Edgar Poe Gothic Novels - Essay Example

This paper shall move to examine his great work, “The Fall of The House of The Usher”. The reason for the choosing this work is because it highlights an important characteristic of Poe’s work in the context of the Sublime. This piece of work is one of the most significant out of Poe’s works. Considered to be at the zenith of gothic literature, this is an amazing piece, which captivates the reader. From the very beginning, Poe uses phrases like “.dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year..” (Apuntes, Trabajos, Examenes, Practicas y Otros documentos, n.d, n.p), which shows the mood setting of the story to be dreary and gloomy from the very start.

This story is different from many works of Poe because in others he narrates a story through the perpetrator who confides a crime he/she did. However, in this story, the narrator is merely an observer. This story stands out from the rest and outline gothic literature at its peak when “the unearthly storm which accompanies Madeline's return from the tomb, helps to convey the terror that overwhelms and finally destroys the fragile mind of Roderick Usher” (Poe Decoder, n.d, n.p). We shall analyse the whole story and the complete theoretical concept under the light of the concept of the Sublime.

The sublime has always been a term debated “The idea of the sublime is essential to an understanding of Gothic poetics and, especially, the attempt to defend or justify the literature of terror “ (Anson, n.d, n.p). It includes portraying a sight through grandiose words. Its use in Gothic literature helps to depict a terrorizing view and to scare the reader. According to Edmund Burke,” the sublime is anything that ‘is productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling” (Example Essays, n.d, n.p).

Hence, the Sublime is highly crucial when using gothic literature. Like most of Poe’s works, in this work particularly, the sublime theme becomes prominent. This story depicts a gloomy, forbidding looking house, which is, in essence, an example of the sublime and gothic literature for which Edgar Allan Poe was famous. The whole story draws us near to concepts such as death and incurable disease, and depicts a hopeless situation which, no matter what, “is ultimately overshadowed by the awe-filled and terrifying specter of death” (Bloom & Hobby, 2010, pp.45-46). Poe indicates the house as being grotesque and outlandish in the way it appears to be looking forbidding.

Phrases such as “white trunks of decayed trees” and “bleak walls” portray a very somber picture. We come to know that Roderick is ill mentally and suffers from a disease, which runs in the family, and we are told his sister suffers the same fate. The story is left open to the reader for analyzing in the end, which makes it stand out. The Gothic way of writing highlights itself throughout the story, especially when Madeline is buried alive and then returns to kill her diseased brother.

The sublime is thoroughly depicted throughout the story and huge words are used to portray grotesque images and the outrageous setting of the story. The decaying house sets the mood for gothic literature and so do the few characters in the story. The narrator, Roderick and Madeline are the main people in the story. In the end, the