exemplifies this with magical realism by having the sense of intruders, causing the characters to leave their house completely. Poe addresses this by using gothic literature, with the“death” of his sister and the way that he keeps the fact if Lady Madeline is alive or the walking dead.

The main characters in Poe’s short story are similar to those within “Young Goodman Brown.” The narrator is a man who believes that he is just visiting his friend from boyhood and trusts his friend Roderick Usher the same way Brown trusted the man he walked with. But Rodrick is mentally ill and as the narrator spends time with him he too goes through a period of mania. In the tale the terrified narrator says, “I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions.” Roderick Usher who is described as,” a cadaverousness of complexion,” is the

In the story “ The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe, has an American romanticism with its characters. Edgar Allan Poe is considered a Dark Romanticism because of the way he writes his poems and short stories centered around the concept of evil human nature, darkness, and death. Roderick and Madeline Usher were said to be related during the middle of the story; they were twins. It explained how they were sick, Roderick had a mental disorder and Madeline was physically sick. As the narrator enters the desolate house, he finds both Roderick and his sister in a severe state of depression and they both appear sick like. The narrator tries to make Roderick feel better, but Roderick wouldn’t budge. Roderick thinks that the house is making him sick and making him to appear crazy.

Throughout history, various works of literature compelled the readers to feel a specific way. The authors used different techniques to illustrate emotions toward their audience. Specifically, Edgar Allan Poe, author of The Fall of the House of Usher, uses literary elements, such as imagery, characterization and word choice, to portray the build up the sense of horror.

Fear is a thought or idea in a person's head that grows and grows till it takes over. Fear is unexplainable people say fear is like a trigger that we hit when we see or get “frightened” of something new, something that we as human beings aren’t used to seeing or recognizing. Fear is like an illness that will never go away no matter how hard we try everybody is afraid of one thing or the other so either way we will recognize it. Like in the story “The Fall of the House of Usher” ,the Ushers are known to have a mental illness that causes them to go psychological, and crazy ideas go into their head just so they can get rid of it. “The breaking of the hermit’s door and the death cry of the dragon, and the clangor of the shield- say rather the

Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of American Literature's legendary and prolific writers, and it is normal to say that his works touched on many aspects of the human psyche and personality. While he was no psychologist, he wrote about things that could evoke the reasons behind every person's character, whether flawed or not. Some would say his works are of the horror genre, succeeding in frightening his audience into trying to finish reading the book in one sitting, but making them think beyond the story and analyze it through imagery. The "Fall of the House of Usher" is one such tale that uses such frightening imagery that one can only sigh in relief that it is just a work of fiction. However, based on the biography of Poe, events

Why do most scary stories tend to have some type of transformation?. What affects does transformation has on the story?. Changes are triggered in a character when they undergo momentous events. We see many transformations in stories such as “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortazar,”Where is Here” and “The feathered pillow”. In all these stories, transformation is seen in various ways whether it is a change in one's life or in the character. This raises the question, In what ways does transformation play a role in stories meant to scare us?.In my opinion, in a story a change in characters and a change in one’s normal life plays a very important role; the reader start to imagine illogical things, get more interested in the story, start to ask questions to themselves and transformation creates suspense which develops terror in reader’s mind.

“The author spoke of acute bodily illness- of a mental disorder which oppressed him” (pg. 204). Edgar Allan Poe was a very dark and mysterious author but all these stories related to Poe's life in some sort of fashion. House of Usher is about Roderick, his sister and the Narrator (a long time friend of Roderick’s). The siblings live in a large mansion that their family has lived in for centuries. The house is very dark and seems to have a spooky, evil feel to it. Roderick and his sister are ill, he decides to write a letter to his old friend the Narrator and ask him if he would come and take care of him and give him some company. Roderick and sister have a very unhealthy, unnatural and disturbing relationship, that results in the destruction of their lives and family estate.