The Relationship between the Occult and Madness in Edgar Allan Poe - Essay Example

? The Fall of The House of Usher Edgar Allen Poe’s most frequently analyzed tale, a Gothic master piece in which setting and symbols reveal characterand conflict, inflicts dreadfulness and horror in the minds of the readers. The stunning moments he created through his bizarre imagination generates his views about human psyche and his profound use of literary language. Poe is a difficult writer in the sense that sometimes he reaches the heights of imagination, throwing the readers minds into an indefinable dilemma with utmost curiosity to know the rest. The tale can be considered as Poe’s exploration and understanding of the self in his own vision. The quest for identifying the self and the futile search for it end in total disintegration of the mind and the body. The leading character Roderick Usher, and the twin sister Madeline Usher represent a split personality as the external house itself. In the concept of supernatural, the dark side of the human mind and its revelations are brought forth here through the character Roderick Usher. The story starts with description of an old mansion which had undergone degradation. The inhabitants of that place are also owners of disintegrated personalities. How it occurred to the characters is to be analyzed. The presence of evil forces is evident from the words of Roderick. The narrator also instills his own emotions and feelings while he describes the house. The family of Roderick and its roots and traditions are conveyed in the words of the narrator. Roderick exhibits the mental disorder which he inherited from his family for many generations. The house is another external depiction of the degenerated family. It also shades the residents with the gloom it exhibits. In the words of the narrator” I know not how it was- but with the first glimpse of the building , a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit I say insufferable ; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable , because poetic , sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.” Roderick Usher, also has changed a lot in his look and behavior. It is evident from his letter that he is aware of his own mental condition or illness. “The Ms gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness – of a mental disorder which oppressed him..” . (The Fall 199). The narrator reveals the letter written to him saying about “acute bodily illness , of a mental disorder which oppressed him , and of an earnest desire to see me , as his best and indeed his only personal friend , with a view of attempting , by the cheerfulness of my society , some alleviation of his malady”. ( The Fall ,199) But Roderick himself mentions about the influence of the evil forces that hounds the place. The veil or the supernatural forces he tries to identify is the dark side of his own mind .It is said that “But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch’s high estate …”. The narrator comes to know that “very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself through long ages, in many works of exalted art and manifested of late ….” ( The Fall ,200). The control of the house over the life of its inhabitants is also revealed in expressions like “the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with the accredited character of the people”, about the possible influence which the one ,in the long lapse of centuries might have upon the other” . This pressure was high upon the mindset of the two characters .The nature of the evil forces or the form of influence it inflicts on them are not revealed as in a ghost story. . So it can be explained as the outcome of isolation, anxiety, and sickness, both of them suffered from early years onwards. The description of the narrator about the entrance and the pathways which lead him to the inner rooms arises a feeling of an uninhabited dwelling place which has the influence of supernatural. He says “I felt an atmosphere sorrow “. The crankiness that Usher displays on seeing him is another evidence of his mental disorder. “Upon my entrance , Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying at full length and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which had much in it, I at first thought , of an overdone cordiality – of the constrained effort of the ennuye man of the world . A glance, however, at his countenance convinced me of his perfect sincerity ( The Fall 201). Usher not only seems to be weird but also tainted in his exterior look. The body is the manifestation of the mental strain that he has undergone. The narrator says ‘ Surely man had never before so terribly altered , in so brief a period , as had Roderick Usher!. It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood,….A cadaverousness of complexion ; an eye large , liquid , and luminous beyond comparison ….. The silken hair , too , had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not , even with effort , connect its Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.” The Fall( 201). The narrator makes out all the crisis of his old friend is ingrained in his physical illness .” …. and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy – an excess nervous agitation . Roderick himself describes how his body enacts to the exterior. “ Some of them interested and bewildered me ; although , perhaps , the terms and the general manner of their narration had their weight . He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses …..he could wear only garments of certain texture ;the odors of all flowers were oppressive ; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light ; …. Roderick , being a lunatic , is afraid of life and death , But longing for an escape .” He says “I shall perish, said he, I must l perish in this deplorable folly” (The Fall 202). The ‘fear ‘ he suffers is revealed through “intolerable agitation of the soul ‘,…..I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together , in some struggle with grim phantasm, Fear,” ( The Fall 202). The mental disorder Usher suffers is evident from the description of the narrator. The narrator uses the words like ‘hypochondria ‘several times. These are the narrators’ reasonable thinking about Usher and his behavior. The disease is not yet confirmed by a doctor. The troubled mind of Usher makes the phenomena . Poe uses the words like “pure abstractions’ or ‘phantasmagoric conceptions ‘ ( The Fall (204) to express the strangeness in Ushers behavior . The narrator never believes in the presence of a supernatural or occult in the story. He tries to answer the strangeness that Usher exhibits in terms of rationale.There are some critics who indentify the influence of occult that hounds house. The incongruity that Usher exhibits is the responses to the unseen forces that hound the house. The narrator comes to know that his sister Madeline Usher is ill and will not live longer. Soon after Roderick predicts that his sister might have dead and seeks the help of narrator to entomb her in a family vault. The strangeness of Roderick decision to keep her body is unexplainable to the narrator. He comments on the behavior of Roderick “There were times , indeed , when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive secret , to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage . At times again, I was obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours , in an attitude of the profoundest attention , as if listening to some imaginary sound. “ (The Fall 2008). The fear that hounds him reaches their height which transmits to the narrator also.He describes Usher as”: “ His countenance, as usual cadaverously wan – but moreover , there was a specie od mad hilarity in his eyes – an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor” ( The Fall 208) Poe creates such imaginary conditions to modify the narrator’s personality and alters his reasonable thinking. But the vision and sights which are caught by the senses remain unquestionable and odd. His logical and practical thinking never answers the phenomena . Still it remains as mystery. The power exhibited by Lady Madeline to come out of the tomb which was covered with an iron gate is almost superhuman. Here the reader can connect to the vision of the writer to create madness in the characters. The conscious attempt of the writer to create perverted situations and scenes is the indication of his powerful vision. The almost alive things in the mansion including the human inhabitants seem to have the power to act. Thus the writer tries to create supernatural interference in the life of all the members of the family. Since the narrator is also part of it now, it creates an unknown fear in the his mind also. He tells “an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion had over his spirit “ ( The Fall 203). The weird and wonderful relationship of Usher to his family mansion is funny. The narrator says “ This opinion , in its general form , was that of the sentience of all vegetable things . But in his disordered fancy , the idea had assumed a more daring character , and trespassed , under certain conditions ,upon the kingdom of in-organization”(The Fall 206). The living surroundings , the premises ,the trees ,the mossy wall , the lake in front of the house etc have played the fundamental role to mould the inner of the residents “ The result was discoverable , he added , in that silent yet importunate and terrible influence which for centuries had moulded .destinies of his family , and which made him what I now saw him –what he was “ The theme of death and lose of ones identity is the key points dealt by Poe to deal with madness. Since the narrator himself is the only witness of the events, it can also be interpreted as the vision or hallucination of a person who is able to knit such a beautiful story .The narrator escapes. But all others perish. There the story ends. The reader will never come to know anything about the narrator . Thus the question arises whether the story is a magnificent creation of imagination or the narration of the story tellers own experience. Psychological analysis of the characters, especially Roderick, commonly tells that Madeline is the other part of Roderick, a physical embodiment of Roderick’s fears. He is terrified to live or embrace death. He once predicted that he would die soon. The two halves of the same person split up in two bodies , probably male or female, mental or physical ,natural or supernatural (H P Lovecraft) and the incapability of the one two exist without the other leads to the supernatural , it is good to say , mysterious elements in the story . Some other criticisms tell that Madeline’s death is inevitable and expected by Roderick. If Madeline dies there is no existence for Roderick ( He once predicted the impending death). If Roderick dies there is no existence for their family mansion. The three can exits together only . Another explanation given by Voloshin is notable . From the beginning onwards Roderick is subject to fear. This is the outcome imagination more than actuality .According to Voloshin Roderick Ushe seems to be falling into a self –enclosed dream state, which could be taken as the catatonic’s blocking of external reality or as the dreamers’ production of his own nightmare”(Voloshin 423) . At the end , after the death of Roderick , the narrator commends that Usher died a “victim to the terrors he had anticipated”. Voloshin continues to explain that “ Undergoing the psychological explanation for strange impressions and appearances is the fact that the house of Usher is an image of Roderick’s mind as indicated y the narrator’s similar descriptions of the house and Roderick’s head and by Roderick’s allegorical and self-referential lyric , “The Haunted Place “( Voloshin (423). According to Butler Roderick’s ‘hypochondria’ plays a major role in the play. The sickness and the imaginative power together pave the way to madness. A kind of bond existed between the inanimate objects and the living ones give a sense of occult phenomena. The fall of the house immediately after the death of Usher is a mystery. Many questions will arise in the mind of the reader towards end. Was he living for the rest half of the personality?. When the physical body embraces death, his fear and distress also dies with him in the form of Madeline. It should be noted that Madeline was not dead even after spending one week in the vault. She could not leave Roderick alone alive. The death of Roderick becomes actuality only with the death of his other side, Madeline. Thus the process is complete. Even though the assumptions and speculations are not answering the incoming questions the tale is undoubtedly the creation of odd vision and imagination. In reality the readers are put into a mystification to identify the truthfulness of the events put before them through the story. Concentrating more on the old mansion, Roderick Usher, and Lady Madeline, will not give acceptable answers to the issue. The narrator is salient but powerful. He is the only one witness of the event. The mystery starts at the point when Roderick sends a letter to him and it ends leaving the narrator alive. To get a clear picture of what really happened in the story the readers and critics need to analyze the story teller also. But it is an undeniable fact that E. A Poe gave chances both to literary critics and psychologists to go deep in their examination of eccentric characters. Work Cited Poe, E A, The Fall of the House of Usher ,1839 Voloshin, Beverly, Explanation of The Fall of the House of Usher “Studies in Short . Read More