Good Strong Words

Written in my American Romanticism class with COL. Knepper during my 1st Class Year at VMI.

The use of the tortured Romantic genius archetype in “Alone” and “The Fall of the Usher” contribute to the expression of Gothic elements in both works. The extreme emotional turmoil creates a feeling of uncanny in the reader, making them feel uneasy and unsettled. This is due to the fact that the perception of the environment reflects the emotion in which they are in. In “Alone,” the imagery of the environment depends on whether or not the poet is in a positive or negative mood. The house in “The Fall of the House of Usher” then reflects the gloom and sorrow of Roderick, becoming even more intense when he is in that mood. This instability of environment perception makes the reader feel unsettled and suspicious of change moving forward. It also expresses the idea of an unreliable narrator. Due to their isolation, the poet and Roderick are unable to express any true perception of the larger society in which they are in. Then, their changing emotions and fall into madness changes the readers trust in the narrator to make rational decisions and observations of the environment and events around them. While Roderick was not the narrator, his words and actions nonetheless drove the story. Because of this, Edgar Allan Poe frequently used this character archetype to convey the American gothic genre. This contributed to the creation of this genre during the American Romantic era and continued the myth of the tortured Romantic genius in the broader scope of literature.