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Edgar Allen Poe opens his story, “The fall of the House of Usher” with a man on horseback arriving at the dark, dreary house of the family, Usher. The anonymous narrator, the man on horseback, meets with his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher, at the mansion in a noble visitation to comfort his quickly fading friend as he suffers form a terminal ailment. Saturated with darkened tone, hopes themes, and an unrivaled use of foreshadowing, Poe paints a vivid picture of a warped, twisted tale of incest and the gradual decline of a once powerful family line with his impeccable choice of words. Poe begins his story describing the scene surrounding the house of Usher with intente to impose the feeling of despair to the reader. He writes, “ During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hing oppressivly low in the heavens, had been pasing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreaty tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, whithing the view of the melancholy House of Usher.” With these words an emotional flood pours from the opening paragraph; a powerful sadness is strongly projected, which sets the tone for the rest of the story. Poe speaks of a song sung by the terminaly ill Roderick Usher: “But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch’s high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him, desolate!) And, round about his home, the glory That blushed and bloomed Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entoombed.”
Feelings of sadness and despair leap form this passage, speaking of a fallen monarch and the death of a loved one. Words more powerful than these could not be found to project the feelings Poe intended for the reader. He fills his “The Fall of the House of Usher” with many powerful words and phrases that invoke a feeling of mournful despair to the reader. Poe’s use of theme is especialy evident in this peice of literature. He tells of a family line, one poisoned by incest, on the decline. He uses the sickly character, Roderic Usher, to convey the disheartning consequences of the once reviered tradition of keeping a family line pure. “Surely a man had never been so terribly altered, in such a bief period, such as Roderick Usher!” Poe tells of a man, mutilated by the acts of his forefathers, with blood poisoned by the venom of incest. He makes evident the degeneration of the family line by the act of incest. “The disease of Lady Madeline had ling baffeled the skill of her physicans.” Poe tells of Usher’s sister, afflicted with the same curse of incest. She saunters about waiting for the day of her death, suffering, undoubtably, far from the short reach of the medicinal practices of the day. Poe tells of a crumbling family line in the mid 1800’s, he tells, through his writings, that the practice of the preservation of a pure family line isnt feasable, or accepted in mid 19th century American society. Foreshadowing is Poe’s strong point in thes particular peice fo writing. He flaunts his skill to the enjoyment of the reader. For example, he writes, “I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacent eye-like windows - upon the few rank sedges - upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can only compare th no earthly sensation more properly than to the after dream of the reveller upon opium - the bitter lapse into everyday life - the hideous dropping off of the veil.” With this description of the surroundings of the house Poe tells of the events awaiting the reader later on in the story.
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