The reader would be desperate to carry on reading at this point as he or she would be anxious to find out about the health of Roderick Usher as well as his state of mind. The reader will be worried for Roderick Usher. Therefore, tension was created successfully.
Thirdly there is a gothic feel to the story as the Usher family has almost died out, apart from Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline.
‘that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent,’
This shows the story has a gothic feel as it is regarding death and Poe has illustrated tension because the reader would be worried as the same fate (death) could soon follow the last remaining Usher’s.
Poe illustrates the fact that the House of Usher is decayed and old. When he does this he also creates tension,
‘Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen,’
Here Poe creates tension because the reader will feel uneasy because the house is filthy; the reader will also want to carry on reading. The story is also given a gothic feel because Poe gives the reader a chilly feeling about the house.
Poe also gives the story a gothic feel when he describes Roderick Usher as having a,
‘ghastly pallor of skin,’
This is likely to stick fear into the reader; therefore this quote gives the story a particularly gothic feel. The quote also creates a sense of tension because the reader will be anxious and nervous to see what Roderick Usher is actually like.
Poe creates a sense of tension and he gives the story a particularly gothic feel when he mentions the family curse,
‘a constitutional and a family evil…it displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations…he could wear only garments of a certain texture; the odours of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light,’
The quote mentions evil and therefore there is a gothic feel. Poe also creates a sense of tension the reader will be anxious to carry on reading about this family evil and the reader will be worried as the curse could carry on and trouble the remaining Usher’s lives.
Poe also adds a gothic element when he mentions the word,
“FEAR,”
in capital words. The gothic style of writing is concerned with fear. The quote also builds up tension as the reader will be apprehensive and tense after seeing that word.
There is a lot of tension when Poe talks about Madeline Usher who the narrator never meets properly but does glimpse. There is also a gothic element when she is being talked about and when she was buried alive,
‘a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent although transient cataleptical character were the unusual diagnosis,’
‘We have put her living in the tomb.’
Poe adds additional tension to the story when Usher stated that the house was evil. This also gave the story a particularly gothic feel,
There is a lot of tension when Roderick Usher sees a ghost,
‘you have not seen it,’
‘it,’ refers to a ghost. The narrator did not see it but Usher did. By doing this Poe has built up tension in the story and added a gothic feel yet again.
Near the end the narrator hears howling sounds,
‘I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation,’
by doing this Poe creates even more tension as well as more of a gothic feel.
Madeline Usher who gets buried alive, later escapes from her tomb and because it took her a lot of effort to get out of the tomb she died, however, before this she murdered her brother, Roderick. By inputting this into the story Poe has created yet more tension and more of a gothic feel,
‘There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame…with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse.’
At the end the House of Usher collapses. Poe did this because he wanted to show that the House of Usher was symbolising humanity. He was saying that humanity is dieing just like the House of Usher. Exactly like the House collapsed, the same will one day happen to humanity. When the house collapsed, Poe was creating a sense of tension.
My conclusion is that Edger Allan Poe created a sense of tension on many occasions. This was extremely effective as it will keep the reader interested and wanting to carry on reading. It will also make the reader more anxious and worried. Therefore they would find it a better read. Poe also gave the story a particularly gothic feel, this was effective because it created a considerable sense of suspense as well as a different type of atmosphere compared to other books.