FREE ESSAY ON SETTING OF THE HALL OF THE HOUS OF USHER

SETTING OF THE HALL OF THE HOUS OF USHER

Fall of the House of Usher
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year, when the
clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens... is the opening sentence to the ever
strange The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe (1373). This sentence pretty
much simplifies the mood of this gothic tale of death and the supernatural. This story
encompasses a unique setting which acts out the story by itself. Much emphasis is placed
on the looks and feeling that the house gives to the unnamed narrator. Through the use of
imagery this great poet sets the mood or foreshadows what is expected to come. The ever
presence of the mansion of gloom causes the reader to imply that only evil and death
shall arise from the house (Poe 1374).
Imagery, when used correctly, can be a mighty weapon that gives any story a certain
feeling different from others. Imagery sets the stage to give the reader an idea of what
the setting is and how it effects the outcome of the story. In the introduction of this
tale the narrator approaches a house of a long time friend, Roderick Usher, and has a
sense of insufferable gloom pervading my spirit (Poe 1374). To the narrator the windows
appear to be vacant and eye-style and the narrator goes on to observe the rank edges, and
the black and lurid tarn, in which he sees the reflection of the house. He later says,
when I again uplifted my eyes to house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew a
strange fancy... (Poe 1376). Although the narrator tried to view everything he sees in a
rational manner, upon seeing the house and its surroundings, he has a sense of
superstition. He goes on to say that, about the whole mansion and domain there hung an
atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity (Poe 1377). This statement
indicates that perhaps the house does indeed have supernatural characteristics. The
narrator also notices the fungi on the walls and the poor structure of the house and
suggest that something possibly supernatural is holding the house intact, otherwise it
would have fallen to the ground long ago. The setting is shown to be the house itself and
all of these quotations concrete the fact that Poe used various gloomy descriptions in
order to get across the total evil that encompasses the house. Death is apparent and is
in the air because the house is ghostly and everything involving the Mathusalehistic
(Bible) house.
Setting can not just be quarantined by itself when analyzing a story because many details
make up the overall setting. Setting is not limited to concrete objects and places but a
feeling can also be the inner setting of the story. In The Fall of the House of Usher
several great aspects of the setting are death, supernatural, evil, and everything else
from the dark side of the spectrum. In the story there is an increase of negativity on
the atmosphere of sorrow, which turns to one of great evil, which leads to death: death
of Roderick Usher. It is in the atmosphere and creates a living nightmare for Roderick.
It is a nightmare that wants to escape but cannot - that is he can not escape the
nightmare alive. In this story death is not considered as a bad occurrence, especially
for Usher, who uses death as his only means of escape: his only way to freedom. And in
the end Lady Madeline of Usher seeks revenge on Roderick but she does not know that he
welcomes death. Usher preferred death than the hellish prison his life was becoming. It
is death, in the fall of Usher; Usher finally has peace- he finally has freedom. Poe uses
death and evil as the main non-concrete setting of the story. The whole entire story
revolves around this feeling of death and becomes a major setting of the story. 
The setting of any story greatly influences what the reader is suppose to perceive from
what will happen and what is actually happening. In the story The Fall of the House of
Usher Poe with the use of imagery gives the reader a sense of the total evil of the
house. The mood for the story can be seen rather early on and is intended to get the
reader in the right frame of mind for what is about to happen. Poe also used a thought or
feeling as a setting. He incorporated evil and death into the story and these became its
main theme: I shall perish, I must perish in this deplorable folly....- I feel that I
must abandon life and reason together I my struggles with some fatal demon of fears (Poe
1378-1379).
Jeff BigBa20