Literary Analysis : The Fall Of The House Of Usher

For these reasons, the theme of the story is that sometimes fear of the unknown is worse than the fear itself. This was proven in my three examples, such as: when the narrator overcomes the fear of opening her eyes underwater, when she swims in the deep murky waters and touches the bottom, and lastly when she leaves her husband even though she knows she will lose contact with her stepson Ian. Once she faced her fears she realized that the outcomes weren’t as adverse as she had anticipated. “To escape fear you have to go through it, not around

Fear is one of the oldest,strongest, most uncontrollable and an unavoidable feelings. It can: make you sweat, make you cry, shake or even lose your appetite for food. It can also cause people to do stupid things that they never would do in ordinary circumstances. This can be seen in many different aspects of life. One place it can be seen is literature. It can also be seen in movies and t.v. The last place fear is shown is real life.

Fear brings forth a certain atmosphere which compels us to act upon it. The era in which the book was published allows us to see how common these fears were. Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House is an excellent portrayal of how fear controls the human mind by using the characters as examples. In the book Eleanor, Theodora, Luke, and Dr. Montague have all been influenced by fear in the story, whether it be the fear of love, the unknown, family, rejection, expression, or loneliness. These different types of fear plagued their minds, causing their actions to reflect upon them. Jackson explores the theme of fear in The Haunting of Hill House by creating a cast of characters that in turn are manipulated by the inner workings of their minds and the malevolent manifestations of Hill House.

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil,” and William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” illustrate several Romantic and Transcendentalist (and anti-Transcendentalist) traits. All of these authors are regarded as very important and influential Romantic writers. Their works are renowned all across the entire world. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a Gothic short story written by Edgar Allen Poe, which focuses on exploring the psychology of the primary character, Roderick. Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” is a grim tale featuring a minister who begins wearing a black veil everywhere he goes - a metaphor for his own internal despair. Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” is a more traditional form of poetry that speaks of nature and death. These works together all share several Romantic themes and together exhibit several traits reflective of the Romantic movement of poetry and art. In particular, these writings all contain darker aspects to them that likely would not have been as appreciated at the time they were written as they are now. It is clear from these writings that Poe, Hawthorne, and Bryant were forefront writers in terms of influence within the Romantic movement.

Imagination is the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses. While reason is a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event. Eventually imagination can and will overcome reason it just depends on how and when that happens.

A young man ran away from a heap of ruins. He had witnessed the death of his best friend and his home but he ran away as it happened. At the moment, all was silent and not even a squeak could be heard. But if a house collapsed in the middle of a forest, and no one was around to hear it, did it make a sound? With such wonders, death, and darkness also come the work of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe is known as a literature legend. He wrote many complicated horror and detective fiction stories, which also represents the artsy twentieth century (“Poe” 1316). Many of his works are poems and short stories. As for his life, it started out pretty gloomily. Both of Poe’s parents had died and he was then sent to an orphanage shortly after. He was

FEAR-a feeling of terror or alarm in dangerous situations. In this story, imagery and similes were used to give the story a more fearful mood.

I enjoy books about things that change for the better and have happy endings, but some people enjoy stories that are meant to scare them. A scary story can be just as enjoyable as a happy one. There are certain elements that make a story scary, and one of them is transformation. Transformation has huge impact on the mood of a story.

Every single person in the world has at least one fear that they have or have yet to overcome. Some people like the adrenaline rush of being afraid while other people hate the fact that there are frightening things in the world. Inside the short story “Where is Here?” A stranger appears at the house of a family and asks if he can explore his previous home. The family lets the man in but they eventually kick him out due to his peculiar actions which affects the house and everyone in it negatively.

In Roger Coreman’s 1960 adaption, House of Usher, the fall of the House of Usher is soundtracked with woman’s moans as the house slowly burns and sinks into the tarn. This auditory choice not only comments on Poe’s obsession with the death of women, but it also makes the claim that there was a supernatural element to the house that was crying out and burning as well. In Poe’s 1839 “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the final collapse of the House of Usher is the supernatural and sensory representation of the death of the family of Usher as perceived by the Narrator. Coreman uses his soundtrack to portray the family line breaking whereas Peo uses personification, syntax, word choice, and narration to portray the release of the Usher ancestor

Roderick Usher specifically can be seen reaching his total breaking point and losing his mind over the supposed death of his sister, Madeline. The reader eventually learns that Madeline had never actually died and that Roderick had buried her alive. The reader sees his complete mental breakdown with him screaming, “We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared not—I dared not speak!” (Poe 46). At this point, Roderick has gone from being somewhat mentally unstable to being absolutely broken inside. Any person who would willingly bury their own sister alive can not be in the right state of mind. When he starts yelling and repeating himself, the reader can tell that he is not okay. Those reading the story have no idea what Roderick could possibly be thinking and are worried about what he may do. The fear of not knowing what is going to happen can affect the readers and cause fear to rise up inside them. Another example of when characters transform is when characters change emotionally. “Where is Here?” is a story about a man who comes to visit his childhood home. While he is there he starts to go from a seemingly polite person to losing control of all of his emotions. He was in the son’s room, showing him a math riddle, and “after several minutes

Gothic Literature is a genre that includes dark settings from the past in their stories, these settings are often desolate with tormented characters and macabre plots. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is an excellent example of Gothic Literature because the author utilizes many elements that are essential to the genre. For example, in Poe’s story, he describes a decrepit mansion with great detail. ”Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great.” (Poe 15). This line uses descriptions that are vital to the genre of Gothic Literature. Therefore, “The Fall of the House of Usher” is Gothic Literature because of its dark and aged setting.

In Poe’s stories, love and death are often tied with a beautiful woman dying young, only to be excessively thought about. Poe suffered a traumatic event when his own wife passed, so the dying woman is a common concept in his work. In the Fall Of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, the phantasmagoric setting that is displayed by Poe gives the reader some insight on the mystery of the characters. Through his description the physical state of the mansion emerges into a representation of the mental state of the Usher family. The narrator is able to identify the eccentric affection and the sentience of the mansion which caused the madness in Roderick, which ultimately caused the Fall of The House of Usher.

When Roderick writes to the narrator he states that he has “acute bodily illness of a mental disorder which oppressed him”(Poe). He also states “I shall perish” and “I dread the events of the future”. Roderick knows that he will perish but is unaware of when or what will kill him, It might be his illness or the house itself. He also fears the death of his beloved twin sister and soul companion, Madeline Usher. He tells the narrator that Madeline's illness baffles her physicians and that she is catatonic.

Poe is one of the most famous writers in America; his childhood and life before writing is a key reason for his fame considering how he ties his personal life into all his stories. Poe had a rough childhood with his mother’s death, his father abandoning him, and him being put into a foster family. Poe uses his childhood background of his mother's death in many of his stories as he makes most of the women die in his stories and poems. Poe married his younger cousin who was fourteen in 1836, not only is this very disturbing, but it shows how he reflected back to his marriage when he was writing his stories where many of the characters married young. Poe’s wife Virginia passed away in 1847 with Tuberculosis; after her death Poe had a major alcohol problem and had signs of depression. Poe started writing in the 1820’s but his short stories started to be featured in many magazines in 1835. The article “Poet Edgar Allan Poe” states, “Over the next ten years, Poe would edit a number of literary journals including the Burton's Gentleman's Magazine