Peripheral Narration and Dark Mystery; Using the Narrator to Deepen the Tale in The Fall of the House of Usher Maddie Labon College

Edgar Allan Poe was a great America gothic style writer of the eighteen hundreds. There is hardly a mention of early American literature that does not commend his work. Of his literature, The Fall of the House of Usher gives a certain air of chilling tones and intense narration. Walter Evans breaks down this popular story and shares Poe’s motivation and theory behind the dark tale. In this he states major themes and parts of the story and compares the fundamental principles to the elements of Poe’s theory and statements. He compares the work of Poe to the work of Hawthorne and how the two share similarities in their writing but are also very unique. He gives good insight on the writings of Poe and how he is able to create dark and detailed imagery within the pages and bring it to life. He skims over some events that could be considered more major to make more room for the caring detail he places in the text describing the surroundings.

Throughout the pages of The Fall of the House of Usher Poe almost gets lost in his descriptive writing. The events that occur take a backseat while the writing goes into extreme detail over a description of a room or a location. Evans states that, “the incidents Poe does employ seem...