superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” Poe, 1990: 198.
Among the domestic pets, there is a special pet, a cat. The narrator is very fond to the cat but at the end the cat fall in terrible dead.
2. 3. Setting and atmosphere
Setting is the environment of its events. In Poe’s stories the setting of place occurs indoors. The setting of time often happens at night. This setting of
time indicates the general atmosphere of mystery. In The Fall of the House of Usher
, Poe creates the house from beginning of the tale has the characteristic of mystery. Poe describes the house are oppressive, soundless and melancholy. The
story begins on one “ ... dull, dark, and soundless day in autumn of the year ...” Poe, 1990: 9. It is aware a sense of death and decay. In the first paragraph Poe
uses “vacant eye-like windows” this word has the meaning of mystery. The eye has the same meaning with Roderick’s eyes. The eyes are tortured by even-a faint
light. Through the narrator Poe describes the atmosphere of the house, like the words “... – an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which
had reeked up from the decayed tress, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn- pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden hued”
Poe, 1990: 13. What narrator feels is like breathing in an atmosphere of sorrow. It is nowhere near being beautiful, holy, or clean. As stated by Allen Tate in his
essays “ very rarely he gives us a real perception because he is not interested in anything that is alive, everything in Poe is dead; the house, the room, the
furniture, to say nothing of nature and human beings” Regan, 1967: 49. From the literary point of view he combined the primitive and decadent. Primitive,
because he had neither history nor historical sense; decadent, because he was the conscious artist of an intensive which lacked moral perspective.
The architecture of the house gothic archway, building in a zigzag direction, the large and lofty room also with the furniture is profuse, comfortless,
antique and tattered grows the narrator’s mind a strange and ridiculous building. This excites the narrator reader’s curiosity that there is a sorrowful impression.
There is a mystery insoluble. The atmosphere of mystery also can be seen through the setting of time after the buried of Lady Madeline.
“It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the seventh or eighth after the placing of the Lady Madeline within the
donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep came not near my couch-while the hours waned and waned away. I
struggled to reason off the nervousness, which had dominion over me. I endeavored 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 uneasy about the decoration of the bed” Poe,
1990: 29. The narrator also describes, “A sense of insufferable gloom which
pervaded his spirit” as he approached the house of Usher Poe, 1990:9. The term “House of Usher” refers not only to the crumbling mansion but also the
remaining family members who live within, the last of the “all time-honored Usher race”. The word “the full, setting, and blood-red moon” in the final
destruction of the house of Usher, represents that the moon is the planet of
madness. It is in fact that light of the “blood-red moon” that spills through the fissure of the house of Usher seems a cause for it being torn asunder.
The setting of time in The Tale-Tell Heart seems more dominant than the setting of place. The setting of time is stated by the words as “every night”, “about
midnight”, “every morning”, “every night just at twelve”, “four a clock-still dark as midnight”. One example as said by the narrator “So you see he would have
been a very profound old man, indeed, to suspect every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept Poe, 1990:89. While “The room, “the
chamber”, “the door” and “the floor” indicate the setting of place. For example as said by the narrator “His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness for
the shutters were close fastened, through fear of robbers, and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door, and kept pushing it on steadily, steadily
Poe, 1990: 90. The murderer’s action takes only a few hours from midnight up to four o’clock and occurs in the old man’s room that is black as pitch with the
thick darkness. Before he kills the old man he feels that night is so strange and terrible. “And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that
old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror.” Poe, 1990: 92. This terrible night forcefully creates an atmosphere of mystery. In short
a way, the unity of setting is effectively achieved. In The Black Cat the setting of time can be seen in the destruction of the
narrator’s house. “On the night of the day on which this most cruel deed was done, I
was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole house was blazing. It was with great
difficulty that my wife, a servant, and myself made our escape from the conflagration. The destruction was complete. My entire worldly
wealth was swallow up, and I resigned myself thence forward to despair” Poe, 1990: 201.
After the fire, he visits the ruins and finds a strangeness in the wall with one exception not fallen in. He sees that there is silhouette against a white wall,
the figure of a cat Poe, 1990: 202. The readers can feel a throbbing atmosphere of mystery through the imagination of a burning house.
The actions in The Black Cat take more time than actions in The Tale-Tell Heart
do. The events that are presented in The Black Cat are highly selected. It comprises the setting of place indoor and outdoor. While, in The Tell-Tale Heart
the setting of place is only in the room.
2. 4. Plot
