What is the atmosphere of the House of Usher?
An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a “dull, dark, and soundless day.” This house—the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and mysterious. The narrator observes that the house seems to have absorbed an evil and diseased atmosphere from the decaying trees and murky ponds around it.
What is the setting of the Fall of the House of Usher?
The story takes place in the Usher family mansion, which is isolated and located in a “singularly dreary tract of country.” The house immediately stirs up in the narrator “a sense of insufferable gloom,” and it is described as having “bleak walls,” “vacant eye-like windows,” and “minute fungi overspread [on] the whole …
What was the weather like in the House of Usher?
The look of the estate is dark, dreary, and oppressive as the narrator arrives. A few days later, a violent storm arises the same night he hears strange and deeply unsettling noises from below.
What is the mood in the story The Fall of the House of Usher?
The mood of this story is dark, depressing, and fearful. The setting at the beginning of the story sets the mood from its dead trees and bleak and vacant house. The mood also foreshadows the depression that Usher has because he knows him and his sister are both going to die and wipe out the Usher family.
Who is the protagonist in The Fall of the House of Usher?
As such, Roderick Usher is the protagonist of the tale. In Poe literature, the protagonist need not be an admirable hero. And indeed, if Roderick knew his sister was alive when he put her in the tomb, then he is anything but admirable.
What happens to the House of Usher at the end of the story?
In the end, both houses “die” at the same time: Madeline falls on her brother, and the mansion collapses.
Why did Madeline Usher die?
Madeline suffers from a form of seizure disorder called catalepsy. An important fact to remember is that victims of this disease could enter into a state like a coma in which they appeared to be dead. Madeline, who has been gradually growing sicker, appears to die, and is buried by Roderick and the narrator.
How does Roderick die?
One conclusion to be drawn from the final scene is that Roderick dies of fear. Madeline rushes upon him and he falls to the floor a corpse, too terrified to go on living.
Is Roderick responsible for the death of his sister and the collapse of his home?
It’s never explicitly stated that Roderick is directly responsible for his sister’s death. She attacks Roderick as the life drains from her and he dies of fear. When both Roderick and Madeline die at the end of the story and the house falls into the lake, the house breaking part ends the House of Usher forever.