Comparing The Fall Of The House Of Usher And House Taken Over
How Readers are Frightened by Poe and Cortázar “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe and “House Taken Over” by Julio Cortázar are both gothic novels that accomplish their goal (to scare the reader) in similar ways. Since their goals are similar, naturally, the two share elements of gothic literature, but they aren’t one and the same. “House Taken Over” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” are two very different stories, though they leave the reader with similar feelings after the story ends. Both of these stories use the tactic of imagination to create fear within their readers. Instead of revealing the so-called monster right away, or at all, Poe and Cortázar tell just enough about it to make readers imagine what could be
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Similarly, Irene and the unnamed narrator of “House Taken Over” are the last in their family, and they know that once they die, their home will be sold and nothing will be left. The siblings have everything to lose at any given moment, and by the end of the story, both do lose everything. These families meet a similar fate at the end of the story. In the Usher siblings’ case, the cause is more supernatural, while a series of unfortunate events caused the Irene and her brother to be all alone. Usher knew very well that, once his sick sister passed away, she “would leave him (him, the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers” (Poe). This is a huge burden for Usher to bear, which has certainly contributed to his transformation into the madman he is at the end of the story. On the other hand, the siblings in “House Taken Over” shared this burden together. They knew “the unvoiced concept that the quiet, simple marriage of sister and brother was the indispensable end to a line established in this house by [their] grandparents. [They] would die here someday” (Cortázar), leaving the house to be inherited by distant relatives who don’t care about the home’s history. These character traits help to shape how readers view Usher, Madeline, Irene, and the unnamed narrator of Cortázar’s
Similarly, Irene and the unnamed narrator of “House Taken Over” are the last in their family, and they know that once they die, their home will be sold and nothing will be left. The siblings have everything to lose at any given moment, and by the end of the story, both do lose everything. These families meet a similar fate at the end of the story. In the Usher siblings’ case, the cause is more supernatural, while a series of unfortunate events caused the Irene and her brother to be all alone. Usher knew very well that, once his sick sister passed away, she “would leave him (him, the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers” (Poe). This is a huge burden for Usher to bear, which has certainly contributed to his transformation into the madman he is at the end of the story. On the other hand, the siblings in “House Taken Over” shared this burden together. They knew “the unvoiced concept that the quiet, simple marriage of sister and brother was the indispensable end to a line established in this house by [their] grandparents. [They] would die here someday” (Cortázar), leaving the house to be inherited by distant relatives who don’t care about the home’s history. These character traits help to shape how readers view Usher, Madeline, Irene, and the unnamed narrator of Cortázar’s