Gothic Elements In The Fall Of The House Of Usher

In many short stories, the Gothic image is made by the setting of the stories and the characters. The story “The Fall of the House of Usher”, which is written by Edgar Allan Poe, is considered a Gothic story because of the mysterious house and characters. Same goes for the short story “The Monkey's Paw” by W. W. Jacobs, which is essentially a horror chalked full of supernatural imagery and dark imagery. Strong similarities and differences can be seen between the 2 stories based on how the setting demonstrates the characters, foreshadowing, and use of gothic devices.

First of all, setting always gives the reader a good sense of what type of story it will be about. In the case of the 2 short stories, they are also allowing us to see a side of the characters views and feelings through the description of setting alone. For example, in the narrative of the house in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, when the narrator arrives at the house he decides to use strong imagery to create an ominous view of the house.

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“I looked up on the scene before me,... upon the bleak walls- upon the vacant eye like windows- upon a few rank sedges and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees.” (p.90). Poe uses the words bleak, vacant and mere to create an atmosphere of something sad or depressing. This can well reflect on the characters since the narrator was called because his boyhood friend was sick. In the case of “The Monkey's Paw”, it can describe the characters but in different manners.

The setting about where the White’s family live, England, and from where the journeyman who has been to places like the Indian subcontinent. It explains in the story how the White’s live on the West side of where the Monkey's paw comes from. “ I’d like to go to India myself” (Mr White, p.18), “Better where you are” (Sergeant-Major Moris, p.18). It can interpret that the White’s represent the good characters, and that the evil who comes from the East, India, is the evil character (the paw).

Following this, we have foreshadowing. It is common in short stories and in these 2 specific ones we can find some in their settings. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the structure of the house seems solid but the inside is disintegrating. It foreshadows the death of the last members of the Usher family. They are the last descendants of their family, and they will both ‘disintegrate’ with the house by the end of the story. It also shows a lot of foreshadowing to burying Madeline alive with the choice of words: “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart…” (p90). The whole time we can get this feeling of oppression. As for Jacob’s story, foreshadowing about death can be found everywhere. Such as when Herbert states that he will never see the 200 pounds. “Well I don’t see the money,” said his son as he picked it up and placed it on the table, “and I bet I never shall.” (p.22). This obviously foreshadows that the son will die and that's the reason he won't ever see the money. It is typical to know in advance something is bound to happen, this is a part of the gothic formula.

On the overall topic of gothic devices, both authors uses the “inside vs outside” device. Based on Jacobs short story, we can see it being used at the beginning in the sense of a barrier. A barrier meaning separation from the outside to the inside in the terms of doors, closed blinds, and in the difference of imagery: “the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour… the fire burned brightly” (p.1). Already we can see a strong difference in were the darkness is of right now in the story by just talking about warmth, light, and even smell. Edgar also uses at the beginning of the story the same kind of gothic device by the isolation of the house of the Usher family. Is it said to be located in a “singularly dreary tract of country.” (p.85). This is telling the reader how out of the ordinary already the setting is for the character. Another device that gothic literature uses is the theme/presence of death. An example in “the Monkey's Paw” would be when the Whites family go to the cemetery for their son’s funeral. “In the huge new cemetery, some two miles distant, the old people buried their dead, and came back to a house steeped in shadow and silence.” (p.26). Herbert’s death transforms the White’s home from a happy place to one of sadness, grief, and darkness. The setting becomes then different demonstrating a change in the mood of the story. In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the theme of death is also present through the setting as soon as they describe the location of their house “Laburnum”, which is a type of poisonous tree. Death is one of the most repetitive themes in gothic stories because of its dark side.