The nineteenth century heralded the birth of one of the greatest Gothic writers of all time – Edgar Allen Poe. Poe captivated audiences by inducing a sense of dread in the reader, which was unparalleled by any other author. His use of diction and imagery instilled an atmosphere of suspense, while his intense scenes and plot depicted not only the mental disintegration of his characters but also that of himself. In the story The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe combines his use of supernatural imagery, projection of mental states, and mental disintegration to instill a sense of terror in the reader.
The supernatural imagery in The Fall of the House of Usher is used to create an eerie sensation in the mind of the reader. When employed, this Gothic device is able to induce the reader to become susceptible to the wishes of the author, leaving the plane of the realistic and traveling to the mystic world created in the story. For instance, the narrator describes the house as having “an utter depression of soul to which I can compare to no earthly sensation”(264) – as if to say that the house brought him from the world he previously existed in, only to bring him to a place of pure despair

Mental deterioration can be shown in the narrator himself. In the beginning of the story, the narrator becomes so disturbed by the condition of the property itself, he invents the entire occurrence of the house and its contents. His own mental deterioration follows the track of the story, culminating in the collapse of the house, showing his complete breakdown. However, one can see various instances of mental projection during the course of his breakdown. Initially, he attempts to be impartial in his investigation of the scene- he attempts to “shake off from my spirit what must have been a dream”(265), to rationalize the disturbance he had, and to convince himself that there in truth was nothing wrong with the scene. Later in the story, however, he remarks of his own superstitions “that I experienced the full power of these feelings”(274) – he had become fully susceptible to his own degraded thoughts. His entire mental condition had been destroyed, concluding with the death of Roderick and Madeline, and the eventual collapse of the house, after which he saw the “fierce breath of the whirlwind”(279), showing that he went so far as to give life to inanimate objects – the final level of paranoia. Thus ended the mental stability of the narrator, and the ultimate depiction of mental degradation.

The projection of mental states can be a powerful tool in the influence of fright in the mind of a reader. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”. If this is su