"I cannot think of any other author", said Harold Bloom of Edgar Allan Poe, "who writes so abominably, and yet is so clearly destined to go on being canonical."
During his life, Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was a figure of controversy and so became reasonably well known in literary circles.Poe shows signs of his influence, especially when working in the gothic mode or with grotesque humor.
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher has everything a Poe story is supposed to have according to the popular view of him: a gothic house, a terrified narrator, live burial, madness, and horrific catastrophe.
The narrator journeys to the home of his boyhood chum, Roderick Usher, a man of artistic talent and generous reputation. Usher has been seriously ill and wishes the cheerful companionship of his old friend. The house and its environs radiate gloom, and though Usher alternates between a kind of creative mania and the blackest depression, he tends also on the whole to radiate gloom. Usher confides that he is upset in part because his twin sister, Madeline, is mortally ill.
Sensitivity and Hypersensitivity in the character
It develops, Usher is depressed that he has become in some way hypersensitive, and this sensitivity has revealed to him that his house is a living organism that is driving him toward madness. Madeline dies and, to discourage grave robbers, Usher and the narrator temporarily place her in a coffin in a vault beneath the house. Once Madeline is dead, Usher’s alternation of mood ceases, and he remains always deeply gloomy.
Physical and Spiritual universe
The house is walled-in enclosures that make up the physical and spiritual universe. This oft-repeated image is represented most vividly in one of Usher’s paintings, what appears to be a burial vault unnaturally lit from within. This image conveys the idea of the flame of human consciousness imprisoned, as if buried alive in an imprisoning universe. The terrifying conviction of this view is one of the causes of Usher’s growing madness.
His reason crumbles, interprets these sounds as Madeline, not really dead, breaking through various walls behind which she has placed her coffin and the vault until finally, Usher claims. The last event taking place under the unnatural light of a blood-red moon. The Fall of the House of Usher is a supernatural tale involving occult forces of some kind. Both modes of interpretation have their problems, and so neither has been able to establish itself as superior to the other.
Law of Nature
He insists that there are no supernatural elements in his story, that everything that happened at the House of Usher can be accounted for in a naturalistic way. In this respect, he is like the narrator of A Descent into the Maelström. He “knows” that the natural world operates according to regular “natural” laws, but when he actually sees the whirlpool, his imagination responds involuntarily with the conviction that this is something supernatural. Likewise, the narrator of The Fall of the House of Usher is convinced that the world can be understood in terms of natural law and, therefore, that what has happened to him at Usher either could not have happened or must have a natural explanation.
Perhaps The Fall of the House of Usher is a kind of trap, set to enmesh readers in the same sort of difficulty in which the narrator finds himself. If this is the case, then the story functions in a way consistent with Poe’s theme of the inadequacy of models constructed by human intelligence to map the great mysteries of life and the universe.The reader has an experience that finally cannot be explained, that seems designed to drive readers mad if they insist upon achieving a final view of its wholeness. The story itself may provide an experience that demonstrates the ultimate inadequacy of human reason to understand the mysteries of creation.
The Tell-Tale Heart
This is a dramatic monologue story: throughout the story, the narrator or the "I" is speaking to someone. He is trying to prove his sanity to his listeners, but he proves his madness instead. The following is a part of the opening paragraph of the story:
True! nervous--very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am, but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses--not destroyed--not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing a cute. I heard all things in Heaven and on the Earth.... (p.186)
By claiming that he has an extraordinary hearing capability, the "I" proves his madness instead of sanity. So, the subject matter of the-story is madness, because in the whole story we deal with a madman who tries to prove that he is mentally healthy by telling us a horrible story about a sadistic murder he has committed. The murder he describes in detail itself can be possibly done only by a mentally sick person. The victim of the murder is an old man who is rich and, actually, is his own master. His only reason in committing the ghastly murder seems ridiculous. He does not hate his master for he is treated well by the old man. He has no desire for the old man's gold, either.
The problem for the "I" is the old man's eye: I think 'it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees very gradually I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. The old man is suffering from glaucoma, a dangerous eye disease which can cause total blindness (Jones, 1988: 101).
He thinks that the eye. He calls it Evil Eye is the source of his agony and he has to kill the old man and stop the pain forever. After preparing himself for seven nights, he kills the old man cold-bloodedly at the eighth night.
Then, he does a macabre thing to the body; an evil deed that can be done only by an ill-mad person. The narrator does not realize that he has committed a sin. He, in contrast, is glad that he has vanished the source of his agony. The interesting thing is, he still has consciousness to hide the body, to conceal his wrongdoing. It is ironic also that finally, because of his own madness, he reveals his own secret to the policemen who come to observe the house. The theme of the story can be stated as follows: madness can bring harm or a madman may commit dangerous things to his community.
The Black Cat
The subject matter of the story is alcoholism, a condition caused by continued and habitual drinking. The narrator of the story or the "I" used to be a person known for his docility and humanity. He had a heart of tenderness and was especially fond of animals. When he married, he collected some kinds of pets and bred them with his wife. Everything seemed to be all right at first, until then he experiences a radical change of his disposition:
I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others, I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but i'll-used them.(p.159).
One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town ....my original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured (p.520) I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.(p.520)
The effect of the alcohol is so fiendish that the narrator loses his good nature within his mind: the docility, the tenderness and the humanity are gone and replaced by an evil spirit called "PERVERSENESS". Day by day, the perverseness enslaves the "I" and makes him uncontrollable. Pluto, his favorite black cat, once experiences atrocity done by its master. The "I" cuts one out of its eyes from the socket. That is caused, undoubtedly, by the spirit of the perverseness within his body and soul. The spirit grows bigger and bigger each day without being able to stop and this hurts the "I" much. Beneath the
"pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good"
within him succumbs. Evil thoughts become his
"sole intimate the darkest and most evil of thoughts".
The catastrophe of the story, in which the narrator kills his wife and entombs her body within the wall of his cellar, seems to bear out the narrator's intimations of the fiendish spirit. The theme we can derive from the story is: Drinking too much alcohol may cause dangerous conditions which may lead people to a catastrophic end of life. In the story, alcohol changes the narrator's natures and finally leads him to the destruction to the disastrous ending of his life.
The Cask of Amontillado
This is the shortest story in the selection which has a simple plot. From the first sentence of the story, we can define the subject matter: revenge. And it is reinforced by the closing phrase: In pace requiescat, which suggests mortality. The story, indeed, is about someone who committed revenge. The narrator, or the "I", takes revenge against Fortunato, his close friend. The reason is due to mockery: the "I" was insulted by Fortunato. The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. (p.207)
The "I" tells that he has received a pipe which is considered as Amontillado, a kind of wine. He is in doubt whether it is the real Amontillado or not and he is about to ask for help from Luchresi, an expert in wine. Fortunato, who was drunk at that time, insists on claiming that his connoisseurship in wine is better than Luchresi's. He also underestimates Luchresi by stating the following:
"Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry."......... "And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado." (p.208)
The "I" is forced to take Fortunato to the vault where the Amontillado is stored. Fortunato expresses his willingness to help the "I" and, thus, the plan or the trap set out by the narrator seems to run smoothly so far. Both of them, then, go to the vault at the "I" house. Before getting into the vault, the "I" pretends to warn his friend by saying that the condition inside the vault may damage his health, that its nitre can possibly make his cough worse. He asks Fortunato to cancel his strong will, but he is in vain because his friend still insists on going. The "I" is glad that his plan goes smoothly so far. They start their voyage through the vault.
Thank you…...
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