Edgar Allan Poe and His Works - Research Paper Example

?Your paper should be making an argument and must have a thesis. What is it you want to say about your and his work now that you have read more texts and assessed the critical material that’s been written? How does your research fit into some of the issues we’ve discussed about the writers of this time? What’s the significance of the author’s place in the literary canon? Why? 1. Introduction Edgar Allen Poe occupies a unique place in the history of American literature for his numerous contributions to nurturing literature’s various facets. On one hand Poe was a seasoned poet having learned from his mistakes and on the other hand he was a pioneer in Gothic fiction literature. These contributions from Poe were compounded by his efforts as a literature critic making him more famous for his critique than his literary contributions as a poet and as an author. Other than Poe’s direct contributions to literature in his era, his influence on upcoming writers and poets is obvious as generations of literati have traced their inspiration to Poe. This text will explore a few works from Poe in order to delineate his place in the overall literati scenario of his era in order to establish his significance in the literary canon. 2. Poe as a Poet Poe started out as a poet with the publication of his 40 page collection of poetry entitled Tamerlane and Other Poems but this volume failed to garner any public attention. The publisher printed only 50 copies of this book and overall this work failed to create any stir in the literary circles (Meyers). As indicated later by Poe, one of the chief reasons that these poems failed was their long sizes which failed to keep the reader’s attention in place. Over time Poe adapted a literary style that focused on creating shorter poems and in 1831 he published another volume of poems better known as Poems only. This edition contained the longer poems Tamerlane and Al Aaraaf as well as six new shorter poems such as Romance, To Helen, Israfel and The City in the Sea. This volume represents an overall shift in the poetic strategy of Poe although the themes in use remained predominantly the same. During this early era Poe’s poetry is based largely on romantic myths as well as pastoral and poetic ideals that rest on “dreams” and “memories” of a pristine paradise known better as Eden. These poems can also be seen to encompass the themes of beauty, innocence, joy, love, harmony between mind and nature as well as contentment of the soul with God (Hecker). However over time Poe delved into other themes such a death, finality, silence, darkness and other Gothic instruments which coincided with shifts in his overall literary interest. 3. Poe as a Gothic Fiction Writer Poe’s claim to fame came through his works of Gothic fiction (Meyers) representing a genre that Poe helped to bolster and revolutionize. Gothic fiction did exist before Poe but it was not as highly regarded as the dominant literary circles saw man as a positive creature. It has generally been assumed that Poe undertook the Gothic fiction genre in order to appease public taste and to exploit commercial success (Royot). However it seems as if Poe’s personal interest shifted over to Gothic ideology because most of Poe’s other work including his poetry represents a Gothic transformation after one point in time in the 1840’s. Even if it were to be assumed that Poe undertook Gothic fiction in order to gain commercial success, there would still have been small pieces of fiction or poetry from Poe that would display other themes reflecting his personal interests. The dearth of such materials indicates that Poe underwent a radical transformation in ideology to adopt Gothic literature. The most common themes in Poe’s work of Gothic fiction are dark and gloomy and hover around the issue of death. Most of Poe’s works of Gothic fiction explore questions of death as well as the physical signs of death along with the effects of decomposition on the human body after death. Other works also include the themes of premature burial with or without themes of reanimation of the dead (Kennedy). Poe can also be seen as giving rise to the dark romanticism genre that came about in large part as a reaction to the dominant transcendentalism that occupied the literary concerns of the era. Other contemporary writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau were strong proponents of transcendentalism but Poe was strictly opposed to any such ideas (Ljunquist). Poe’s first short story within the Gothic genre reveals a few things about Poe’s dominant ideology and literati methodology. Elements used within the tale of Metzengerstein were later used by Poe through a number of his other horror stories as well. The story develops as a young orphaned aristocrat (who is the last in line of the Metzengerstein clan) deals with his family’s long standing feud with the rival Berliftzing clan. A fire kills the patriarch of the Berliftzing clan and Fredrick is suspected of being responsible for the fire but Poe does not indicate fully if this is true in order to create an atmosphere of mystery and intrigue. Strangely Fredrick notices a new horse in the stable with the initials W. V. B. and decides to ride the horse. While he is riding the horse, Fredrick’s castle catches fire and the mysterious new horse carried Fredrick right into the fire. As the fire consumes Fredrick the rising smoke tends to form a ghastly horse that largely resembled the mysterious horse. During the development of the story it is apparent that Poe is placing mysterious blocks with care. Mysterious elements are introduced in the tale such as the fire in the Berliftzing clan’s castle that kills their patriarch and Fredrick’s role in it, the strange new horse and the final formation of the ghastly horse. Even though Poe does not explicitly indicate that Fredrick was responsible for the fire and death of the Berliftizing patriarch but the placement of mysterious elements and the connections between them make this clear to the reader. Another noteworthy aspect of this tale is that Poe adapted several elements from this story into his later works in Gothic fiction as well. These elements included gloomy surroundings especially gloomy castles, vengeance, the overwhelming power of evil and endings in death and destruction as well as others. The tale is also seen as relying on metempsychosis whereby the soul of a living person is moved over to another living being such as the transfer of the soul of the Berliftzing patriarch into the mysterious horse. Though a medieval setting is presented with the inclusion of castles and family feuds but no time line has been indicated by Poe maybe in order to mystify the tale all the more. Furthermore the tale reflects an amalgamation of plausible and implausible settings within which the story tends to develop. However it must be noted that a few elements of the story are highly exaggerated even from the perspective of fiction. While other trends from Poe were copied by later literati but no other literati has been this successful in exaggerating elements within a story. This in turn makes Poe unique to both his era and the literati eras that followed and were inspired by him. Another such tale of gloom and doom was Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher that relates the story of two siblings and a friend who is the narrator. Throughout this story one important aspect of Poe’s narration can be noticed – Poe relates only the most relevant of details and leaves the rest of the settings onto the audience to discern. While this helps Poe to create an element of mystery, it also helps him in reducing the overall size of the text thus making it far more approachable for readers. If other novels or stories from Poe’s contemporaries are looked at it becomes clear that their lengths are excessive that in turn tend to make them boring and uninteresting. While American literature was still fond of short stories but European literature from the same era is largely devoid of the short story tradition. Even in instances where short stories were written and enjoyed such as Sherlock Holmes’s tales penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the element of detail was still unnecessarily high. In comparison to these traditions in writing, Poe keeps his literary pieces simple and succinct. When Roderick describes to his friend that his house and its surroundings contain an element of sentient, Poe does not delve into large glossy descriptions of flora, fauna and the building. Instead Poe centers on the central idea of sentient presence inside and outside the house and develops it with small evidences from the masonry and the arrangement of vegetation around the house. A number of themes specific to Poe as well as some other Gothic literati are found in this short story such as the presence of hypochondria in Roderick’s character. The strange circumstances surrounding the death of Madeline (Roderick’s twin sister) are also worth exploring as Poe’s themes of death and premature ritualistic burial come to play again. Roderick and the narrator bury Madeline but the narrator notices the rosiness of her cheeks and regards this as normal for fresh corpses. Poe does not leave any other clues to the reanimation after death of Madeline except for the rosy cheeks. Later in the story however Madeline “rises from the grave” and comes possibly to confront her brother at which point both brother and sister die simultaneously. This story is also distinct for the use of another supporting story within the story in the form of the novel Mad Trist that is read by the narrator to Roderick in order to calm him down. As the novel proceeds so does the story and as the climax of the novel is reached so does the short story reach its climax. Poe has exaggerated a few elements in this story too such as the ripping sound in the house which suggests an enfeebled and entombed person tearing open the entrance to the tomb (Evans). Similar to the use of exaggeration some other commonly repeating elements are also present in this story. One such element is the use of a gloomy “castle” like home containing vaults and tombs along with repeated references to death. The element of incest could also be suggested given the close relationship depicted between Roderick and his sister. This kind of a theme represented a taboo in Poe’s time as much as it represents a taboo in our times so it is probable that Poe chose not to talk of this theme openly. In addition this story contained the pervasive and overwhelming evil tone and themes throughout which is again hallmark of Poe’s style of writing fiction. 4. Conclusion Poe is accepted as one of the most noteworthy writers of his period and with good reason too as his writings developed styles and techniques for a number of genres including Gothic fiction, science fiction, dark romanticism and the like. Poe’s work has inspired quite a few literati after his death and his work continues to enthrall audiences to the present day. In this respect Poe has to be recognized as one of the greatest poets and writers of the nineteenth century. Moreover his distinctive taste and satiric capabilities lend him an articulate position in literary circles in America as in the world. 5. Bibliography Evans, Walter. “'The Fall of the House of Usher' and Poe's Theory of the Tale.” Harris, Laurie Lanzen and Sheila Fitzgerald. Studies in Short Fiction. Detriot: Gale, 1977. 137-144. Hecker, William J. Private Perry and Mister Poe: The West Point Poems. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. Haverford: Yale University Press, 1987. Ljunquist, Kent. “The poet as critic.” Hayes, Keven J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002. Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allen Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992. Royot, Daniel. “Poe's Humor.” Hayes, Keven J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Read More