Haunting, Eerie Setting

The beginning of the story sets the mood for eerie. Everything about the surrounding area and the house is pretty creepy,

"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."

Then everything in the house, including Roderick, is decomposing and very eerie.