The fall of the house of usher, a novel by Edgar Allan Poe is a story of a lonesome figure wandering on horseback through a dark dreary place and coming upon the House of Usher. Poe develops tension between the character and their surroundings early on to convey a sense of dread about the landscape and world around them.

 Through the use of diction the words paint an image of the landscape around the character. “DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens”, This description from Poe outlines the the world the character is in as a melancholic, dark place that isn’t very welcoming of them. Poe develops this tension to leave the readers wondering about where the character could be, why they could be there and many other things. The description of the dull dark day

 Poe starts off by developing tension between the character and their surroundings to depict the world around them as a lonely desolate place, this is so that the house of Usher can then later be introduced as this melancholic place. Poe through his choice of words; “dull”, “dark”, “melancholy”, conveys a sense of dread and loneliness in the world of the character, this is so that the theme of the story could be set as this place where the character is not welcome or should not be.

 The tone and syntax in how the character’s surroundings were described leads to idea that the tension between the character and the surrounding environment was to give the reader a sense of how it must feel to be on your lonesome, riding through an empty lonely stretch of land and meeting eyes with the house of Usher which leaves you with a feeling of mystery, the initial setup with tension between the character and surrounds all helps achieve that final goal of getting the reader captivated into the story

 Overall this shows us that Poe has utilised the techniques of diction, imagery and tone to develop tension between the character and their surroundings early on in the story so that the reader could get a better understanding of the house of Usher and the feeling of mystery behind it.