Final answer:
The lines from Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” evoke a mood of insufferable gloom and hopelessness, reflected through the grim setting and the narrator's psychological state.
Step-by-step explanation:
The excerpt from “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe is designed to evoke a mood of insufferable gloom and hopelessness. Poe uses descriptive language to paint a picture of a bleak, dreary setting, which produces a profound psychological effect on the narrator and, by extension, the reader. Words like “dull,” “dark,” “soundless,” and “melancholy” contribute to the overall mood. Additionally, the “sense of insufferable gloom” and descriptions of the building and landscape reflect the narrator's internal state and the theme of inevitable decay and despair that pervades the story. The narrative voice expresses an utter depression of soul, likening the experience to the “bitter lapse into everyday life” and the “hideous dropping off of the veil” experienced by an opium user, further intensifying the scene's oppressive atmosphere.