The Fall of the House of Usher There are many factors that contribute to creating a horrifying or suspenseful nature in books, plays, movies, etc. Without perfect detail, the author’s effort is mundane. Poe’s story The Fall of the House of Usher accomplished the task of intriguing the reader from the very beginning. The beginning of the story is most likely where the literary elements come into play.
By first stating the settings and surroundings and then creating a mood we obtain the general gist of what type of story we are about to engage in. Poe seems to stick with a consistent tone from beginning to end. A change in mood or setting can change the entire tale around. Poe uses key literary elements such as: setting, mood, and plot to create a single effect of horror. Opening by informing the reader of the dreary setting paints a clear picture in our heads, enabling our imaginations to run wild.
The narrator speaks of bleak walls and vacant eye like windows. .”.. an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had been reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn… .” (214) He further continues into saying how he felt he was in an atmosphere of sorrow.
Throughout the whole story, not once does the narrator not describe a room in the house as pleasant and bright. This is important when it comes to keeping a steady mood. Poe seems to present the house in a sense of reflecting its setting to the mysterious mansion owner Roderick Usher. “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens… .” (212).
The Term Paper on Impact of Setting on Eap’s House of Usher
In the story “Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allen Poe’s use of setting is very important. The story is about a guy, the narrator who ... was of the “melancholy House of Usher,” melancholy meaning a depressive or pensive mood. This basically says that the house looked very dark and ...
The unpleasant dreary evening in particular further feeds into the narrator’s outlook.
The narrator reacts to the site of the house, with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, significantly helps set the mood. .”.. with first glimpse of the building, a sense of in sufferable gloom pervaded my spirit… .” (212).
Poe makes the experience of the narrator approaching the house seem like it utterly painful to him. For he was literally stunned and taken back by the unusual setting he had just entered.
There is a reason for why this man is in a place that is far from his comfort zone and that’s where the plot comes into play. Due to a mental order that oppressed Rodrick Usher, the narrator chooses to stay and watch over this man whom he hadn’t talked to in years. Usher claims that the narrator was his only personal friend. This is where the plot thickens creating a little bit of a suspenseful vibe. Poe seemed to have made it a point that the two men haven’t communicated in a while and one randomly gets a letter asking the other to stay with him. The mood set between the two men, and the setting and surroundings in which they preside, greatly affect the plot of the story.
By focusing on the beginning of the story many things are made evident. It is really recognizable to the reader, how much the setting and mood and plot all work together to form the single effect of horror. Without one of these elements the story would have been a lot weaker. Poe amazingly presents the readers with a vivid picture of the house. Furthermore successfully providing us with a feeling of pure fear and suspense. By Poe’s use of location, colors, and emotions, a frightening story is made..
