Creating the "Single Effect" of Horror
             "...in the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preestablished design." Edgar Allan Poe said this statement when explaining the meaning of the single effect of horror. The short story entitled, "The Fall of the House of Usher," reflects Poe's ideas on how to accomplish this. He revels his tremendous effort to do this by choosing each word carefully to effect the reader. Changes in either mood or setting can completely change around the story so making decisions on which words to use is significant. Poe uses these key certain literary elements, setting, plot, and mood, to create this "single effect" of horror.
             Poe opens the short story by putting this unpleasant picture inside the reader's head as he describes the atmosphere. The "white trunks of decayed trees," the "black and lurid tarn," and the "vacant, eyelike windows "(212) are examples of Poe's attempt to present the house as being desolated and empty which also causes a mood. The narrator explains the Usher mansion having "an atmosphere, which had no affinity with the air of heaven."(212). Poe continues to describe this dull and dreary day using descriptive words such as decayed, strange, peculiar, mystic, and Gothic to create that atmosphere. He sticks with this mood throughout the story keeping it consistent.
             Another technique Poe uses to create this "single effect" of horror by the mood he
             portrays. As showed, he creates a mood through the setting, but he also does this through the plot. One example of this is when the narrator is reacting to the appearance of the
            
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             house. "...the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit." (212) With the main character feeling uncomforta...