Bizarre Settings Effective for Horror Effects - Essay Example

Bizarre Settings Effective for Horror Effects Death can be portrayed through the settings. Two of the most famous stories of Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher are stories that revolve around the theme of death. Catacombs, haunted house, dark nights, human bones, and other descriptive phrases are some of the bizarre settings that are used in these stories. The use of bizarre settings are powerful tools to achieve the horror effect of in the stories The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of Usher. Setting is one of the elements of short stories that greatly contribute to its total output. Basically it pertains to the time and location where the stories occurred. It denotes the geographical location, historical period, mood or atmosphere, weather and social conditions (Short). Edgar Allan Poe is recognized as a major progenitor of the many modern literary art works having inimitable, horror, complex, self conscious forms that dominantly influenced the twentieth century manner of writing. He is the author of many horror stories that truly stands out until this day. He magnificently collide the elements of his short stories to give a tremendous horrific impact to the readers. Poe creatively manipulates his stories around his settings. He sets the mood of the stories in such a way that the settings alone are hollered with gloom. He devises his settings in the most bizarre ways. In his stories, The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall Usher share common settings as they both are concocted to explore Poe’s thematic plot of death, murder, revenge, insanity and darkness. Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado is a good exemplary for horrific suspense thriller scenes considered as one of the best short stories throughout history. It is set somewhere in Italy and happened in the middle of gaiety. The story evolves between two wine virtuosos, Montressor and Fortunato. Their pride in their expertise in wines had caused fractions between them such that Montressor had to act upon his pain by avenging against Fortunato. There is no specification of the deed that Fortunato has done towards Montessori aside from the subtle allegations about insults hurled upon him which, being rich and famous, may have scarred his pride deeply. Thus the incorrigible punishment such as death should suffice. The story started in the carnival as Montressor draws the attention of Fortunato to come with him with a promise of the most delicious wine. He leads Fortunato to his mansion’s underground passing through a dark and foul smelling alley. Their descent into the lower part of the earth is leading to the house’s catacombs where the ancestor’s of Montressor laid in peace. Montressor maneuvered Fortunato into the edge entrapping him into one hallow space and entombed him alive (“Cask”). The atmospheric ambiance of the calculated atrocious act of revenge of Montessori to entomb his enemy is excruciatingly terrifying. The settings by which the event took place is loftily described by Poe. The words he chooses such as “low arches”, “deep crypt”, “interior recess”, “catacomb”, “jingling of the bells to announce a death”, and “lined with human remains” are effective phrases that can make the hairs of the readers stand up. His description as they descended underground, “At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs in Paris” (“Cask”) allows readers to envision the creepy, and dark place. The smell of death in between his lines are overwhelming that makes readers get to their toes terrifyingly waiting for the devil to snatch the last breath of the characters. Edgar Allan Poe’s magic in stitching horror through his setting is also evident in his other short story “The Fall of Usher”. This story is all about the Usher family and their house. The narrator is a friend of the owner of the house-Roderick Usher. The narrator went to the house of Usher to succumb to his friend’s request. The narrator is trying to lighten the spirit of Roderick because he is suffering from a psychological depression and unstable mind state. Roderick has a twin sister, Madeline that suffers from extra-ordinary sickness. Madeline soon died and they decided to bury her in the catacombs found underground the mansion. Roderick’s condition had worsened. To subdue his mental state, he reads to Roderick a horror story ‘Mad Trist”. As the narrator reads the story, they heard noises similar to the haunted story being read. The noises were caused by Madeline coming out of her tomb. She trampled the walls that trapped her in her tomb and embraced his brother. Roderick died of fear. The narrator ran out of the house terrified. The house of Usher crumbled into pieces (“Fall”). The story is set in a haunted house where the Usher clan is cursed with the spirit of barrenness and generational solitude. The setting of the house as described, “upon the bleak walls”, “vacant like windows”, “few rank sedges”, and “mansion of gloom” exudes the general eerie aura of the house. He relates the house with feelings of “iciness”, “sinking”, “sickening of heart”, “torture”, “sublime” and “sorrowful”. The physical structure of the house is linked with its feeling of strangeness and uneasiness. The narrator feels that something evil is treasured in the house. “The Fall of Usher” is a good horror story where the house alone is described as horrible. This narrative short story showcases an integration of physical and psychological elements to create the horror effect. The description of the house alone is portrayed in such a way that is depicted as haunted by the many generations of the ghost. Every angle of the house and the spaces reflects the psychological instability, unconscious mental exhaustion and death defying thoughts of the characters and the overall plot. The total effect of the short stories of Poe creates an eerie feeling to whoever perceives. The horrific appeal is so strong that anyone can get captivated with the play of words between the characters. His unmatched personification of the details of the mere physical structure where the story evolves is bellowing with haunted cries that the readers can hear with his words. His common themes such as murder, vengeance, underground catacombs, burying alive, and death cast a powerful response from his readers. Poe is endowed with magical talent in writing stories compelling murderous act quite so invincibly. Poe revives reality through the horror filled spaces in his stories. He uses symbolism in many of the things seen around his setting to connect with the plot and foreshadow the ending. Death, being the theme of his stories, is foreshadowed subtly in little signals. He established the general mood of the reader with his settings described as dreary, gloomy, dark, humid and other related descriptions to fulfill the horror effect. The foreshadowing of death is also seen in the places where the story happens. The catacombs, vaults of dead bodies, a castle with no way out except death, symbolically foreshadow the inevitable doom that is about to happen in the characters. His written works are cooked with phantasmagoric imagery, elusive foreshadowing, double-edged symbolism and skewed contextual implications. There is a fearless expression in Poe’s stories to reveal his most morbid details. His settings are truly bizarre described as dark, morbid and truly horrifying. He cooks his words playfully and creatively to let the taste of horror be experienced by his readers. Poe from creates his masterpieces that are considered now as literary treasures of all time. Due to his boldness in his imagery and tales, he was able to influence other minds to slowly unfold another era for style of writing- the modern way. His stories became a model to many stories that are surfacing one by one in the twentieth century. Art for art sake has been, in all its context became a reality because of him. Poe is a legend. That cannot be contested. He has made a very big impact to modern day artists and modern writers. His writings are in all aspects, art in its perfect and unique form. Works Cited “The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe”. N.d. Virginia.edu. Web. 17 November 2013 “The Fall of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe”. N.d. Virginia.edu. Web. 17 November 2013 Read More