While assuring the reader of the vastness of the story world, he is seemingly transported into a new world where customs similar to what he knows are common and the people are reminders of different people in his own society. This is what the author believes to be the essence of writing The Fall of the House of Usher. While giving the reader a descriptive account of the world where the character revelled in, at the same time including pieces of literature that relate with the readers own sense of art, he is enveloping the reader in a fancy world whose minute details can be imagined for a good reason.
The imagination is a good faculty, and once it is triggered there are endless new ideas that spring from its existence. For instance, the use of metaphors, symbolism and allegory in the short story makes for a good account of a world that is colourful and alive with drama. The actions that are happening within the story are retold in a manner that the reader can imagine them in his own sense of morally right conjugations. One of the reasons why the author used metaphors is to create a connection with the reader using the limited words that he knows and the experiences he has encountered personally.
There are some terms, feelings and appearances that cannot be understood unless they are described in a way that is accessible to the faculty of the reader. Thus, the use of metaphors is commendable. For instance, when Poe wrote with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium, he is simply intensifying how the feeling of depression keeps the soul non-cognitive and dead in a level that cannot be compared to any normal sensation. Describing it in the way the opium affects the thinking of a sane person makes it more believable for those that are opium dependent the explanation is crucially significant, while the failure to relate by those that are not drug dependent makes for the feeling of unearthly sensation more accessible.
The use of symbolisms gives the words another layer of meaning that is peeled away by those that are critical and observant. There are people that always believe that literature is a piece of puzzle that needs solving, and solving can only be done by revealing what is meant by the author apart from the obvious sense of the words in the story. Different authors use symbolisms in order to escape the severity of moral issues and to abstain from the issues placed by the society. Some of these authors have been known to rebel against a certain aspect of the government that they are living in however there are some that are simply using symbolisms to use simple words and create a deeper meaning behind them.
In the statement the hideous dropping off of the veil the veil is symbolised to contain a secret that is said to be uncovered. While the expectations of the character may not be met, the expectation of the audience to have a spin in the story is directed towards a new junction. Majority of the part of the story is in fact told in a way that certain groups of words have a different meaning combined than when they are taken separately. The vacant eye-like windows have a double meaning too.
While the more common meaning would be that it would be something abandoned and unsolicited, always present but never seen, the eye-like windows can be a representation of a portal that displays only a portion of the real truth that is hiding beneath it. Therefore the use of that statement can have two contrasting meanings, and the interpretation will depend solely on the kind of thinking that the person reading it has. The entire story, depending on the interpretation of the reader, can have a whole new meaning from what it was actually meant to convey. Actually, it is a characteristic of Poe to write about what he feels whenever he feels it, and it will not be strange for some of the symbolisms he used to come out naturally without intending to impart another set of meanings to it.
However, for this specific piece of story, the importance of symbolisms and the majority of their instances can only be seen to have been used on purpose. Using symbolisms, even the simplest objects and simplest words can be used to detail important pieces of the story. Likewise is the effect of using allegory. Metaphors and symbolisms can be used to have a detailed description of the story in a level that includes the creative thinking to be stressed into wider proportions. The use of allegory is alike and different in that it comes up with a favourable version of a story accessorized with embellishments that make for a more colourful setting.
A significant amount of allegory is used in the story. An example is the following I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. The mentioned sentence could have been said in shorter and simpler words, but the effect it entices in the reader cannot be imitated. Only with the use of descriptive language that can sometimes be surreal can the expression of extreme emotions be interpreted.
Poe used allegory so that the readers can imagine a world wherein all the wonders and glory are given the proper light they deserve. There is no better way of describing than by going through the littlest details and expressing them in a manner that overwhelms and yet tantalizes the readers. At the same time, it oppresses and excites, depending on what is being described. For instance, happiness can be stated in a synonymous word, but describing it in an array of words that likens it to the most sought after feeling in the world makes it more palpable.
Overall, if The Fall of the House of Usher is to be taken as proof, it can be said that Edgar Allan Poe succeeded in using metaphors, symbolism and allegory in making the reader hold on to the happenings of the story until the very end and when that day comes, it is welcomed with relief and unexpected surprise. Instead of sticking to the kind of story that gives an adequate amount of description when needed and remains stagnant when it comes to the inner workings of the world wherein the story is brought to life, Poe decided to use his faculty of writing to come up with colourful ideas that the readers will embrace and remember.
By using the simple words that a reader can understand and relating it with deep attachments and meanings, Poe has succeeded in creating a world that is alive in all its glory, up to the very details of the lifestyle that people are accustomed to in it. Using this kind of writing, the readers imagination is enticed to add additional embellishments to the already colourful world of fiction. The reader is welcome to relate and analyze in a way that is either similar or different to the world he is used to. It is also the readers prerogative to remodel the story and interpret it in a way that is acceptable in the society that he is in. At the presence of indirect descriptions the reader is given the power to interpret in his own way so that when it comes to understanding the story, he is using his own perception to do so.
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