What Is The Singular Effect In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

The first unique element of Edgar Allan Poe’s style is his imagery, which has the effect of

Mysterious, captivating, dark, and eerie are some factors that can come to mind when considering the stories composed by Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher is no deviant from those factors, and leads to many open doors of observation. From the very beginning Poe encloses the setting within an eerie mood, bringing readers though the gothic archway leading to a house of sorrow, foreboding fear all throughout.

Poe utilizes symbolism, characterization, and syntax to draw out the complexity of the narrator’s fear and the idea that overwhelming guilt can drive one’s insanity. Poe characterizes the narrator as a complete psychopath through the way that he speaks. Poe uses the beating heart to symbolize the narrator’s sense of guilt and regret. All in all, the point is to not judge one based on how they look and to not do things you know you would feel sorry

He, like many other writers, almost always uses symbolism. While he oftentimes writes with descriptive layers, adding and giving even more depth, to each sentence, each word. For instance like, In “The Bells”, Poe made each stanza and bell represent the different stages of human life. The pure silver bells at birth, the golden bells at the wedding, to the alarm bells for when things age and or start to go wrong. And in ”The Tell Tale Heart”, Poe made the old mans “evil eye” play a significant role, symbolizing the old man’s essence as if he were also evil. The ugly and evil powers the narrator believed the eye had, also goes to show and reinforce not only how insane, but how paranoid the unreliable narrator is. While the eye is also the reason the narrator kills in the first place. The old man’s heart and the sound of its loud beating under the floor boards after the murder, also go to symbolize and represent the narrator’s guilty conscience and feelings after the

Poe’s life was riddled with misfortune and misery and his literary works reflect his innermost struggle. Symbolism is one of his main forms of expression throughout his short stories and has a massive effect on the overall tone. Out of all Poe’s works,

Poe used the literary device of setting to create a dark, threatening tone by using time of day, elapsed time, man made geography, and population.

This allows the narrator to talk to the audience as if they trust and already know the reader. This type of narration style allows Poe’s stories to create the madness in the human mind where the narrator is terrorized by his own realizations and the horrors of what human beings are capable of. For example, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado.

Furthermore, Poe uses imagery to show the different aspects of which his characters or objects that are either shown as being light or darkness. He does this by the way he describes the character and how the character affects the poem. For example, The Raven, is a dark element within Poe’s story that is used to help the reader understand the narrator's

One theory on why Poe makes his narrator limited is that he wants the reader to search for the

One literary device Poe uses to shape his style is tone/mood. To start off, Poe, in his poem Alone, wrote, “my sorrow”(Alone). His choice of words here, gives off a mood of loneliness and sadness, which includes a feeling of depression. With the word sorrow, Poe knew that his readers would experience the feeling of a hollow heart. Another choice of words that portrayed Poe’s dismal writing style was pulled from his poem “A Dream”, which said, “hath left me broken-hearted”(A Dream). Saying broken-hearted gives off a feeling of extreme sadness just like sorrow does. When he says that he is broken-hearted it sends out a sense of loneliness and emptiness in the heart. The feeling of broken-heartedness and loneliness can birth the feeling of depression. Overall, Poe’s tone/mood portrayed in his poems and short stories can form the strong sense of depression.

A major idea in Poe’s tales is symbolism. He displays his penchant for this in his story “The Cask of Amontillado” with his character named Fortunado. In this story, Fortunado is a man who has somehow wronged the narrator. The narrator leads Fortunado

Poe makes his characters face their destiny, fear, pain, and crime in every story. Poe captivates his characters in a fundamental acuity of the human condition (Kennedy 112). He perceives the human world more than one does. However the supernatural illusions in the world, for example, death and demolition are able to be seen in Poe’s stories. In her book How to Write about Edgar Allan Poe, Susan Amper points out the psychological analysis in Poe’s characters.

The Falling House of Usher reflects the romantic era of literature becasue it has an original theme that is imaginative and daring compared to other works.

Poe writes in first-person singular most of the time. This writing technique makes the stories more accurate. The reader almost believes that Poe is the mad protagonist of the short stories. This feeling is not baseless, if we think of his alcoholism and depression.

Imagery in Poe’s writing is one element of literary style that is key to well written stories, and his use of repetition and complex vocabulary ensures that readers understand his themes and implications. By including repetition in his works, Poe places emphasis on certain concepts, reminding readers that they are vital to the story’s development. Complex vocabulary serves a similar purpose, highlighting certain themes and requiring that readers devote their attention to them. The inclusion of unique vocabulary also challenges readers to deliberate, instead of simply reading for pleasure. That being said, any author who requires readers to think should be regarded with seriousness.