A Critical Essay on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher (1

The twenty first century author Alexandra Iftodi Zamfir (1986- ) surrounds that architecture and settings are more important in Gothic fiction than in any early(a) type of literatureall architectural elements are closely connected with Gothic protagonists and the plot. (Zamfir. 2011 15). This critical essay will first consider and analyse this averment and investigate the style, language and form of the American author Edgar Allan Poes (1809-1849) macabre and Gothic fictional prose The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) (Poe. 1987 1). I shall present and argue how the artistic effects deployed in the narrative structure create an atmosphere of tension and suspense, through the exploration of architectural space demonstrated in a close reading and analysis from key passages of the text. The Fall of the House of Usher was written by the American author and poet Edgar Allan Poe, it first featured as a Gothic short story in Burtons Gentlemans Magazine in (1839) (Hayes. 2002 xvii). Poe was writing at a time of immense spay to social, economic and cultural conditions following the technological advancements of the industrial Revolution (1750-1850), his work on The Fall of the House of Usher could be said to show an dissemble of Western societys internal and external fragmentation. (Montagna 2006). As offerd by Zamfir the universe portrayed in the House of Usher is Poes closely sublimein humanizing a dwelling to portray the inner self of the Gothic hero, but it also represents an investigation of the self in a state of disintegration. (Zamfir. 2011 62). This process of disintegration is both reflected within the architectural structure of the house itself as the building gradually corrodes, in addition to that of the ps... ..._of_Space_in_Gothic_Architecture. Accessed 11th May 2012Giordano, R. (2005-2011) Poestories.com An exploration of Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. On-line Available from http//www.poestories.com/. Accessed 24th September 2011Gu nn, A.G. (1997-2002) Cyclopaedia of Ghost Story Writers. On-line Available from http//www.jb.man.ac.uk/agg/ghosts/poeea. Accessed 24th September 2011Hallqvist, C. (2001) The Poe Decoder. On-line Available from http//www.poedecoder.com/. Accessed 24th September 2011Montagna, J.A. (2006) The Industrial Revolution. On-line Available from http//www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html. Accessed 11th May 2012Pridmore, J. (1998-2011) Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849). On-line Available from http//www.literaryhistory.com/19thC/Poe.htm. Accessed 24th September 2011