Contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Edgar Allan Poe-1

1.2 “The Fall of the House of Usher”-1

1.3 Literature Review-2

1.4 Thesis Structure-3

Chapter Two Gothic Literature-4

2.1 Origin and Development of Gothic Literature-4

2.1.1 The Origin and Development of Gothic-4

2.1.2 Gothic Literature-4

2.2 Features of Gothic Literature-5

2.3 Poe’s Inheritance and Innovation to Gothic Literature-5

Chapter Three Gothic Elements in “The Fall of the House of Usher”-8

3.1 Horrible Atmosphere-8

3.1.1 Atmosphere—the Outer Horror-8

3.1.2 Fear—the Inner Horror-9

3.2 Ghost Image-10

3.2.1 The Visible Ghost-10

3.2.2 The Invisible Ghost-11

3.3 Death Theme-11

3.3.1 Before Death-12

3.3.2 Final Death-13

Chapter Four Conclusion-14

References-15

Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, novelist and literature critic, the founder of the modern detective novels, and a pioneer of horror and science fiction novels. He called for “art for art’s sake” and advocated aestheticism and mysticism. Poe published lots of popular and fantastic gothic poems, as well as many gothic novels which are called “black romanticism”. By applying the gothic elements in his novels, Poe brought the theme of black romanticism into full play. His works feature bizarre style, horrible atmosphere, beautiful and delicate words and rich content, which all show the beauty of horror. 

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of Poe’s horrible stories. This story tells of a brother, Roderick Usher, who buried his sister Madeline alive. However, at a night with heavy rain and wind, the sister crawled out tomb and finally died with her brother together, and the house collapsed at the same time. Poe presented the death theme by describing the details of the terrifying environment around the house, and by creating ghost images to foil the horror. Over the years, many scholars have obtained many achievements by focusing on the death art, characterization and analysis of personality in the story. Some of them did research on the theme of horrible atmosphere, death and rebirth, but these studies are relatively scattered. On the basis of previous research, this thesis will focus on the Gothic elements in this story and explore the particular charm of Gothic art by analyzing it from the angles of horror, ghost and death. It will also explore the deep reasons for Poe’s preference for Gothic style and his influence later works.

Keywords: Edgar Allan Poe  “The Fall of the House of Usher”  Gothic elements  horror  ghost  death