There are many different types of fear on many different levels. Some are mildly exciting; some explore terror to a new depth. The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe inspires the latter. There is a perverse sense of evil defeating good in this story. It is a conflict between what ought to be and what is, but in a mysterious, obscure way. Poe produces this effect primarily through his use of the first-person narrator. The narrator is an un-named childhood friend of Roderick Usher. His defining characteristic is his nearly unbending loyalty to the principles of logic and science. All we are told of the narrator is that he was a friend to Roderick. Even as a child when the two of them were closer, the narrator admits he "knew little of [his] friend." (Harbrace 844) So he lacks an understanding of character he would otherwise have had as a close, trusted friend of many years. This contributes to the sense of mystery which is being built. The narrator is the epitome of scientific approach. He attempts to explain everything in terms of natural occurrences and fact-based logic. In the supernatural setting of the story, the narrator is the scientific lens through which we experience this world. At the end of the story, there is a climactic moment in which the always-logical narrator gives up his logic and is completely unnerved. This highlights and accelerates the effect of the ending as this .
Lehal 2.
unbearable darkness so greatly outclasses the canons of logic. But his unnerving is not instantaneous. It is gradual and steady at the hands of an incessant "gloom." (843) How he interprets and analyzes what is going on around him, along with his slow descent into the terror he so desperately wished to explain, are the driving forces of Poe's effect in this story.
The narrator wishes to explain all he encounters scientifically. This poses a problem, however, as he finds himself in a highly supernatural setting.