Edgar Allan Poe and the Fall of the House of Usher - Essay Example

EDGAR ALLAN POE …there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies beyond our depth… Edgar Allan Poe The Fall of the House of Usher INTRODUCTION Edgar Allan Poe has given us literary pieces that touch the core of our humanity, and this is made possible by the fact that his works have trudged from man’s deepest angst – death to the most sublime emotion known to us – love. But then again, when one goes over his works, one cannot help but asks one’s self how much of the character in the story is Edgar Allan Poe. In other words, how much of the story reflect not only the culture of the milieu when Poe is actually writing but also how it made manifest Edgar Allan Poe as a human person. Being such, in this paper we will try to compare and look for Edgar Allan Poe the man in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher. EDGAR ALLAN POE AND THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER One of the pervading themes that may be alluded from The Fall of the House of Usher is the inner struggle of the person as she/he confronts mysterious beauty, disease, madness and death itself. The reader is taken to a roster of emotions; fear, pity, anguish, mystery, fascination and confusion. And the depth and extent of which is made more mark by the knowledge that behind the symbolism is the reality of the enigma of death and resurrection. Edgar Allan Poe’s power in capturing all of these sentiments and ideas in one short story is a sure sign of his greatness as a writer. But what is he really like as a person, is he like Usher, a madman or is he like Madeline, a fighter? Edgar Allan Poe, the father of detective story, was already noted as precocious child. Professor Joseph H. Clarke, his professor after going to Manor House school noted that “While the other boys wrote mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was a born poet. As a scholar he was ambitious to excel. He was remarkable for self-respect, without haughtiness. He had a sensitive and tender heart and would do anything for a friend. His nature was entirely free from selfishness (Clarke, qtd, ¶ 7).’’ Thus, it can be impugned that his sensitivity as a genius is inherent. In the same manner, Roderick Usher’s sensitivity to his music is similar with Poe’s genius. Though, Roderick’s sensitivity is bordering to physical illness and madness, he is still a genius as the narrator said “I have just spoken of the morbid condition of the auditory nerve which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances, But the fervid facility of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well in the words of his wild fanatasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental collectedness and concentration to which previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial excitement (Poe, ¶ 17).’’ Likewise, it can also be claimed that between Poe’s “supposed” alcoholism (supposed because there is a contention that he was not an alcoholic but that he had a low tolerance level for alcohol that even one glass of wine was enough to intoxicate him) and Usher’s madness are immaterial in their genius. Alcoholism and madness are insignificant if juxtaposed to the brilliance of their artistic works. Poe has written almost one hundred short stories, he is considered as master of rhythmic effect. During the lowest point of his life – the death of Virginia coupled with extreme poverty – his genius never failed, he continued to write short stories and poems and had given numerous lectures. His prowess as a poet, as a writer never waned. Even if suffering from extreme poverty during his life, Poe’s dedication to literature is undiminished. But we cannot refrain from alluding that as he described Roderick Usher as “once struck with an incoherence – an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy – an excessive nervous agitation….his action was alternately vivacious and sullen…(Poe, ¶ 8),’’ he was referring to himself. Extreme poverty and (perhaps) alcoholism has left him in such a state that he was in constant excessive nervous agitation to the point that he committed suicide on November 1848 due to “impossible emotional problems” (Allen, ¶ 70), but the poison which was laudanum proved to be an emetic and he survived. Moreover, in the description of the house at the beginning of the story, “this mansion of gloom… (Poe, ¶ 2),’’ he might have been referring to the state of his inner self. If one looks at the life of Poe one can infer that his life of extreme poverty, his “alcoholism”, the few moments of joy that he might have had in his life have created in Poe himself, in his inner self a mansion of gloom. In fact it has been claimed that his death is much like that of his life – great misery and tragedy. The bleakness of his life has resulted into “an utter depression of the soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation (Poe, ¶ 1).’’ However, what makes Poe even greater is the fact that even if his life was nothing but tragedy one after another he continued to write. He never gave up on his passion for writing. I would like to believe that people who are not of his calibre and genius would have just wallowed in the gloominess of their life experiences. Yet for Poe, it was totally different. His insufferable life did not deter him from becoming one of the greatest literary icons of the contemporary period. One part of the story which is utterly remarkable is when Usher narrated how Madeline is buried alive, “…We have put her living in the tomb! (Poe, ¶ 38).’’ It is so nerve wracking that the reader is gripped with terror and aghast at the same time. But then again you stop short and ask why buried alive, why Madeline? This segment of the story may indicate Poe’s fascination to the idea of the connection between life and death. It appears that one of the primordial mysteries that grapple his mind is the inherent connection between life and death to the point that he wrote in one of his text when life or death begins, nobody really knows. But what makes it more mysterious is the fact that the resurrection angle of the story is given to a woman. It cannot be denied that the sparks of joy in Poe’s life did come from the women in his life. The first was his foster mother Mrs. Allan and the second was his wife Virginia Clemm. In fact, it has been claimed that Poe’s devotion to his child-wife was one of the most beautiful features of his life. Many of his poetic productions were inspired by her beauty and charm. And their death had greatly affected his outlook, his very life. Perhaps bestowing the character of Madeline the chance to resurrect or free herself from the tomb can be an allusion to Poe’s own dream of having them back to life - the women that he loved the most. Though this is highly speculative, but it seems that the impact of the death of his mother and Virginia heightened his artistic and philosophical quest in understanding death and resurrection. In the end, Edgar Allan Poe is the erratic man who incurred the enmity of many but at the same time he was also the man who fought hard in life as he battled extreme poverty, death and insufficient recognition of his genius. The Fall of the House of Usher thrusts us to the truism that Poe’s works not only reflect the angst of his time but that it made manifest the very struggle that is happening in the inner person of Poe. The “insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit (Poe, ¶ 1)’’ seem to refer to him and not to the narrator of the story. It allows us to take a peek as to what is in the very soul of Poe – a battle for life, a search for joy, a quest for some happiness and an understanding of life mysteries. The Fall of the House of Usher is the rise of Poe and humanity into a better apprehension of human nature. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Allen, Harvey. Biography of Edgar Allan Poe. Retrieved on 23 May 2008. http://www.pambytes.com/poe/bio.html. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher Ed by KipKoh. Retrieved on 21 May 2008. http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/PoeFall.html. Read More