The Fall Of The House Of Usher Setting Analysis

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Setting is a huge part of how a story comes across to a reader. This is especially true in antique Gothic literature, such as work from Edgar Allan Poe. He used dark and dreary settings to set the mood of his pieces, such as in The Fall of the House of Usher. Setting, obviously, is still used in modern literature such as in the piece Where Is Here? by Joyce Carol Oates. Although The Fall of the House of Usher and Where Is Here? rely on setting to a point, Oates doesn't use it nearly as heavily as Poe did in his literature. First of all, the setting of Oates piece doesn't draw as much mood as Poe’s descriptions do. “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 vacant eyelike windows-upon a few rank sedges-and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees-with an utter depression of soul…” (Usher, p. 294) From this excerpt, Poe starts to build an intense feeling a dreariness, depression, and sorrow which he even admits to when he describes how the setting makes him …show more content…
“For years they had lived without incident in their house in a quiet residential neighborhood…” (Where, p. 325) This initial line of Oates’ story suggests how idealistic the setting is, which hardly catches the reader’s attention as an strong point in the story. In comparison, Poe’s story immediately draws attention to the apparent dark and dreary setting, followed by the descriptions of the mansion which is unlike any other mansion, and especially unlike any normal house which makes it seem like an important piece of information. In conclusion of this point, Oates gives the necessary components of setting to the reader and moves on while Poe focuses solely on his elaborate description of setting for a large part of his
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