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Claustrophobia
- Poe creates a sensation of claustrophobia in this story. The narrator is mysteriously trapped by the lure of Roderick’s attraction, and he cannot escape until the house of Usher collapses completely.
www.sparknotes.com › short-stories › the-fall-of-the-house-of-usherThe Fall of The House of Usher: Full Story Analysis | SparkNotes
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Is the fall of the House of Usher a Gothic story?
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ has inspired a range of interpretations: it has been analysed as proto-Freudian and proto-Kafkaesque, among many other things. The best way to approach the story is perhaps to consider its plot alongside the accumulation of detail Poe provides.
The narrator of "House of Usher" describes looking down into the water and feeling his superstition about the house increase within him. He explains that feelings of terror often increase the more one becomes conscious of them.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” possesses the quintessential features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness, and doubled personality. For all its easily identifiable Gothic elements, however, part of the terror of this story is its vagueness.
The first five paragraphs of the story are devoted to creating a gothic mood — that is, the ancient decaying castle is eerie and moldy and the surrounding moat seems stagnant. Immediately Poe entraps us; we have a sense of being confined within the boundaries of the House of Usher.
Indeed, the story’s very title alerts the reader that the House of Usher is destined to fall. Therefore, although the narrator insists that the house’s foundations look sound, the sprouting mushrooms, the crumbling stones, and the shallow crack feel ominous and foreboding.
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.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is carefully crafted to elicit feelings of dread, stress, and, above all, what it calls “the grim phantasm, FEAR.” In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the setting, diction , and imagery combine to create an overall atmosphere of gloom.
