horror in the fall of house of usher

Topic: Horror in The Fall Of House of UsherPaper: 10Paper Name: The American Literature Prepared by: Drashti MehtaRoll No;7PG Enrollment No:PG13101021Sem:3Email id:drashti.mehta.111993@gmail.comSubmitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar UniversityBhavnagar UniversityBhavnagar(Gujarat-India)

About the Author: Edgar Allan Poe

An American Writer• Poet• Critic

Master of the Short story• Mysteriou

s and Macabre story

• Horror

TerrorGrotesqueAllegory

About Author’s Works:

First book:

• Tamerlane’ and other poems (1827‘)

Second Volume of Verse:

• ‘Al Aaraaf’(1829)

Third book:

• ‘Poems’(1831)

Style and Characterization:Poe’s tales are distinguished by the author’s unique Grotesque inventiveness in addition to his superb plot construction.

The story reminds us of two novels:

1)Frankenstein

2)Dracula

“The Fall Of The House Of Usher” 1839 deals with penetrating gloominess of the atmosphere with superb plot and characterization.

He is noted for the blend of factual and fantastic material.

Poe’s greatest literary achievement was his renovation of terror tale to entertain by means of curdling the blood.

He realized at the outset of his career that Horror was eminently compatible with psychological plausibility in literature.

In the story the beginning with darkness creates Horror.

Gothicism and Horror:

The House is full of Mysteries.

The House created the image of coolness, where nobody can live.

The description of the house, Madeline thumping desperately in the coffin, the storm, wall with hanging shield, clamor of falling shield, slow opening of the door etc.

Snow symbolizes death.

The real essence of the short story is in the ‘Effect’-the effect of Terror, Horror…hair raising experience.

Entombing of Madeline is full of Terror

The Narrator’s Drea

m cause Hair

raising

effect.

It is a Dream of the

narrator, who is

leaving the temporal

and material world.

Journey inward toward

his inner spiritual self

which emerges in the form of

Roderick Usher.

Symbols:

• Candle• The woods• Web of spiders• Usher’s Painting

Psychological Dimension:

• The story depicts the struggle within the soul.

• Roderick Usher, his sister Madeline, and the house all shared one common soul.

Critic’s view:• 1)Critics are prompted to analyze the story as a

description of the human psyche.• 2)For ex. House to the unconscious, • Sister Madeline to the subconscious, • Usher to the conscious self.

• 3)Maurice Beebe: “The House of Usher is like the Universe not only in that everything is related but also in that it is limited.”

• 4)The splitting of house symbolizes the personality split, which can be called Dissociative Identity Disorder.

•5)Themes of Melancholy, possibility of incest and Vampirism shows mental disorder.•6)The falling of House creates Terror.•7)Poe would write at length about the process of Repeated Collapse and Rebirth, and apply it to the workings of universe.

Conclusion:

The Book will be opened again, the narrator will go back over the cause way and the reader will follow him through that Maze of prepositional phrases; Poe suggests as much by ending the story with and Echo of the title, “The Fragments of The House of Usher.”

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