Landscape in Masque of the Red Death, William Wilson, Tale of the Ragged Mountains, and House of UsherA careful reading of Poe's stories will help you quickly reveal the importance that landscape plays in the development of every literary work. “Ragged Mountains” has both a surreal and realistic landscape that allows Poe to use both the mental and physical environment to explain his story. This technique is also found in "The Fall of the House of Usher", "William Wilson" and "The Masque of the Red Death". Even in these stories the reader may tend to focus on the ongoing action and psychological details, because that is what we are inclined to do with Poe's stories. However, it is also important to understand the physical landscape as well. As Daniel Philippon states in his article "Poe in the Ragged Mountains": "Any search for a whole universe of suggestion must be kept in check by the realities of the landscape in which it takes place." " it is quite obvious that the landscape will play an important role in the story: the setting is given to us already in the title. However, most of the story actually takes place in an "orientalized" place that has been transposed into the Ragged Mountains. Already this is a great juxtaposition: the title describes what appears to be a dilapidated and unattractive landscape, while the actual action takes place in a fantastical setting because the landscape is so important if the psychological aspect is what Poe is after to concentrate? Most likely it is because the landscape gives us clues about what is really going on in the characters' minds and suggests things that make the story clearer of paper... as well as the physical one, his pieces give a more powerful impact and always allow the reader to find suggests what is really happening on a deeper level. Since much of Poe's "action" is psychological, landscape is an element of the story that cannot be ignored, and should not. Works Cited: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." The American tradition in literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 9th ed. vol. 1. New York: McGraw, 1998. Poe, Edgar Allan. "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" [1843]; in Poe, ed. Harold Beaver. The Science Fiction of Edgar Allan Poe: Penguin, 1976. Poe, Edgar Allan. Modern Library, 1951. Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher", ed, 1995.