The Fall of the House of Usher- Essay

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The Fall of the House of Usher- Essay

Discuss how Poe creates an effective atmosphere in the opening extract of the story

“The Fall of the House of Usher,” written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1839, is regarded as an early and supreme example of the Gothic horror story, though Poe ascribed the term “arabesque” to this and other similar works, a term that he felt best described its flowery, ornate prose. In place of a moral, Poe creates a mood—terror, in this case— through his use of language and imagery, which is especially evident in this opening extract. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is typical of Poe's short stories in that it presents a narrator thrust into a psychologically intense situation in which otherworldly forces conspire to drive at least one of the characters insane.

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Firstly, the setting of “The Fall of the House of Usher” plays an integral part in the story because it establishes an atmosphere of dreariness, melancholy, and decay. The intro takes place in the Usher family mansion, which is isolated and located in a “singularly dreary tract of country.” The personification and description through layers of images of the house immediately stirs up in the narrator “a sense of insufferable gloom,” and it is described as having “bleak walls,” “vacant eye-like windows,” and “ghastly tree stems”. This diction is extremely descriptive, with an abundance of negative connotations, and evocations of ...

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