character's state of mind or feeling. In this case, the "clouds [which] hung oppressively low in the heavens" exactly mirror the narrator's oppressed mindset as he comes close to the house across a barren landscape.

Alliteration and consonance are frequently used literary devices that create a sense of rhythm through the repetition of words beginning with the same consonants or using the same consonants within words. An example would be the following, with repeated "l" sounds:

a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre

Poe also puns on "house of Usher," using it to mean both the house itself as a physical structure and the family lineage of the Ushers.

Literacy devices such as personification hover on the edge of becoming literalized in the story: the house does seem to have a supernatural "life" that is tied to the lives of the Ushers—this also adds resonance to the pun on the "House of Usher."

Poe is pretty much the master of creating alliteration that chills to the bone. Here are some examples of his skill:

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year (emphasis added)

This is the opening sentence, so the tone is set immediately through this hard and repetitive d sound.

The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could we have issued, for the vast house and itsshadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once barely-discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zig-zag direction, to the base. (emphasis added)

The repetitive s sound in this section of the storm is reminiscent of the wind whipping around the narrator and the house and of the fizzure which rips open at this point.

There are also examples of similes:

There was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters . . .

No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver, became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation.

Poe employs personification as a means of making the house seem like a character itself:

I endeavoured to believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room—of the dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed. . . .

I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows . . .

In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old wood-work which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. . . .

As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell—the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, ponderous and ebony jaws.

The descriptive imagery of the house, of Madeline, and of Roderick further add to the eerie setting and the tone which propel the plot. From beginning to end, Poe uses a variety of literary techniques to captivate the reader in this tale of suspense.

Some figures of speech include:

Allegories- The moss growing outside of a decaying estate which was formerly grandiose and sumptuous; the dead sister; the inevitability of Usher's appareance, and the fall from glory of the House of Usher are all allegories to fate and its control over our lives: How the influences that we cannot control at times end up taking up our inner self, and then spits us out.

Anaphora- The repetition of words or phrases within one same paragraph in order to balance out the narration and enhance the storytelling process:

I looked upon the scene before me–upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain–upon the bleak walls–upon the vacant eye-like windows–upon a few rank sedges–and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees

Many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it

Alliteration: Poe describes many things using the same first letter such as the words:

feeble and futile

cadaverous corpses

icing, a sinkin, a sickening of the heart

Rythm: As with everything Poe writes, he always wants to give balance through rhyme:

Oppresicely, melancholy, destructively, agonizingly, etc.

One literary device Poe uses effectively in "The Fall of the House of Usher" is the first person point of view. Because the unnamed narrator has never been to visit the House of Usher before, we see it through his fresh eyes. The narrator is completely unused to his surroundings, so he conveys their grimness with vivid clarity and records his emotional response:

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.

As the above passage indicates, Poe also uses the literary device of doppelgänger, or twinning/doubling. The doppelgänger is a standard element of the Gothic genre. The house is mirrored in the tarn, doubling the narrator's sense of its horror, just as Roderick is doubled in his twin sister who is literally buried alive. Unexpectedly seeing oneself in a mirror can produce an eerie, unsettling jolt—as can doubling in a story like this.

Poe uses a great deal of visual imagery in this story (setting is all-important), and he also uses sound imagery to great effect. Not only is the house dark and gloomy, with "ebon black" floors and "dark" draperies, but Roderick plays with "wild improvisations . . . his speaking guitar."

Using first-person narration, doubling, and much eerie imagery, Poe is able to create an exceptionally oppressive atmosphere in which to tell his story of a twin sister buried alive in a crypt in the basement of the house.

Clearly you have a lot to choose from, as Poe is a master storyteller who uses literary devices well. I am going to approach this question by referring to how Poe uses setting in this chilling story. Whether it is the catacombs in "The Cask of Amontillado" that reflect Montresor's disturbed and twisted character of the House of Usher, whose dilapidation reflects the own mental instability of its owner, Roderick Usher, Poe always uses setting to great effect in his gothic, spine-chilling tales of horror. Consider what we are told about the House of Usher:

Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. the discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air.

Note the overall emphasis on rottenness and decay. The setting of course is a symbol that could be said to represent the madness and mental disturbance at the heart of the owner of the house. At first glance it appears to be of sound quality, but closer examination reveals issues that could indicate serious structural problems. Remember, the narrator has journeyed here, not out of choice, but because Roderick Usher, his childhood friend, has written to him to come and be with him as he is suffering from a "nervous agitation" and a "mental disorder". How mentally disturbed he is will only be revealed at the end of the story...

Therefore the description of the House of Usher is used as a symbol of the madness and dilapidated state of its owner, and thus Poe effectively foreshadows what is to come.

Figures of speech are defined as expressions that are used figuratively, that is, the words mean something other than what they mean when used literally. For example, a figure of speech is, "It's raining cats and dogs." Taken literally, this sentence would mean that when you look out your window, you will see cats and dogs falling from the sky onto your lawn and that your umbrella won't be quite adequate for the storm.... Taken figuratively, non-literally, this sentence means that the storm is a fierce one and the rain is coming down in great quantities. In this case, when you look out your window, you will a lot of rain falling from dark clouds and your umbrella may still be inadequate for the storm....

Figures of speech are formally called "tropes." As stated by Kenneth Burke in Grammar of Motives (Dr. Robert J. Belton, Creative & Critical Studies, University of British Columbia), there are four classic tropes. These are irony, metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche. Many other tropes (figures of speech) have been added to the classic four. Some are simile, personification, apostrophe, hyperbole, meiosis, puns, onomatopoeia, etc.

In "The Fall of the House of Usher," written in a first person narrator point of view, three examples of tropes--or figures of speech--that Poe uses are metaphor, as in "shades of the evening;" personification, as in "melancholy House of Usher" and "his speaking guitar;" meiosis, also called understatement, as in "I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves...."

Metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things, for example as in "The cotton candy was heaven." Personification is giving human qualities to inanimate objects, for example as in, "The dark forest laughed at us." Meiosis is understatement, or making something sound less important or significant than it really is, for example as in "Seeing the approaching killer tornado made me uncomfortable."

Poe certainly employs mood (the emotional response a writer attempts to elicit from a reader) right away in this short story. The speaker describes the “insufferable gloom [that] pervade[s] [his] spirit” upon arriving at Roderick Usher’s house. There is no beautiful or poetic sense that accompanies this gloom which might make it more bearable. It feels to him like the “hideous dropping off of the veil” a person who has been high on opium feels when they begin to enter withdrawal from the drug. The mood, then, is bleak, ominous, and full of dread, and it foreshadows a gloom-filled ending.

The house, itself, is a symbol for the Usher family. It is, at times, even personified, as though it is a character itself, with “vacant eye-like windows.” It is incredibly “decay[ed],” just like the bodies and minds of Roderick and Madeline; it is discolored and covered with fungi. Further, there’s a fissure up the middle of the home which eventually completely splits the house into two, “the mighty walls rushing asunder” and the house crumbles and falls into the tarn. It is utterly destroyed, just as the Usher family has been totally destroyed by its own corruption and incest.