Analysis Of “Fall Of The House Of Usher”
Have you ever finished watching a horror movie at the movie theatre, and while walking out to your car the mixture of the bone chilling wind and darkness the seems to seep into every corner makes the aftermath of the movie worse then the movie. If you were at home wrapped up in your warm blanket then the aftermath wouldn’t be as bad. Edgar Allan Poe uses the same idea through setting and imagery to create an uneasy, dreary, and unsettling mood.
In the very beginning of this short story the author opens up with “During the whole of a dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens,” immediately giving you a sense of heavy melancholy from the environment. And then he goes to say “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. ” To then establish the fact that even though he will be visiting his friend he will have a sense of singularity, and off putting uneasy throughout the whole of this story.
The author opens this last paragraph with “From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. ” The author describes the protagonist running for his life from the supernatural phenomenons that have just occurred in front of him back to the original place he rode towards the House of Usher. Effectively making the original uneasy the setting gave to begin with to an absolute terror that has been building throughout the story. “- a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued. Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream,” This quote from the story is the first time the protagonist sees a visual representation of all the uneasy and off putting mood that hasn’t stoppedsense he rode up to the house of Usher.
In the story the protagonist notices how oddly the house is falling apart “No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. ” Nothing has fallen off but some of it is barely holding on and spider web cracks run up and down the house. It closely represents the sanity of the protagonist’s friend almost as if the house and his are connected.
So in conclusion the author is a master in using the mood to create an atmosphere of uneasy, off putting feelings, and compleat terror. Through small details, like the setting and imagery.
