The Single Emotional

A detailed Summary of The Single Emotional

When reviewing Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales, Edgar Allen Poe pronounced that the short story, if skillfully written, should deliver a single preconceived effect- an effect upon which incidents be fashioned to accommodate that effect. Edgar Allen Poe was indeed a skillful writer. His short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a flawless example of a story in which all elements contribute to the delivery of a single emotional effect. Poe accomplishes this by achieving a perfect tone, developing suspense and unifying stylistic elements thereby meeting his own criteria.

In his pronouncement Poe also wrote that "In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." Thus, in "The Fall of the House of Usher" Poe creates a perfect tone critical to the delivery of his preconceived effect. The senses of "insufferable gloom," "utter depression of soul" and " sinking, sickening of the heart" which pervade the narrator's spirit immediately establish the tone. The narrator's description of the scene as "dull," "dark," "bleak," "desolate" and "terrible" all function in communicating th

From the first sentence where the approach to the Usher House is met by intense feelings to the last sentence of utter terror, Edgar Allen Poe creates each paragraph as pieces of a puzzle which all link together to form a single emotional picture of terror. To create a strong unity in this story Poe refrained from including any words, phrases or sentences that would not contribute to the suspense or tone he wished to establish. Other effects such as humor, morality and logic are also deliberately omitted. The consonance and repetition used in Usher speech when he asks "Not hear it?-yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long-long-long-many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it" and "Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart? Shows how Poe uses these techniques to enhance rhythm and create emphasis thus adding to the unity of the story. Poe's use of parallel and balanced sentences also create consistent rhythm which aid in the maintenance of tone and suspense. The parallelism that exists between the poem the "The Haunted Palace" and what is occurring in the House of Usher achieves a great deal of unity as it helps to connect the events to come by foreshadowing an imminent, terrible and rapid deterioration of the House of the Usher's. Through directing all elements of his style to one common cause, Poe creates a unified story, optimal of achieving a single emotional effect.

Through diction, details, imagery,

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Approximate Word count = 974
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English