The Fall Of The House Of Usher

MINISTÉRIO DA EDUCAÇÃO

FUNDAÇÃO UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE MATO GROSSO

CAMPUS UNIVERSITÁRIO DE RONDONÓPOLIS - CUR

INSTITUTO DE CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS E SOCIAIS - ICHS

CURSO DE LETRAS – INGLÊS

DISCIPLINA: CONVERSAÇÃO E REDAÇÃO II

PROFESSOR: GEORGE SANTANA MORI

DISCENTE: IRANILZA ROSA SAMPAIO REIS

08/2014

The Fall of The House of Usher

The literary production of Edgar Allan Poe took place during a period that coincides with the expansion of Romanticism. The United States as well as Europe, gave to the world views this literary trend that eventually stir in intellectual circles and be the first consistent literary movement of the country. However, the American social context at the time was marked by growing industrialization and the mechanical progress, contrasting with some principles of romantic idealism, directly linked to the appreciation of nature as an aesthetic element and opposition to rationalism, presenting a gifted art of emotional intensity. On the other hand, the formation of national identity and the establishment of American democratic values entered in line with the ideal of individualism characteristic of the Romantic aesthetic and reached the highest representation with transcendentalism, thinking represented by the intellectuals of New England (especially by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau) who defended the idea that individual identities represent the universal. Cortázar 2006 says that:

Poe was distanced from society like few ever were; the eyes of contemporaries should look ghostly and distant, barely human, and it would be easy to show that it is no less remarkable that the reaction is essentially unreal world produces for them in their works (Cortázar, 2006, pp. 106-107).

This isolation exposes the inadequacy of the style of the templates Allan Poe posed by cultural context of North America. Although, sometimes, has been reduced to a clinical case, reflecting the troubled biography of the author, or related solely to horror literature.

Even having remained in their country, highlighted by other authors, the influence of the literary context, especially in Europe, is undeniable, since aspects such as melancholy, gloomy weather, individualism and attachment to the subjectivity texts are common to their as well as the typical productions of German Romanticism, French or English.

On the other hand, the differential between the romantic context and literature of Poe may be the nature of these same aspects that are not related to idealism or passions, but the darkest elements of the human experience.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a Tale by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. It is a disturbing narrative as all tales of the author. The story delves into the murky depths of the subconscious and tracks hidden terrors of the human soul. Never before (and few times after) a writer so completely captured the melancholy, the torment and passion embodied in a decaying mental state.

The entire narrative is built keeping in mind the fear and then the form chosen was a fantastic tale, in which the stranger will be the effect of provoking element. Terror will be greater, the greater the shock caused by the stranger. Taking the steps as a framework for the theoretical Poe, it appears your considerations in composition of his Tale.

The environment, the chosen scenario fits the tone of the narrative - a tone of sadness and melancholy. The environment has to be melancholy, cold; soon, the season in which the events take place just might be the fall or winter (spring and summer are out of the question). But it is in the autumn when the leaves fall, the whole landscape is bare, sad. This is the time. The weather is heavy, the clouds and the heavens that could inspire two lovers, here are dark, dark, oppressive. Then has a favorable scenario to arouse sadness in any individual.

Anyway, all the facts, names and events are meticulously designed to obtain the desired results, assumptions for the development of the narrative - it is worth recalling the effect of terror and fear caused by the stranger, through a tone of sadness and melancholy.

The tale is narrated in first person by a character whose name is not revealed. Recounts his days in the house of friend Roderick Usher, who suffers from a disease; this, knowing the very end, it calls for their friendship.

The Fall of the House of Usher announces, in a way, the title itself, what will be the outcome of the story, ie, the destruction of the house. Note the following passage:

During a full day of autumn, dark, gloomy, silent, when the clouds hung, low and oppressive (...) I finally found myself in front of the melancholy House of Usher. (Poe, 1981, p.7).

The season in which the story takes place - fall - can be understood as a metaphor of the fall - word exposed in the story's title - since the autumn period is the time when the leaves fall to the ground. This also indicates a change; however, in the context of history, this change saves a negative sense, because the Autumn marks the decline and decadence. And, as we know, the house of Usher will undergo several changes, until the decline and total drop.

It is worth noting that, from the beginning, the narrator seeks to put the reader on a cold and depressing atmosphere, marked by a certain mystery and a general malaise. By observing the house of Usher on the outside, the narrator describes what he feels:

It was a feeling of something cold, a rebate, a sinking heart, an irremediable barrenness of thought that no stimulation of the imagination could raise the sublime. (Poe, 1981, p.7).

We can see that the narrator puts it early, lying in front of the House of Usher, it was overrun with an "unbearable sadness" caused by "natural harsher images of desolation and terrible." Soon, this feeling is enhanced: the consciousness of superstition (so says Poe) potentiated that feeling, the feeling of terror. Roderick Usher, the host of the narrator, also reveals her terror.

It can be stated that the sensations experienced by the narrator are preparatory to something that will happen later. The reader will be gradually exposed to the prevailing climate and atmosphere of the tale. Are sensations that awaken the senses visiting friend of Roderick Usher to something strange and unexplainable in, as if he were already predicting that something unusual would happen. It is worth noting the following passage from the story:

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