The Fall of the House of Usher: A mind into madness
As the period of American Romanticism emerged, so did a new breed of literature and writers with a style all their own. As the romantics sought to rise above all dull realities in search of higher truth, they began a movement revolving around exotic settings, in the more natural past state, or world distant from the typical industrial age of the time. Romantics began to be able to mold worlds from their own perceptions, sometimes finding these worlds through the supernatural, or in legends or folklore. Secondly, Romantics contemplated the natural world until its dull reality vanished, solely revealing its underlying beauty and truth. Arising from these new techniques came the Romantic approach to the development of Gothic novels, and short stories. Having roots in French, German, and English literature, this was uncharted territory for rising American Romantic authors. Most notable for his contributions to this genre of literature was Edgar Allan Poe, who was indeed attracted to the exotic, otherworldly trappings of the Gothic. Particularly in the works of Poe, the Gothic took on a new edge toward the psychological exploration of the human mind. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, the author depicts the wo
The terror, which conveys the story altogether is derived from the unity of tone, as well as horrific occurrences which in the end serve as the climax. The unity of tone conveys a unity of effect throughout the story. Poe does not stray from his opening structure of a gloomy description of the “dank tarn” and “dark rooms” of the house to the gloomy ending marked by dark and horrific events (2,3). At the end of the story Madeline returns from her premature tomb to lay claim to the now maddened Roderick, “a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.”, as the two are reunited in death, the mind can not live or die without its physical component, the senses (10). As a result, the house, a symbol of a now deranged person crumbles into the depths, all as the narrator flees in terror for his own sanity. Throughout this occurrence Poe elicits terror through the addition of a blood red moon, and a tumultuous storm foreshadowing the fall of the mind, the climax of the story. The narrator, only tied with the Usher family by a boyhood companionship with Roderick, tries to comfort and eventually attempt to save Roderick from his illness of which his exterior self has been lost within the interior world of the imagination. The narrator at first acts as a super-ego, or subconscious. He is always trying to make the best of something that is truly wrong or disturbing, usually describing the horrific aspects or characteristics of the house and Roderick, then attempting to only see the best of an overwhelming horrific aura. As Roderick shares his fantasy world with the narrator; his music, his literature, which deals with the extremes of human imagination; his art which is “…bathed in a gha
Some topics in this essay:
Roderick Madeline,
Usher Poe,
Allan Poe,
American Romanticism,
House Usher”,
Secondly Romantics,
American Romantic,
Poe Gothic,
German English,
human mind,
“house usher”,
mind poe,
Allan Poe’s,
usher family,
roderick madeline,
fragile mind,
edgar allan,
“house usher” crumbles,
unity tone,
aspect house,
terror overwhelms,
edgar allan poe,
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Approximate Word count = 1147
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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