Fantasy and Science Fiction

Poe uses atmosphere, rather than gore, to create a visceral sense of horror. He sets this atmosphere as "The Fall of the House of Usher" opens by using first person to produce immediacy with the reader. Then he uses color and sound to set up an aura of horror in the protagonist's imagination. Although the setting of "Usher" reflected the atmosphere of horror, the actual drama takes place inside the imagination of Poe's characters (Baym in Bloom, 1999). As Poe's nameless protagonist contemplates the house that he is to visit, he has a precognition of horror. It is only a friend's house that the protagonist looks upon, yet as he continues to look his dread increases.

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rs, Lovecraft demonstrates a sapping of vitality from Nahum, the farmer, and his family, using the strange color as an indicator. At first the family appears healthy and everything seems normal, yet they continue to lose energy and life. The orchard has fruit that appears abundant and healthy, but is infested with a sick bitterness. The next spring the foliage climaxes in "strange colours that could not be put into any words. Their shapes were monstrous" (Lovecraft in Roberts, 2000, p. 107) and "hectic and prismatic variants of some diseased underlying primary tone without a place among the known tints of earth" (Lovecraft in Roberts, 2000, p. 108). Over time, the vitality of the area deteriorates. Neighbors began to avoid the area. At night, the farm has a "distinct luminosity" that seems to have a life of its own as (Lovecraft in Roberts, 2000, p. 108). The Gardner's have grown accustomed to these "strange days" and don't notice when the water begins to go bad, or as the landscape begins to gray and go brittle, "even the flowers whose hues had been so strange were greying now . . . fruit was coming out grey and dwarfed and tasteless" (Lovecraft in Roberts, 2000, p. 109). It is not until Mrs. Gardner, and later her son, g
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Approximate Word count = 2751
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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