Examine how Edger Allan Poe creates a sense of tension in

Authors Avatar

1st March 2004

(English coursework)

Examine how Edger Allan Poe creates a sense of tension in “The Fall of the House of Usher.” What gives the story a particularly gothic feel?

“The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edger Allan Poe is horror in genre and is written in a gothic style. There are many passages in which Poe creates tension and he often gives it a gothic feel.

        Firstly, as the narrator arrives at the scene of the story, Poe builds up the tension and creates a sinister, chilly atmosphere.

‘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, 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 reader will be tense and would desperately want to carry on reading, therefore tension was created effectively.

        Secondly, Poe created tension when talking about Roderick Usher’s depression and his ill health,

‘Spoke of acute bodily illness-of a mental disorder which oppressed him,’

Join now!

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 ...

This is a preview of the whole essay