The Use of Language in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe Essay Example

A man with a severe and strange mental illness possesses an intense fear of his sister’s death. After he mistakenly entombs her, the man named Usher realizes that she was alive all along. How is this story made so dramatic and frightening? Poe’s use of language impacts the development of tone, character, and theme in “The Fall of the House of Usher” by using connotation and denotation.

The use of language in this story affects the development of tone by using the precise words with connotation and denotation to convey a dark and ominous tone. When the narrator looks out the window to see the violent storm in the middle of the night, it says, “It was indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty… the exceeding density of the clouds… did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they flew” (Poe 27). Describing the storm, Poe uses phrases with both negative and positive connotations to create a conflicting tone exuding beauty in the midst of darkness. For example, wildly singular in its terror and its beauty uses terror, which has a connotation of fear and darkness, but also beauty, which has a connotation of wonder and positivity. Since this story has developed with a depressing and frightening tone since the beginning, this storm generates a profound and fleeting moment of conflicting emotions to further develop the tone. In addition, after Usher and Madeline die suddenly and the narrator desperately escapes the crumbling house, it says, “My brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder - there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters - and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments” (Poe 30). The denotation of words like asunder, tumultuous, and fragments all indicate destruction. As the final paragraph, these words conclude both the story and the tone development by conveying a sense of finality and desolation after a dark and fearful build-up.

To develop the characters in “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe uses connotation to frighten the reader, and denotation to help the reader understand. When the narrator sees Usher come in the room, it says, “His countenance, was, as usual, cadaverously wan - but, moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes - an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor. His air appalled me” (Poe 26). After the development of Usher’s illness and sanity throughout the story, the passage here states that he can barely contain himself. The denotation of cadaverously wan describes that his body resembles a corpse, stressing the severity of Usher’s suffering and the weakness that it causes. The passage also develops the denotation of mad hilarity in his eyes, implying that part of Usher is insanely cheerful during his suffering, something that is off-putting and unnatural. Additionally, these phrases create frightening imagery of Usher for the reader, showing his corpse-like state and insanity. When the characters realize Madeline has broken out of her tomb and is standing outside the door, it states, “Then, with a low moaning cry, [Madeline] fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated” (Poe 30). The phrase a victim to the terrors he had anticipated does not describe Usher’s death, but the circumstances of it to his character. For example, the connotations of victim and violent invoke feelings of pain and suffering to the reader. The denotation of terrors he had anticipated also conveys that Usher’s death coincides with the completion of his fear: perishing from terror.

Poe impacts the development of the theme in his story by using language with dark and confined connotation and denotation. After Usher enters the room where the narrator cannot sleep because of his intense fear, it states, “His countenance was, as usual, cadaverously wan - but moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes - an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor. His air appalled me - but anything was preferable to the solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief” (Poe 26). Not only does this passage reveal Usher’s frightening and disturbing character state, but it emphasizes the theme of this story that the human mind is extremely fragile. Usher seems on the verge of complete madness here, but the narrator starts to become affected too, just from Usher’s presence. The denotation of the phrases cadaverously wan and mad hilarity in his eyes state precisely how dreadful Usher’s state of mind has become. The connotation of restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor further develops the theme by connecting the fragility of the mind to the feeling of horror. Usher holds down this insanity inside him, which in turn frightens the reader because he could lose control at any moment. Similarly, when the narrator tries to calm Usher down after witnessing the severity of the storm outside, it says, “‘You must not - you shall not behold this!’ said I, shudderingly, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat… ‘these appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena not uncommon… and so we will pass away this terrible night together” (Poe 27). Just the presence of a storm raging is enough to provoke Usher and his theory that everything in the house is living, and the narrator has to explain to him that this is not the case. However, the denotation of we will pass away this terrible night together demonstrates that the narrator, too, feels frightened and affected by Usher’s state by using terrible, which shows the narrator’s emotions, and together, which shows that the narrator wants Usher as company, even if he is far from a stable mind. This denotation that describes both characters being so substantially affected by a storm causes the theme of the extreme fragility of the mind to be much more apparent in the story.

In conclusion, “The Fall of the House of Usher” develops tone, character, and theme by the use of connotation and denotation in Poe’s language. The tone develops through the connotation of words that convey darkness and fear. The character of Usher and his worsening illness progress through denotation, describing both his health and his foreboding fear of terror. The theme of the fragility of the mind expands through connotation of both the narrator’s and Usher’s paranoia and anxiety. As you can see, connotation and denotation in Poe’s use of language in “The Fall of the House of Usher” has an exceptional impact on the development of these different ideas.