Topic – Setting of a Story

The setting of a story is the environment in which it takes place. The setting tells us where and when the story takes place, sets the mood for the story, and helps the reader to create a “movie” in their head while they read.

Setting: the location or time in which the story takes place

Mood: an emotional tone or general attitude

Theme: dominant idea or “motif”

We will read a text excerpt from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, in which the narrator describes their first view of the setting of the story in great detail. This section of the story uses rich descriptive words and phrases to convey the mood of the story.

Before Reading

Before reading the story, follow the links below to read and watch a biography of the author, and to review the vocabulary for the reading. There is a crossword puzzle in the vocabulary section – we will go over this in class, but it is for your practice only and will not be a graded assignment.

Once you have finished, click through to the text excerpt and complete the reading. There is also an audio clip of the reading available on the page.

After Reading

Now that you have completed the reading, please complete both the post-reading activity and creative activities below.

Post-reading Activity

Answer the below questions in 2-3 sentences:

1. Based on the excerpt, what do you expect from the story? What kind of theme do you think it will have? What details in the reading made you think so?

2. How did the excerpt make you feel? What do you think the author wanted the reader to feel while reading this introduction to the setting?

3. Based on the last two sentences of the reading, how did the narrator feel as he approached the house?

4. Regarding the author biography, do you think Poe’s personal life had any effect on the mood of his writing?

5. What did you think was most interesting about Edgar Allan Poe and the reading we completed for this lesson?

Creative Activity

In the reading, Edgar Allan Poe uses vivid imagery and descriptive language to bring the reader into the world of the story – he makes it easy to see the setting, mood, and theme of his writings. For this creative assignment, draw a picture of your interpretation of the setting of the story. Read the text excerpt and draw what you think the outside of the house and the surroundings look like.

Extra Credit

Imagine you are an author trying to outline the setting for a book. Write a brief paragraph (5-6 sentences) introducing the setting of a story. It can be a place you have been before, or something completely made up! Draw a picture of your setting using the paragraph you wrote, and submit both together.

“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, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was – but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. 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 – with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium – the bitter lapse into every-day life – the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart – an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it – I paused to think – what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher?”

Grammar Note:

Poe can be difficult to read due to his writing style. He uses a lot of long sentences, commas, and hyphens in his writings. If you have a hard time reading a sentence, try breaking it down into a simpler version. The first sentence of this text is quite long, using nine commas for a single sentence! Let’s simplify it a bit.

On the left is the original text, and the right is an easier way to say it for understanding.

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,	One dark day in the fall,
I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country,	I rode a horse alone through a dreary land,
and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on,	and over time as night fell,
within view of the melancholy House of Usher.	found myself within view of the House of Usher.

The below file is a translated version of the full text. Our reading covers only the first three paragraphs, but feel free to read the rest if you are interested!

oppressively: done distressingly or grievously; uncomfortably intense

dreary: causing sadness or gloom

tract: an expanse or area of land

melancholy: a gloomy state of mind; saddening

insufferable: not to be endured; intolerable; unbearable

pervaded: spread throughout; filled

desolate: solitary; lonely

bleak: depressing; dreary; bare

vacant: empty; void

sedges: a grasslike plant

opium: a sedative drug which was highly popular in the 1870s-1910s

lapse: a fall or decline

unredeemed: unable to make up for; unreleased from

aught: anything; any part; all

unnerved: upset