Symbolism as an Important Literary Element - Essay Example

Symbolism as an Important Literary Element An important literary element that is seen in almost every genre of imaginative literature is symbolism. “Imaginative literature is more likely than other types of writing to include words chosen not only because they communicate the writer’s ideas, but also because they are memorable. Using vivid imagery and evocative comparisons, writers of imaginative literature often stretch language to its limits. By relying on the multiple connotations of words and images, a work of imaginative literature encourages readers to see the possibilities of language and to move beyond the factual details of an event” (Kirszner & Mandell, 2004: 1). Symbolism enables the author to replace some of these abstract ideas and thoughts with a concrete image or object, reducing the space needed to express them while still conveying the deeper elements. In The Literary Symbol by William York Tindall, symbol is defined as “the outward sign of an inward state” where ‘sign’ indicates a material object and ‘inward state’ refers to feelings, thoughts or a combination of the two (1955). Whether it is actually referred to as such or not, symbolism often provides a story, poem or play with an added element of meaning and depth that would be difficult to accomplish in any other way. To help illustrate how this is done, the use of symbolism in the short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” by William Butler Yeats and the play “Fences” by August Wilson will be analyzed. Edgar Allen Poe has often been considered the master of the short story. He employs two primary objects in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to symbolize the cause of his narrator’s madness. The old man’s eye is the first of these symbols to appear within the text of the story. As the narrator attempts to explain why he felt led to murder, he continues to blame his actions on the old man’s eye. Basic medical knowledge today quickly identifies this condition as symptoms of a cataract, a film that gradually creeps over the eye of an elderly person, changing the color of the eye to a pale bluish color. It is this encroachment that seems to so bother the narrator because it symbolizes the idea of the evil eye. This ancient idea holds that the holder of the evil eye has the power to harm people or possessions just by looking at them. The presence of the evil eye, thus the evidence of the existence of evil, in the loved old man is the catalyst that leads to the narrator’s madness. The other major symbol that appears in the story is announced within the title; it is the old man’s heart. The heart begins to take on its meaning just as the eye has begun to work its way out of the story. As the narrator continues to stare at the eye revealed in the small light of the lantern, the sound of the beating heart takes on substance and life. This sound makes him angry again because he is forced to connect the old man’s heart, and his love, with the baleful gleam of the evil eye that has been so distracting. As this beating sounds increases its rate, the narrator begins to feel it will wake the neighbors and is incited to action. When the heart begins beating again after the murder, the reader begins to question the true source of the sound. Was the heartbeat that of the old man in his fear or of the narrator in his (or her) apprehension and heightened emotion? The heartbeat can also be said to symbolize the love the narrator felt for the old man, which will never go away and will always haunt him/her because of the harm they did to him. In “Sailing to Byzantium,” William Butler Yeats presents an image that is at once very simple, its images being stripped of all form and function, and at the same time very complex, in that it leaves no form or function for the human mind to grab hold of. As he writes about the inhabitants of Byzantium, he makes it clear that though he is using the name of a very human, and very cultured, city, this is no material city he is discussing. For Yeats, Byzantium represented the highest ideals in art, spirituality and knowledge, a kind of heavenly realm in which nothing ever changes but remains perfectly representative of the inner essence of art, beauty and spirituality. This is a city that cannot be conceived of by the average mortal and can indeed only be partially grasped in partial form by a living poet in the throes of vision. However, it is a land for human spirits, a place where they can throw off the “tattered coats” of life in favor of the eternal purity that is housed here. Reading through the poem, it is possible to grasp Yeats’ concept of an eternal and unnaturally unchanging perfection of being that so transcends form and rises above function that it remains beyond the living human’s ability to understand or fully appreciate thanks to his use of symbolism. Throughout the poem, Yeats continues to contrast images of the material world in terms of decay and death, “A tattered coat upon a stick” (10), with images of the world of Byzantium, his ideal of intellect and art, “such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and gold enamelling (27-28). His continued use of gold to illustrate the ideals of Byzantium imbues art and intellect with everlasting qualities as gold does not tarnish. In addition, it does not decay like the mortal body and becomes a fitting form for the eternal intellect, which becomes the focus of the poem itself. In addition to the symbols of gold as eternal and Byzantium as a city of light and higher existence, Yeats implies the symbol of the sailboat, or a crossing over from one realm to another, in the title of the poem as well as in line 15, “I have sailed the seas and come / To the holy city of Byzantium” (15-16). With this object, he symbolizes the concept of transcendence itself. As the concept of symbolism is used in August Wilson’s play Fences, the physical element of the fence is used to symbolize the metaphysical presence of psychological fences within the characters on stage. The play depicts the life of a group of people living in Pittsburgh during a span of eight years from 1957 to 1965. The main plot follows the life of Tony as he slowly builds a fence for his wife Rose, who feels the physical presence of the fence will help her contain the love of their little family and help keep them together. The physical presence of the fence not only indicates an economic perception of a higher social status than those without fences, but also becomes a permanent reminder of the yard space that belongs to the family, highlighting the freedom they have gained. Although the family has achieved some financial success, for which Troy can take some pride, he is still resentful at the thought of the fence because of the work it represents and the way in which it serves to keep him locked within his own property rather than leaving him free to wander the neighborhood in whichever direction he chooses to roam. On a metaphorical level, the fence is seen as a symbol for keeping something beloved close and protected. The fence is also quickly recognized by the other characters as a means of trapping in the love and sense of family Rose has always struggled to maintain in spite of Troy’s contentious behavior. Unfortunately, this effort to keep things in for love, on its external level, appears the same action as that perpetrated by the white man in attempting to keep the black man contained as a means of domination. For Troy, the metaphorical meaning of the fence is quite different from the ideas held by Rose. For him, it is a symbol of the many ways in which he has been prevented from living the life he should have been living simply because he was born a little too early. In direct contrast to the motion his wife continues to push on him, Troy works as hard or harder at building up psychological fences to keep people out. One such fence is his affair with Alberta, which he sees as a means of achieving some of the excitement of his youth. Troy also works to separate himself as much as possible from Corey, believing this is the appropriate way to launch a son into the world. Toward the end of the play, just before Troy’s death, he drives Corey from the house as a means of forcing him to get out on his own and support himself, to be a man, by closing the fence between them. Notice how the fence at the end of the play has finally been completed, the last obvious thing Troy did. As is suggested by Tindell, symbolism is an important element of all three of the genres discussed. At the beginning of the 1800s, Edgar Allen Poe demonstrated the tremendous power of the symbol to convey significant meaning within the world of the short story while William Butler Yeats illustrated the same thing within his poetry. Perhaps because of the shorter length and greater constrictions upon the form of poetry, the symbolism of Yeats’ poem seems to reach a much greater depth than that used in the short story. While symbolism is not often considered outright within the realm of drama, Wilson’s Fences demonstrates how it can play a significant role in the deeper meanings of the play as well. With the greater length of the play, however, the strength of symbolism again seems to lose some of its strength as other elements of the story are focused upon. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat” and “Ligeia.” Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Aerie Books, (2003). Tindall, William York. The Literary Symbol. Bloomington, IN: Columbia University, 1955. Wilson, August. Fences. (1987). Yeats, William Butler. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Richard J. Finneran (Ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Read More