The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado, show the downfall of noble families or persons — The Usher’s in the former and Fortunato in the latter. Both short stories also feature eerie vaults and spaces. These settings actually helped establish Poe as a master of macabre tales. (Hayes 72) He remains to be the master of setting the haunting mood often characterized as gothic despite of the heavily emotional characters. Reading Poe makes the reader feel unabashedly attached to the characters even with the spine-tingling situation they are in.
Simply put – Poe’s tales are scary and sad. The demise of the noble family in these tales represents the downfall of humans in general and the peculiar setting represents the human consciousness, however to dismiss his works as simply tales of horror would be inaccurate and unjust. His short stories are as emotional as they are haunting, as frightening as they are tragic. Some critics might even argue that his characters promoted genuine enjoyment in inflicting pain to others. (Hayes 68) Evidence of such is Fortunato’s brief though obvious satisfaction after he had left Montessor in the cellar.
It seemed, however, that although Poe preferred using the life of the nobles to depict tragedy – he also enjoyed poking fun at them. (Hayes 43) He illustrated them as people who are unable to adjust to adversity with unapologetic vanity to the point of committing absurd crimes in the most obscure of ways just to maintain their status in life. It is so ridiculously funny that it boarders to the pathetic. Downfall of the Noble The title The Fall of the House of Usher foreshadows what would happen in the story literally and figuratively.
The Essay on Edgar Allen Poe Short Story cask Of Amontillado
Humans are very complicated. For many years, human beings have been trying to figure out how the body works physically and mentally. Researches led to many discoveries in the human physical body, but the human mind is still relatively mysterious. Whenever a person does not follow the societys guidelines, he or she, often enough, is considered mentally ill. In Edgar Allan Poes short story The Cask ...
Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the last of their noble family because only one of the Usher’s family members survives in each generation. “…the stem of the Usher race, all time honored as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent,” (Poe).
The characters inescapably fall to the pits of doom in the effort to uphold their family’s standing. This is because they are noble born and it would be such a shame for them to lose it.
As in Fortunato’s case – the embarrassment he got from Montessor drove him mad that it haunted him so much. He became restless until he redeems himself in the way that, unfortunately, only he found acceptable. Making the characters noble is just Poe sticking to the guidelines of Aristotle that a tragedy must be about characters of nobility. What Poe really wanted to convey is that everybody (even noble men) can “fall” just like the Usher’s. Perhaps being noble in itself is tragic too – with the constant effort to uphold one’s stature and reputation.
The main characters seemed obsessed with the concept of self-preservation. With Fortunato unable to stand the fact that he became a subject of ridicule in public by Montessor, he sought revenge by trapping him where no one can absolutely find him. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Roderick went to extreme measures too for his survival. Symbols and Metaphors D. H. Lawrence meanwhile has explained perfectly what Poe is trying to convey in his constant use of vaults as symbols. “All this underground vault business in Poe only symbolizes that which takes place beneath the consciousness.
” (Lawrence, ch. 6).
This meant that the act of burying Fortunato and Madeline alive by Montresor in The Cask of Amontillado and Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher respectively is, on the surface, just talked about lightly but beneath lies the murderous intent of the characters with varying motivations. He implied that all the desires of the nobleman to commit crimes or acts of sinfulness are locked in the subconscious. They seem noble on the outside but just as savage and merciless inside.
The Essay on The Fall Of The House Of Usher – Literary Analysis
The Fall Of the House Of Usher is a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1839. The short story is complexly written, with challenging themes such as identity and fear. Poe utilises many elements of the Gothic Tradition such as setting and supernatural elements to create a more mysterious story, and uses language to his advantage, employing adjective filled descriptions of literal elements ...
Montresor buried Fortunato alive to exact revenge because of the insults he has thrown at him and the embarrassment he inflicted to him while Roderick Usher may have allowed his sister to stay buried alive despite hearing her screams out of love because he does not want her anymore to suffer. The House of Usher, the structure, stands for the family. The interior, with all the fungi, the archways, antique furniture, and the floors and panes, has doom written all over it. It reflects its history, and what is yet to come. The decaying castle captures the deterioration of Usher’s mind.
The underground passage, with the cellar and the vaults, stands for the unconscious, which seems about to break and filled with fear and guilt. The characters stubborn attempt to ignore or suppress the cries or pleas for pity of help can be characterized as denial to accept that they did something unacceptable and unbecoming of a nobleman. Themes Poe dealt with the breakdown of the psyche and the shaping of a new consciousness beneath it. On the surface, everything seems fine, but underneath it all, there is the murderous act of burying someone alive – out of love in The Cask of Amontillado, and out of hate in The Fall of the House of Usher.
Burying someone alive also figures in The Premature Burial. Just like in Berenice, Poe engages with mental disorder here, with Madeline’s brother wandering about in madness. Roderick has an illness, but it looks like it may be coming from his mental state, or even his moral condition. The Fall of the House of Usher shares the theme of a doppelganger with William Wilson, and it is a love story just like Ligeia, that also treats the resurrection of a dead woman, even like Morella. But no good deed is left unpunished. This is also a recurring theme in Poe’s tales.
Even when it seemed that, as noblemen, they are so powerful that they can escape justice – justice sought other means to deliver itself. It was shown in almost identical of ways – by the victim haunting his wrongdoer. Conclusion In depicting the downfall of nobility, Poe effectively uses underground passages and dank spaces. Although most of his lead characters also showed a lot of dangerous characteristics and fairly odd behavior, there are still several qualities that resembled the innate qualities of the nobles possess. He played with a wide range of emotions from paranoia, obsession, pride and embarrassment.
The Essay on Masque Of The Red Death Poe Edgar 8212
In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death,' he deals with an unusual theme: the attempts of a group of wealthy people to insulate themselves from the plague by shutting themselves up in a mansion and throwing a ball. Although Poe was never to write another story precisely like this one, his work throughout his lifetime dealt with the theme of morbidity and death. Recently some critics, ...
Some critics argue that Poe’s main characters are insane and their crimes are acts of insanity. (Hayes 2002) However, these characters had the opportunity to redeem themselves but they didn’t take it. They committed the crimes willingly and intently. Society had imposed standards and some people could not help but adhere to that. These people found it unbearable and went to great lengths to redeem themselves. The tragedy in Poe’s tales is not people locked in cellars, it is people locked in their own identities.
Works Cited Hayes, Kevin J.The Cambridge companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge University Press, 2002. Krutch, Joseph Wood. Edgar Allan Poe: A Study in Genius. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classic American Literature: Chapter 6 Edgar Allan Poe. 28 April 2009. < http://xroads. virginia. edu/~HYPER/LAWRENCE/dhlch06. htm> Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. Bartleby. com. 28 April 2009. <http://www. bartleby. com/195/10. html> Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Literature. org. 28 April 2009. <http://www. literature. org/authors/poe-edgar
