Examples Of Isolationism In The Fall Of The House Of Usher
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In “The Fall of The House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe shows fear and isolation leading to madness and insanity. It shows that being isolated for a long period of time can really mess with a person’s head. It is not a good idea for someone to be isolated.
When the story begins, Poe uses imagery to show fear caused by the setting for example the narrator says “during the whole of a dull dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hang oppressively low in the havens (Poe, 413)”. Poe describes the setting of the day as he arrives at The House of Usher; it gives him an eerie feeling about the house. The reader gets the idea that the house is going to look dark and dull from the imagery that Poe uses. In addition, the narrator states “Upon the remodeled and inverted images of grey sedge and the ghastly tree stems, and the vacant eye-like windows (Poe, 413)”. The reader now knows what the…show more content… For example, “The windows were long narrow and pointed and at so vast a distance even the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within (Poe, 422)”. When the narrator enters the house he realizes how isolated it is from society. The house is in the middle of nowhere and inside there is basically no escape because the windows are too far away from the ground. This imagery shows that the Usher family likes to be isolated and not being able to escape, they also like being away from other people. In addition “The usher mansion is the most important symbol in the story, isolated, decayed and full of death (The Fall 51-66)”. Wilson uses plot analysis to describe the setting of the story. The Usher House exists in its own reality. The family does not interact with anyone in the outside world. All this isolation causes the family to become closer since they have no one else. The narrator is pulled into this isolation and causes him to be scared. Such extreme isolation is never healthy for