The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe also uses symbolism to represent the connection between the manor and the Usher family. The Usher’s manor is a dark and foreboding place and Poe does well in setting up the scene of his work. It sets up a somber mood that slowly leads more into dread and horror as the work goes on. Poe description of the manor leads it to be a depressant in the story. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene (Poe). The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Poe describes the manor with further detail emphasizing its ghastly traits: Dark draperies hung upon the walls. Furthermore, the manor evokes suspense as it strikes the reader with curiosity as to why the building presents itself in such a dreadful and uneasy manner. Poe uses words such as insufferable gloom along with other abhorrent words to stress a mood of horror and unease in the manor. The atmosphere that Poe describes in the statement above establishes a cold, bone chilling mood. At first glimpse, the manor itself is surrounded by the feeling of insufferable gloom, There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought… (Poe). His choice of words strongly emphasizes a mood of darkness and suspense as he builds on the horrific aspects of his story. At the beginning of the short story, Poe describes the House of Usher, I looked upon the scene before me –upon the mere manor, and the simple landscape features of the domain –upon the bleak walls –upon the vacant eye-like windows –upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees… (Poe). Poe’s style of writing along with his foreshadowing vernacular is significant in creating a suspenseful Gothic era story. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe’s Gothic, and abhorrent wording allows him to establish a dreadful mood. “Rhetorical Analysis of the Fall of the House of Usher”

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe