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This is the first paragraph of The Fall of the House of Usher where Poe uses nineteen adjectives and adverbs of all the words to create an atmosphere of oppression and gloom. The descriptions of the decaying and gloomy environment gradually bring the readers to the horrible effect arranged in advance. The use of negative words, on the one hand, creates a terrifying environment. On the other hand, the gloomy environment gives readers a sense of oppression and depression, and it attracts readers’ attention.
Furthermore, in terms of the environmental Gothicism, Poe, in the work, describes the ancient house of Usher from a variety of aspects. And then following the pace of the narrator, he describes many dark and intricate passages, the carvings of the ceilings, the somber tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies. when it comes to the room of the owner, his room in the old house is very large and lofty with long and narrow windows. There are a lot of dark draperies hanging on the walls. The furniture is profuse, comfortless, antique and tattered. A great many books and musical instruments are everywhere in the house. All these descriptions of environment don’t give any life to the scene but create an atmosphere of breathlessness and sorrow. Afterwards, at the seventh night after the sister died, it is so dark inside the room with stormy weather outside, at this time, the terrifying atmosphere is created step by step. The most exciting moment of the story appears; when a heavy wind opened the door, the skinning sister stood at the door with blood all her body. She cried and run into the embrace of his brother, consequently they died together. In the end of story, at the moment when the narrator escaped from the haunted house, the house of Usher collapsed into the lake. From the beginning to the end, the novel is full of the creepy environment, which leaves readers infinite imagination and mystery.
In order to produce a vivid and terrible effect, Poe uses sound, light and color to stimulate people’s sense of hearing, smell and version. The whole descriptions are based on the main four colors of white, black, gray and red. In the text, there appear “the white clothe the died Madeline worn”, “the gray walls”, “the gray grass”, “the black night”, “the black carpet hanging on the wall” and “the red full moon”. Such dark colors stand for gloom and melancholy, which give readers an effect of terror from the point of version. The color “red” symbolizes blood which vividly makes the effect of fear. What’s more, Poe also applies sounds into the work, such as the crying of the Madeline, the sound of coffin when Madeline got out of it, the loud sound of the stormy weather, the song of Roderick and so on. All of these sounds stimulate readers’ hearing sense.
Poe also uses a variety of art forms such as painting, poetry, music to add the horrible effect. In the work, it refers to a picture drawn by Roderick, which presents the interior of an immensely long and rectangular vault and tunnel without interruption or device. Actually, the picture symbolizes the ancient house of Usher. The poetry “The Haunted Palace” written by Roderick has a tight relation with the story. It seems like a mirror of the story. Through this poetry, it gives an abstract sense of terror. What’s more, music also plays a necessary part in creating the atmosphere of terror. In the story, the narrator refers to Roderick’s long improvised dirges forever ring in his ears. Therefore, the painting, poetry and the sorrow music in the text stimulate readers different sensory to evoke their emotional terror.
4.2.3 Psychological Gothicism—The Fears of Soul
In the work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe focuses on the descriptions of the inner world of the characters as well as the neurotically mental state so that it reaches an effect that readers can feel the fear of soul. Therefore, it is unanimously acknowledged that Poe has succeeded in turning the external terror inward, creating the so-called psychological Gothicism.