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Ivy Fan

Mrs. Marie Maxime

English Literature

October 30, 2016

Analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher

When creating the text, Poe was thinking all that dark, Gothic elements, from which he

created the setting with inclement weather and a murky, barren landscape. Poe tried to create a

traditional Gothic tale that deals with doppelganger, the ambiguity between Roderick and Made-

line. Poe also created a sensation of claustrophobia, by portraying the house of the Usher as en-

closing and depressing. “The room I came into was very large and high. The windows were high,

and pointed at the top, and so far above the black floor that they were quite out of reach.” (Poe,

24) However, it’s also quite clear that, just as the theme has something to do with death, Poe was

thinking of death while writing this story. Death was mentioned a lot in the story, as the main fear

of Roderick Usher: “I shall die,” he said. “I shall die! I must die of this fool’s sickness. In this

way, this way and no other way, I shall be lost. I fear what will happen in the future, not for what

happens, but for the result of what happens.” (Poe, 25) The story came across with some other

Literary works such as “The Haunted Palace” and “Mad Trist”, both of them relatively paralleled

certain plots in the story. It’s not the first time Poe wrote about death in his works. In his famous

poem, the Raven, the elements of death are quite evident. “And his eyes have all the seeming of a

demon’s that is dreaming…And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the

floor…” (Poe) Taking Poe’s personal experience into consideration, he might be inspired by his

wife’s death and his tough early life, which, separately or in combination, cause him to write

about death in his works and to portray it as a dark, sick, spooky existence while still very power-

ful and fearful.

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Poe’s tone, which represents the attitude of the narrator in The Fall of the House of Usher,

creates a dull, dark and doom atmosphere that fits the traits of horror fiction precisely. His certain

word choices, for instance, portrayed a picture of the gloomy house of usher that gives the reader

a feeling of thrill and horror. “I stopped my horse beside the building, on the edge of a dark and

quiet lake. There, I could see reflected in the water a clear picture of the dead trees, and of the

house and its empty eye-like windows.” (Poe, 22) In the sentences above, Poe chose words like

“dark”, “quiet”, “dead”, which indicate a grim, dreadful tone that corresponds the dark and

gloomy background where the characters existed. “It rose from the dead, decaying trees, from the

gray walls, and the quiet lake. It was a sickly, unhealthy air that I could see, slow-moving, heavy,

and gray.” (Poe, 23) The diseased and evil atmosphere was achieved through words like “decay-

ing”, “sickly” and “unhealthy”, which made readers feel creepy, even a little bit morbid. In the

story, Poe repetitively chose the words that were spooky and murky to create the similar atmos-

phere.The diction also subtly demonstrates the narrator’s attitude toward the house and Roder-

ick—he thought them both gloomy and decaying. The point was made through the narrator’s re-

sponds and thoughts. “The horrible white of his skin, and the strange light in his eyes, surprised

me and even made me afraid.” (Poe, 24) Through the narrator’s observation, the apparent un-

healthy description of Roderick’s appearance gives reader the feeling of emotionally illness.
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Work Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. Edgar Allan Poe: Storyteller. Washington, D.C.: USIA, 1988. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan, and Ryan Price. The Raven. Toronto: KCP Poetry, 2006. Print.

SparkNotes. SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

"Tone, Mood, & Style—The Feel of Fiction." The Editors Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct.

2016.