Critical Essay on, The Fall of the House of Usher.

He approached the house wearily, noting with growing horror its advanced, albeit subtle, state of decay; however the labyrinth of phantasm that composed its interior belied the crumbling edifice... Poes gothic tale has inspired generations of readers with his unique style of rich detail and sheer horror. In, â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† one finds the house mysteriously connected with its inhabitants. As they slowly fall into a state of decay, both mental and physical, so also does its structure weaken, eventually collapsing into the tarn in which it was standing, as its tenants fall prey to the strain of body and mind. Without them, the house cannot stand. In the beginning of the story, Poe describes the bleak condition of the†¦show more content†¦He spends his days painting the most bizarre pictures, like that of a deep tunnel lit from within by invisible sources of colored light; playing pieces he composes extemporaneously on his guitar, then reciting to these melodies incoherent lyrics revealing a mind in torment. As his sisters condition worsens and finally is ended by her death, he becomes almost maniacal in his pursuit of the fantastic. Both the narrator and Roderick are horrified by her appearance of life, even triumphing over her disease, and wonder as they lock her in an old keep for a fortnight. Poe does not fail to inspire within the reader a sense of awe in her death, nor does he spare the lurid details of the terror lurking within this burial scene of the lady Madeline. And so it is the beginning of the end. Soon Roderick takes to pacing all about the dark house, his mental condition deteriorating no less rapidly than his physical; and even that has nearly reached its last stages of deterioration. â€Å"The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue – but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out.† Gazing upon vacancies for hours, speaking in tremulous quavering tones – it appears to the narrator as if he is concealing something which weighs so heavily on his mind that he is slowly going mad. Then one stormy, sleepless night, the narrator relates how the seemingly needlessShow MoreRelatedA Critical Analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher Essay914 Words   |  4 PagesA Critical Analysis of The Fall of the House of Usher There are three significant characters in this story: the narrator, whose name is never given, Roderick and Madeline Usher. The narrator is a boyhood friend of Roderick Usher. He has not seen Roderick since they were children; however, because of an urgent letter that the narrator has received from Roderick which was requesting his assistance in alleviating his malady, the narrator makes the long journey to theRead More A Critical Essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)1760 Words   |  8 Pagessymbolic to the nature and power of architectural space explored through the nature from his own â€Å"†¦house in Strawberry Hill which was the most complete neo-Gothic structure of the time. His mansion, as the author admits, stands at the base of†¦architectural design†¦shapes, decors, landscapes, were all under one form or another, elements of Gothic construction.† (Zamfir. 2011: 18). 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I shall present and argue how the artistic effects deployed in the narrative structure create an atmosphere of tensionRead More A Critical Essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)2193 Words   |  9 Pagessymbolic to the nature and power of architectural space explored through the composition of his own â€Å"hou se in Strawberry Hill, which was the most complete neo-Gothic structure of the time. His mansion, as the author admits, stands at the base of architectural design†¦shapes, decors, landscapes, were all under one form or another, elements of Gothic construction.† (Zamfir. 2011: 18). This critical essay will explore and analyse the nature of Gothic architecture deployed as a vehicle of constructionRead MorePsychoanalytical Approach to E. A. Poe’s â€Å"the Fall of the House of Usher†645 Words   |  3 PagesPsychoanalytical Approach to E. A. Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† The purpose of psychoanalytic criticism is to offer the reader a better understanding of a literary piece by the analysis and interpretation of certain aspects through psychoanalytical theory. The aim, as is the case with all critical approaches, is to go beyond the surface structure and into the deep structure of a text, this time through the study of the psyche and by looking for patterns which are significant and conveyRead MoreThe Horror of The Fall of the House of Usher Essay example1426 Words   |  6 PagesThe Horror of The Fall of the House of Usher What is a horror? What does it mean to be terrified? The definition of a horror fiction is fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called horror (Wikipedia) . The Fall of the House of Usher is a great example of a story on the basic level of a gothic horror, in which theRead MoreAnti-Transcendentalist Themes in Poes The Fall of the House of Usher1651 Words   |  7 Pagesmocked transcendentalist ideals by clearly expressing anti-transcendentalist themes in one of his most well known works, â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†. Although this work openly exhibits Poes contempt for transcendentalism as a literary movement, it was nonetheless influenced by – and perhaps even based on – transcendentalist beliefs. Poes â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† is considered to be a Dark Romantic text. Dark Romanticism began in the mid-nineteenth century as a negative reaction to theRead MoreFeminist Perspective of the Role of Lady Madeline1592 Words   |  7 PagesFrom a feminist perspective, write an essay about the role of Lady Madeline in the story. â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher (1939)†, arguably Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous short story, is a tale centered around the mysterious House of Usher and its equally indiscernible inhabitants. These subjects are plagued with physical and mental degradation – the Usher siblings suffer from various abnormal ailments and unexplained fears, while the house itself seems to be tethering on the edge of collapse. TheRead More A Comparison of House of Usher, Bierces Beyond the Wall, The Black Cat, John Mortonsons Funeral1742 Words   |  7 PagesParallels in Poes House of Usher and Bierces Beyond the Wall, Poe’s The Black Cat and Bierces John Mortonsons Funeral, and in M.S. Found in a Bottle by Poe and Three and One are One by Bierce.      Ã‚  Ã‚   When one decides to become an author, one can not help being influenced by his predecessors, causing some of ones work to reflect and echo the predecessors. Such is the case between Ambrose Bierce and his predecessor, Edgar Allen Poe. Excluding the obvious fact that both Poes and BiercesRead More Comparing Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher and Taylor’s Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time1069 Words   |  5 PagesEdgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Peter Taylor’s Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time Various authors develop their stories using gothic themes and characterizations of this type to lay the foundation for their desired reader response. Although Edgar Allan Poe’s â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† and Peter Taylor’s â€Å"Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time† are two completely different narratives, both of these stories share a commonality of gothic text representations. The stories