History of American ...

      The Fall of the House of Usher came forth during the Romantic Movement which peaked between 1800-1850. It reflected a time wherein human sensibility and emotion dramatically seeped into the arts, against the intellect and reason promoted during the prior Enlightenment period. Within this time frame, the subgenre of Dark Romanticism in literature developed predominantly in New England from 1836 to 1840, somewhat as a shadow amidst the transcendental ideals that simultaneously evolved. Dark Romantics sought to move beyond the polished surface of earlier literature, instead revealing the darker aspects of the human experience. They challenged idealized views of humanity by delving into human experiences to sin, weakness, and self-destruction (Dax-Kerr).

     In the Dark Romantic narratives of the early to mid-19th centuries, stereotypical features of the dramatis personae included the growing aspects of torturous feeling. At some point, characters are to be cemented in fear derived from their surroundings, particularly linked with some form of guilt or sin that would pervade their psyche and mental well-being. Complying with this form of characterization would be Poe’s secondary character that follows the trajectory of psychological decline through the concealment of his secret that is eventually uncovered–that being the premature burial of his sister.

     In typical Dark Romantic plots, authors often share a common commitment to slowly revealing a central mystery, an elusive secret that both the protagonist and the reader struggle to grasp. Unlike the classical notion of anagnorisis, where characters experience a moment of clear recognition or insight, those in Dark Romantic works often descend into delusion or despair (Dax-Kerr).

      The forest setting plays a crucial role in the Gothic atmosphere of Dark Romantic literature, where the mysterious nature of the woods symbolizes the uneasy separation between humanity and the natural world. This contrast between the safe, familiar ‘interior’ and the ominous, threatening ‘exterior’ serves to highlight a character’s alienation from the outside world. While Poe does not depict a dense forest in his story, he evokes a similar sense of decay by describing the surroundings of the house as marked by “a few white trunks of decayed trees,” and places emphasis on the haunting presence of “the ghastly tree-stems.” ("Gothic Elements")

           In addition, the literary device of pathetic fallacy is predominant in the Dark Romantic genre to evoke how external conditions such as weather mirror the character's psychological states. Notably, Edgar Allan Poe immediately employs this device in the first sentence, stating “during the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day […] when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone” (Poe 1). The disheartening descriptions of the weather introduce the obscure path of the protagonist’s fate when entering the house, generating a heavy air of unease.

     Another theme that ties in with Dark Romanticism is death and mortality. During the broader Romantic period, many writers and artists were increasingly in-touch with their emotions, and in their works often hinted the apprehension of one’s own fated demise; death as a puncturing presence with everyday life. Poe invites morbidity in this narrative, envisaging death as a form of fear and sublime terror (Dax-Kerr).

       Moreover, the literary motif of ‘The Wandering Man’ is also an important feature in Dark Romanticism. It is usually a character the readers empathize with, one who usually finds themselves in a gothic setting such as the woods or an isolated building, roaming around the depths of the unknown. The aim in these narratives is to describe the horror a character goes through once left alone in such surroundings, far from home and comfort, paralleling how the readers unravel the petrifying revelations of the narrative’s plot through reading.

      Themes of lucidity and madness are also essential in the Dark Romantic genre. In the second half of the narrative, the unnamed protagonist aims to put his friend’s mind at rest by reciting old romances in a bid to navigate him away from the eerie preoccupations of the household. However, upon reading, the blur between reality and fiction intensifies, generating a harrowing sense of disorientation and mental perplexity (Dax-Kerr).

      The Fall of the House of Usher falls under the Gothic literature with its use of hunted houses, weird illnesses and dark and depressing landscape as it is shown in this table: