Analysis Pages

 Allusion
 Character Analysis
 Facts
 Foreshadowing
 Historical Context
 Imagery
 Metaphor
 Meter
 Plot
 Quote Analysis
 Rhyme
 Symbols
 Themes
 Tone
 Vocabulary

Literary Devices in The Fall of the House

of Usher
First-Person, Unreliable Narrator: The story is told through the first-hand account of a
narrator who claims to have known Roderick Usher in childhood. Since the events are told
from this narrator’s perspective, readers get access to a more intimate look at the narrator’s
perception of events, dramatically emphasizing the unnatural environment and unusual
occurrences. The narrator’s attempts to rationalize his fears and present the account
objectively only serve to undermine the veracity of his account, and when it’s clear that the
narrator cannot be trusted, the terror of the tale increases.

The House as a Symbol and Foreshadowing: Multiple locations within the text state that
the House serves as a symbol for the Ushers, so much so that its fate is connected with that of
the family. With this in mind, the fissure that the narrator sees running through the span of
the house serves as foreshadowing for what happens at the story’s climax
 Edgar Allan Poe had a stormy forty years which influenced his
writing style. Often tragic circumstances that occured in his life
haunted his writing. The death of his parents that he witnessed
in his early years and emotionally turbulent relationships with
his adoptive parents shaped his writing style. His name soon
became synonymous with macabre tales.
 He introduced British gothic/horror genre to American
Literature. Poe became a key literary figure in American
literature and letters.
 He received several views from critics. Although he was known
to be one of the original writers in America, only the latter half
of the 20th century considered him to be a crucial contributor
to American Renaissance
 Gothic literature is a genre that rose with Romanticism and
explores the dark side of human experiences such as death,
alienation, nightmares and haunted landscapes. American
Gothic Literature dramatises a culture through characters
afflicted with various forms of insanity and melancholy.
 Poe’s gothic is a potent brew, best served in small doses such as
the Fall House of Usher.
Key facts
 Genre- Gothic literature/ supernatural/ short horror story. We
tend to deal with the supernatural genre as bizarre happenings
occur. The inexplicable diseases that the twins deal with
stimulates a horror genre.
 Narrator- In these tales of criminal insanity, the narrators are
often unreliable and unnamed. He is an enigma. They claim
their sanity and proceed to describe the pathological madness.
They control the narrative and we only see the progression of
the story from their eyes. They are absorbed in the madness
and meticulously described insanity. We see that he is nameless
to show that his only job is to narrate as the events unfold in the
manor. One of the most peculiar aspects is that the narrator
goes to lengths to convince that the weird happenings in the
manor are completely futile. He renders the pathological
madness and cannot be trusted as he might have lost his sanity
himself. One more thing to notice is the fact that as he narrated
the story out loud to Usher, it was prophetic in nature. He
protests that his words cannot describe reality, however it
comes true. His only purpose in the story was to introduce us to
the House of Usher.
 Diction- The narrator often uses polished, ornate, highly
decorated language to exaggerate the criminal insanity. It is also
to bury the tense atmosphere between the lines. It is
melodramatic macabre as the diction is over the top
 Tense- They often begin with present tense narration and
count back to flashbacks to recount the memories.
 Tone- The story is recited in retrospect (a study of past course
of events). The frantic mania of the horrified narrator seeps into
the tone of narration. Poe unfolds horrifying, supernatural
events in a calm and composed manner which adds to the sense
of horror in the story.
 Epigraph- The epigraph in stories usually hints to the readers
on how to interpret their work. The epigraph in this story is a
quote from a French song which says His/her heart (gender
ambiguity) is a polished lute and as soon as it touched, it
resounds. This epigraph could be hinted to be a work of Usher
himself in the story. It speaks about the theme of isolation as
well as Usher’s “acuteness of senses”. Loneliness is seen as
his/her heart is waiting to be touched but as soon as it is, it
echoes.
 Title- The title can be literally interpreted to a foreshadowing
of the ending. The Fall of the House was evident with the
narrator’s arrival as he saw a small fissure which later caused
the house to break into two. There is also a more symbolic
meaning to this title as it hints the metaphorical fall of the
twins. The siblings were the last ones of the family and when
they died, the bloodline ended with them. We are reminded that
we are not in a realistic world as the pieces of the story fit too
well to shape a conclusion and action is too dramatic. For
example- just as Roderick falls to his death, his sister falls on
him and the house collapses on them as a full stop for their
blood line. This adds to the fantastical nature of the story.
 The setting of the house is carefully crafted to heighten a tense
atmosphere throughout the story. The sentient house, dreary
landscape and mysterious sicknesses adds to the horror
element of the story. The idea of “grim phantasm” is constantly
played with as we abandon the idea of reason in the story. The
setting forebodes something ominous. The character’s
psychological decay and the deteriorating mansion adds to the
 effect. All the events unfold under the moonlight. Aiming to give
you frisson( thrill)
 The gothic element of the story describes the house to be of a
grander kind.
 The story consists of quintessential aspects of a gothic novel
such as the dreary landscape, a dark moat, an ethereal glowing
cloud, ancient furnishings, creepy tapestries, small fissure,
ebony blackness, inclement weather, etc.
 Although, the narrator is one of the most intimate boyhood
friends of Usher, he does not know basic facts about him like he
has a sister. Poe allows us to question the timing Usher decided
to reconnect with his friend and the bizarre tenacity of his
acceptance. The sister’s peculiar disease might also be the cause
of his madness. The incestuous relationship he might have had
with her might be why he buried her alive.
Summary

An unnamed narrator approaches the “melancholy” house of

Usher on a “dull, dark, and soundless day.” This house—the
estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and
mysterious. The narrator observes that the house seems to have
absorbed an evil and diseased atmosphere from the decaying
trees and murky ponds around it. He notes that although the
house is decaying in places—individual stones are
disintegrating, for example—the structure itself is fairly solid.
There is only a small crack from the roof to the ground in the
front of the building. He has come to the house because his
friend Roderick sent him a letter earnestly requesting his
company. Roderick wrote that he was feeling physically and
emotionally ill, so the narrator is rushing to his assistance. The
narrator mentions that the Usher family, though an ancient clan,
has never flourished. Only one member of the Usher family has
survived from generation to generation, thereby forming a
direct line of descent without any outside branches. The Usher
family has become so identified with its estate that the
peasantry confuses the inhabitants with their home.

The narrator finds the inside of the house just as spooky as the
outside. He makes his way through the long passages to the
room where Roderick is waiting. He notes that Roderick is paler
and less energetic than he once was. Roderick tells the narrator
that he suffers from nerves and fear and that his senses are
heightened. The narrator also notes that Roderick seems afraid
of his own house. Roderick’s sister, Madeline, has taken ill with
a mysterious sickness—perhaps catalepsy, the loss of control of
one’s limbs—that the doctors cannot reverse. The narrator
spends several days trying to cheer up Roderick. He listens to
Roderick play the guitar and make up words for his songs, and
he reads him stories, but he cannot lift Roderick’s spirit. Soon,
Roderick posits his theory that the house itself is unhealthy, just
as the narrator supposes at the beginning of the story.

Madeline soon dies, and Roderick decides to bury her

temporarily in the tombs below the house. He wants to keep her
in the house because he fears that the doctors might dig up her
body for scientific examination, since her disease was so
strange to them. The narrator helps Roderick put the body in
the tomb, and he notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some
do after death. The narrator also realizes suddenly that
Roderick and Madeline were twins. Over the next few days,
Roderick becomes even more uneasy. One night, the narrator
cannot sleep either. Roderick knocks on his door, apparently
hysterical. He leads the narrator to the window, from which
they see a bright-looking gas surrounding the house. The
narrator tells Roderick that the gas is a natural phenomenon,
not altogether uncommon.

The narrator decides to read to Roderick in order to pass the

night away. He reads “Mad Trist” by Sir Launcelot Canning, a
 medieval romance. As he reads, he hears noises that correspond
to the descriptions in the story. At first, he ignores these sounds
as the vagaries of his imagination. Soon, however, they become
more distinct and he can no longer ignore them. He also notices
that Roderick has slumped over in his chair and is muttering to
himself. The narrator approaches Roderick and listens to what
he is saying. Roderick reveals that he has been hearing these
sounds for days, and believes that they have buried Madeline
alive and that she is trying to escape. He yells that she is
standing behind the door. The wind blows open the door and
confirms Roderick’s fears: Madeline stands in white robes
bloodied from her struggle. She attacks Roderick as the life
drains from her, and he dies of fear. The narrator flees the
house. As he escapes, the entire house cracks along the break in
the frame and crumbles to the ground.

Plot Analysis
– “The Haunted Palace”
 Poe creates the theme of entrapment in this story. The narrator,
Roderick and Madeline are trapped in this story till it collapses
completely. The house has a mind of its own and creates
confusion with living things and inanimate objects. He also
intertwines the biological fate of the bloodline to the house
(internal breeding)
 Initial Situation- Narrator enters the house
 Rising action- Narrator gets to know about sickness
 Conflict- Madeline dies
 Climax- Madeline re-appears
 Falling action- Narrator fled
 Denouement- The house collapses
 Conclusion- No trace of the house seen
 As Madeline rushes to Roderick at the end, he dies of fear. This
could be because Madeline is a physical embodiment of Usher’s
fear. She does not appear in the end till he exclaims. His works
are usually prophetic so whatever he says comes true.
 Roderick Usher
 His “acuteness of senses”- physically and emotionally ill
 Does not know why he is ill till Rising action where he finds out
the house affects his emotions/ Superstitious
 Close connection with sister and yet buries her alive. Did he
bury Madeline because he was guilt stricken after incest? He
tries to kill himself by killing his other half? Wanted to end the
bloodline?
 Plausible that Usher invited the narrator to witness the horrors.
Why did he call for companionship after so many years?
 His close connection with his sister might also be why she
returned to him from death or to take revenge
 Hypochondriac- abnormally anxious about his health
 Psychological decay is introduced through him
 Madeline Usher is his spiritual doppelgänger and they are one
person split into two. She might be a physical manifestation of
his fear which might be why the narrator rarely meets her and
she does not reply to him.
Themes
1. Identity- Split personality disorder
2. Fear and inexplicable sickness
3. Family and house
4. Isolation
5. Gothic and Supernatural
6. Entrapment
Important quotes
1. “The House of Usher- an appellation which seemed to include,
in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and
the family mansion”
2. ‘dull, dark and soundless day” “acuteness of senses” “first
personal friend” “eye-like windows” “depression of soul” -
opium addict
3. “reeked up from the decayed trees, and the grey wall and the
silent tarn”
4. “A striking similitude now first arrested my attention”-
“scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between them”
5. “the windows were long, pointed and narrow, and at so vast a
distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether
inaccessible from within”
Symbols
1. Reality vs Art
2. The House
3. Small Fissure
4. The idea of a doppelgänger is seen in the brother and sister
where they are completing each others lives. The male and
female half have a role rehearsal where the brother is soft, weak
and fragile whereas the female shows action, stronger than the
brother, majestic and ghastly to overpower despite the
catalepsy. This shows that there is a case of completing each
other. There is a role reversal of masculine and feminine
characters. This role rehearsal speaks of incest.
5. He is also, it turns out, a very superstitious fellow. Usher hasn’t
left his house in several years, and he’s under the impression
that his family’s mansion has obtained an influence over his
spirit, that it’s the house’s fault he feels so gloomy
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“Secrets” is a short story written by prolific author Bernard

McaLaverty which deals with convoluted themes such as pain,
death and betrayal which portray the dullness and tenebrosity
of the plot. The title itself contributes much to the various
thematic concerns dealt in the story and McLaverty makes use
of various literary devices such as analepsis and the like to
make the story an invigorating one.

The title signifies the onerous theme of confidentiality and the

serious effect it causes. The anonymous protagonist of the story,
the young boy, finds himself guilty ,lying beside his aunt’s death
bed, for he had in his mind an incident from the past, that
forever remained etched in both their memories. McLaverty
makes exceptional use of retrospection through the character of
the young man to string together ideas that bring about the
evolution of the plot. The story transits from the present to an
unrecorded time in the past. The third person incognito
narrator unfolds before the readers an incident that made the
aunt hate her nephew for the rest of her life. The title itself
characterises the fact that the aunt’s secret had been let out.
The story of her lover and romantic pastimes of her youth
werere initially hidden from both the characters and the
readers. The aunt is depicted to be quite reserved and manages
to keep her “secrets” with herself”. The line”Your aunt kept
herself very much to herself “ clearly reinstates this. This
however changes as she makes the mistake of telling the young
boy not to look at her letters when he accidentally saw them on
some other pretext. This let the seed of curiosity creep into the
mind of the boy and he was determined to see what was
hidden.

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A truly spine-tingling story, told in Edgar Allan Poe's unmistakable atmospheric style. The
Fall of the House of Usher describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the
legacy of the past. A nameless narrator is summoned to the home of his childhood friend …

Poe creates an overall sense of dread and gloom by using nature to weave an atmosphere
of horror. He uses cacophonous word choice and evokes a feeling of despair in the reader
with the words “dull,” “dark” and “insufferable.” Poe includes “phantasmagoric” to add to the
haunted effect. The setting, described mostly by imagery, is the main basis of the tone. By
describing the landscape as “simple and desolate” and a “singularly dreary tract of country”
with “a few white trunks of decayed trees” as well as describing the house itself as having,
“bleak walls… [and] vacant eye-like windows”, Poe brings a sense of death and despair into
the reader, that is also felt slightly by the narrator. The narrator first sees the house cloaked
in shadow and considers it a melancholy sight, but he quickly modifies his reaction: he is
overcome by "a sense of insufferable gloom."

https://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/30146.htmlAnother theme that Poe

explores in The Fall Of The House Of Usher is fear. It is fear that drives the story, fear
that traps the narrator, and eventually fear that kills Roderick Usher. Poe
foreshadows the paradox of Roderick’s fear early in the story: “There can be no doubt
that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition…is the paradoxical
law of all sentiments having terror as a basis.” Roderick Usher is quoted as saying “I
have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect–in terror.” This
means that he is not afraid of death, but of fear itself. And it is this fear of fear that
eventually leads to his death, when Madeline ‘returns from the dead’ and scares him
to death.

To properly convey these complex themes, Poe employed the use of the Gothic
Tradition. That is to say, he used elements such as the supernatural, and traditional
gothic settings to create a mood in his story to help the reader become immersed in
the story. The Fall Of The House Of Usher is told in the first person, with a nameless
narrator who is never properly described. This helps the reader to feel part of the
story, as it is as if they are listening to themselves describing the story. Poe has also
set the story in a very claustrophobic way, including very little other than two rooms
in the estate. Along with this, he uses traditional gothic setting to create an
unwelcoming, uncomfortable feeling. When the narrator first enters Roderick Usher’s
study, it is described thusly “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way
through the trellised panes… Dark draperies hung upon the walls.

The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered.”

Throughout the story, the reader can sense that the narrator is never quite
comfortable in the estate, and eventually begins to mirror Roderick’s “superstitious
impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted”. Superstitious elements are
another popular part of gothic literature, and Poe clearly utilises the supernatural in
The Fall Of The House Of Usher. An excellent example of this is the character of the
Lady Madeline. The first time the narrator sees her, he is being told of her decease.
“While he spoke, the lady Madeline… passed through a remote portion of the
apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared.” The way that the
narrator describes her is as if she is a ghost, suddenly appearing without care to
notice her surroundings, and vanishing with no further movement. This may be
foreshadowing to her ghastly appearance after being buried alive for days, as if newly
raised from the dead. We do not see her alive again in the story until this event, thus
increasing her likeness to a ghost. Adding to the mystery around Madeline, she is a
medical anomaly. “The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her
physicians.” This adds another element of supernatural and mysterious, and gives the
character of Madeline more depth than if she were merely a slightly ghostly h alf of
Roderick Usher.

The literary techniques that Poe uses are an important element of what makes
The Fall Of The House Of Usher such a successful short story. Metaphor and simile
are heavily used not only to describe the physical appearance of the settings, but also
to tie together further the estate and family, as described above. There are many
references to “the House” that could either be referring to the estate itself, or the
family. Such as, when describing the house the narrator states “In this there was much
that reminded me of the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long
years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external
air.” This is also a reference to the in-bred nature of the family, having “put forth no
enduring branch”, the family lies in direct descent of one another. Another prominent
metaphor for the Usher family occurs when the estate is destroyed in Madeline’s
attack. “My brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder”. A slight fissure
in the house, in the family (Roderick’s madness and Madeline’s illness) eventually
destroyed both the literal and figurative “House of Usher”, leaving no living
descendants.