“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens…” is the opening in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe (1). This sentence sets the mood of this gothic tale of death and the supernatural. This story involves a unique setting which acts out the story by itself. Much emphasis is placed on the portrayal of the house from the unknown narrator. Although the use of imagery is used to help develop a setting, Poe also uses atmosphere to give the reader a better understanding the narrator and the position that he is put in.
Through the use of imagery the mood is set or foreshadows what is expected to come. The presence of the “mansion of gloom” causes the reader to think that only evil and death shall come from the house (2). Imagery, when used correctly, can be a mighty weapon that gives the reader an idea of what the setting is and how it affects the outcome of the story. In the introduction of the story the narrator approaches a house of a
The setting of any story greatly influences what the reader is suppose to perceive from what will happen and what is actually happening. Throughout the setting, Edgar Allen Poe is able to use imagery to predict events, and he uses atmosphere to help develop a better understanding of the narrator as a character. He utilizes the setting to its full capacity to create such imagery and atmosphere.
The house is a perfect example of the narrator development of his character by being in surroundings. He comes to his friends house calm and “normal “, but once he is there things seem to be looking differently. To him, the windows in the house to him represent Usher’s eyes, and light that comes through the windows is reality. Therefore throughout the story the narrator feels like Usher is watching his every move. “Reality enters his brain only in feeble gleams of light.” “The eye struggles in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber…”(9). The reality doesn’t reach all of his brain. These quotes show that the atmosphere of the house represents Usher and a
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