Essays on 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 American writer, Edgar Allan Poe, is known for short stories, such as ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’. These stories are described as disturbing, even in modern-day society, almost 200 hundred years after having been written. By using a variety of literary devices such as personification, sibilance, imagery along with the use of punctuation, these disturbing stories classify as ‘enjoyable horror’. From the first paragraph of ‘The Fall of The House of Usher’, Poe…...

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of the many short stories written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published the year 1839. This short story belongs to the gothic genre and handles various topics such as illness, family, loneliness, death, weaknesses... Nevertheless, there is a theme in the tale which is not directly mentioned or addressed but insinuated: this is the topic of incest. The purpose of this essay will be to explore the underlying theme of incest…...

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe goes to a great extent to explore transcendental beliefs and related philosophy. Traditional transcendental philosophy ideally hints at an elevation upwards into unity and oneness with heaven. From the introduction, however, the reader is readily invited to the symbolism, the allusions and dark overtones that hint at the ordeals of death, transformation and a potential afterlife. The opening paragraphs provide subtle hints about reversed transcendental hierarchy in their description…...

Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, he wrote many short stories with deeper meanings that could be found through psychology, “The Fall of the House of Usher” being one of them. When looking at a story from a psychological standpoint, the unconscious mind of the author can be interpreted and shown in the stories that the author has written. The psychoanalysis of a story simply builds on this by using Freudian’s theories of psychology. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the…...

The short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a masterpiece of gothic fiction and comprises themes of metaphysical identities, family, madness, and isolation. The literary analysis of Edgar Poe’s story falls under the definition of American gothic fiction. The American Gothic Literature, conferring to the Prentice Hall Literature is categorized by the remote or bleak setting, violent or macabre incidents, and the characters ensuing in physical or psychological torment, or otherworldly involvements or supernatural. The story bearing…...

Fear is a feeling we have all dealt with at one time or another. It is something that we first experience as children, and are conditioned to respond to in many different ways. Some may challenge themselves to overcome their fears and others constantly live in a state of fear. “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Alan Poe holds several examples of how fear can transform a person’s mental and or physical state, most notably the character…...

A comparison of Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe, focussing on the themes common to both authors. Hitchcock vs. Poe Fear, terror and suspense are the most vivid emotions created by Poe's stories and by Hitchcock's films. Several themes are common to both: the madness that exists in the world, the paranoia caused by isolation which guides people's actions, the conflict between appearance and reality along with the double aspect of the human nature, and the power of the dead…...

A review of the novel "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe The Fall of the House of Usher is definitely a piece written in Poe's usual style; a dark foreboding tale of death and insanity filled with imagery, allusion, and hidden meaning. It uses secondary meanings and underlying themes to show his beliefs and theories without actually addressing them. It convinces us without letting us know we're being convinced, and at the same time makes…...

A discussion of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher", focusing on the symbolism of death. Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe's Symbolism of Death in "The Fall of the House of Usher" Death is defined as, "The termination or extinction of something" (American Heritage Dictionary). Edgar Allen Poe uses this description in "The Fall of the House of Usher" in different ways. Poe's intention when writing "The Fall of the House of Usher" was not to…...

When you hear the name Edgar Allan Poe it’s sure to conjure up thoughts of the macabre, mystery, death, and madness all of which are pivotal in the writings of Poe. His first works, Tamerlane and Other Poems, was published in 1827 with many short stories, poems, essays, and other writings to follow. He was a resourceful writer, but he was particularly known for his short stories and poems, even being dubbed the architect of the modern short story. Some…...

Fear is a feeling we have all dealt with at one time or another. It is something that we first experience as children, and are conditioned to respond to in many different ways. Some may challenge themselves to overcome their fears and others constantly live in a state of fear. "The Fall of The House of Usher" by Edgar Alan Poe holds several examples of how fear can transform a person's mental and or physical state, most notably the character…...

The short story The Fall of the House of Usher is a masterpiece gothic fiction and comprises themes of metaphysical identities, family, madness, and isolation. The literary analysis of Edgar Poe's story falls under the definition of American gothic fiction. The American Gothic Literature, conferring to the Prentice Hall Literature is categorized by the remote or bleak setting, violent or macabre incidents, and the characters ensuing in physical or psychological torment, or otherworldly involvements or supernatural. The story bearing this…...

The Gothic novel dominated English literature from 1764 when 'The Castle of Ortranto' by Horace Warpole was published, until the early to mid 19th century. The Gothic novel is characterised by darkness, dense forests, old castles, dreary rooms and melancholy characters. Although Gothicism began to relinquish its dominance around 1815, it influenced many emerging genres and can still be seen in some of today's popular styles. Stephen King, a famous horror writer, draws on suspense, the fear of loneliness and…...

Show how Poe uses language to create atmosphere and describe the state of mind of the murderer and Roderick Usher. Consider how the modern reader might respond to these stories. Daniel Tiernan 4U Edgar Allen Poe was an American short story writer, editor for magazines and poet during the early to mid 19th century. Two of his short stories, 'The Tell Tale Heart' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' were both written during the Victorian times when Gothic…...

Question: Roderick Usher is a complicated character who seems to be both physically and mentally unstable; on top of that he is also terrified. What is he so afraid of that causes him to act this way towards Madeline and the others? It is because he had committed incest, hence a sense of guilt for his actions? Or is it because he is the last in line of the usher family? Use Freudian psychoanalysis to examine the character of Roderick…...

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story written by Edgar Alan Poe and first published in 1839. The genre of the can be described both as mystics and as psychological thriller, or even as a horror story, although it’s plot appears to be pretty simple at the first sight. “The Fall” touches several themes, which are usual for Poe’s writing, including fear of loneliness, fear of death, flaws and human weaknesses. On the other hand this…...

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is a short story written by Edger Allan Poe in 1839. Almost everything about the story is very gloomy, dark and depressing. For example, the house is described by the narrator as “the melancholy House of Usher” and the description of Roderick Usher himself makes you think of a corpse. This theme of dreariness and sorrow pervades the story and is done to a very chilling effect, which really draws in the reader.…...

The narrator is a very altruistic character in “The Fall of the House of Usher”. He sincerely cares about Rodrick, even though his friend is slightly mentally insane, which creates a very complex relationship between the souls. Although the narrator initially intends to save Roderick from his own demise, he was forced to reject Rodrick as Mr. Usher was the source of his own torment. The narrator originally earnestly desires to go to Rodrick’s house. In the text, the narrator…...

Most readers of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, will notice some obvious changes in Roger Corman’s movie, The Fall of the House of Usher. In the film, Philip Winthrop traveled to the House of Usher, a grim mansion surrounded by a tarn, for his fiancee Madeline Usher. Madeline's brother Roderick opposed Philip's intentions of getting married to Madeline and taking her back to Boston with him. He told Phillip that the Usher family…...

Comment closely on the writing of the (following) passage, paying particular attention to ways Poe creates a sense of fear. In this excerpt of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Edgar Allan Poe makes use of personification, supernatural features, character portrayal, foreshadows and setting to create a sense of fear and to set a gothic tale. It also illustrates the beginning of Roderick Usher’s mental breakdown. One of the main ways Poe creates a sense of fear for the…...

Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. Symbolism in "The Fall of the House of Usher" begins with the title. At the end of the story, the house itself does indeed fall; in the beginning and through out the short story, however, the narrator has effectively described the different symbols portrayed. There is much symbolism associated with the house itself, the house's front wall, as the narrator describes,…...

"The Fall of your house of Usher (1939 )", arguably Edgar Allan Poe's most popular short story, is a tale centered around the mysterious Home of Usher and its equally indiscernible inhabitants. These topics are pestered with physical and mental deterioration-- the Usher siblings experience different abnormal ailments and unexplained worries, while the home itself appears to be tethering on the edge of collapse. The gothic aspects in the story are distributed kindly, and the plot is significantly ridden with…...

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two of America’s finest Romantic writers. These two writers have stood the test of time and are read as much today if not more than they were in their own time. The major reason that both author’s were as popular as they are is because of the fact that they delved into the human mind to create their psychological literature. Edgar Allan Poe’s life spanned from eighteen nine until nineteen forty-nine, the years…...

Mother, said little Pearl, the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. In Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne has committed the sin of adultery and wears a scarlet A on her chest to condemn her. Hawthorne develops the personalities of Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale by using the function of light and dark images in his writing. In Edgar Allan Poes The Fall of…...