Aspects of Narrative in "The Fall of House Usher"

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In “The Fall of House Usher,” Edgar Allan Poe uses different aspects of narrative to generate different moods and feelings in the story. One of the most essential on influencing aspects of narrative is the setting, specifically, House Usher. he actual location of the house is never revealed in the story, along with the time period in which the story takes place. This is probably because the mood of the story would be much harder to maintain if the story had given such precise facts, as it would ruin some of the tension created by this mysterious location. The area surrounding the mansion is the initial setting of the story and is one of the first spooky and theatrical settings Poe renders in his tale. The setting emits “a sense of insufferable gloom” emitted by the “clouds [which] hung oppressively low in the heavens” the “eyelike windows,” and the “white trunks of decayed trees.” All these different details aspects convey a sense of fear and apprehension in the reader, as they obviously indicate that the story which they are part of is not recommendable as a bed-time story. The house itself is also crafted to heighten the tension of the story. For one, the fact that Roderick Usher, one of the characters in the story, has not left the house in ages brings forth a sense of claustrophobia. When the narrator does not leave the house till the house has completely collapsed the reader also starts feeling trapped. Since Poe also uses the word “house” metaphorically, the reader also learns that this confinement can symbolise the biological fate of the Usher family. Also, since the narrator had previously personified the house, by noticing its “eyelike windows”, the house seems to be in itself a member of the Usher family, which, when the last of the family members die, collapses on the previous inhabitants still bodies. Throughout his story, Poe uses the setting

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