The Fall of the House of Usher: Poe's Writing Technique The Fall of the House of Usher is acclaimed as one of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works. Poe uses Symbolism and analogies in both characters and setting to tell this gothic tale of death and downfall. He often drew upon memory for the setting of his stories. He combines atmosphere and analogy to form the setting which provokes to the reader a sense of insufferable gloom. Too much of the horror has been attributed to its setting. But the setting does have a double impotance, discriptive and symbolic.