Fear in the House of Usher Edgar Allen Poe
The short story, The Fall of the House of Usher, uses a rational first person narrator to illustrate the strange effects the house has on the three characters within it. Everything about the house is dark and supernaturally evil, and appears to convey some fear that is driving its occupants insane. The narrator enters the story as a man with a lot of common sense and is very critical of the superstitious Usher, but he himself senses these same powers only he tries to escape the reality of the phenomena by reasoning or focusing on something else. Edgar Allen Poe, the author of this short story, is trying to show through the narrator that the denial of our fears can lead to insanity, much the same way it has already turned Usher insane and is slowly but surely acting upon the narrator. The House of Usher is described by the narrator in the beginning of the story as having life-like characteristics suggesting that the narrator is already receiving supernatural feelings from the house. He describes the windows as being "vacant" and "eye-like", adding to the all around eerie feel the house gives off. The narrator, upon seeing the house, is immediately driven to superstitious descriptions despite his a
Poe uses a first person narrator so the reader could see that the narrator too was becoming bounded by fear, even though the narrator himself did not know this. The narrator could see what was happening to Usher, but did not know that he too was in denial and was slowly but surely becoming insane. On that last night especially, the reader is given strong evidence to suggest that the narrator was in deep turmoil. He had felt the terror ever since he arrived at the house, but always had a rational explanation to duck away from his fears. Given the time that Usher had to slowly go insane in the house, the narrator too would have suffered the same fate that Usher did. After entering the house, the narrator discovers his boyish friend in serious mental illness, which has altered even his physical appearance. In fact the narrator hardly recognized him saying things like "it was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my early childhood. (1377)" After speaking with Roderick for some time about his condition, the narrator learned that he was bounded by some mental terror and that "he was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted...he had never ventured forth." (1378) By having the narrator make this connection, Poe is showing that perhaps the narrator himself is beginning to feel these same fears, that perhaps fear is contagious. As the story progresses, the condi
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1003
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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