A Critical Evaluation of Poe's the Fall of the House of Usher

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-2, Issue-5, Sep - Oct, 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijels.2.5.6 ISSN: 2456-7620 Writing, as Mysterious as a Cat: a Critical Evaluation of Poe’s the fall of the House of Usher Abhik Maiti M.A in English., University of Calcutta, Pursuing M.A in History, P.G Diploma in Tagore Literature, Diploma in Fine Arts, Kolkata, India Abstract—Edger Allan Poe occupies a unique place in Germans) it admitted real diablerie and permitted great American Literature. A master of the horror tale and the license of situation and action; in Mrs. Radcliffe’s and in patron saint of the detective story, Poe, in his most, through not quite at all, of her minor followers, it supernatural fiction, usually deals with paranoia rooted was strictly ‘proper’, and employed a curious, ingenious, in personal psychology, physical or mental enfeeblement, and at the time highly realised machinery, which has been obsessions, the damnation of death, feverish fantasies and accurately enough called the ‘explained supernatural’. the cosmos as source of horror and inspiration, without Both these methods of applying supernatural element bothering himself explicitly with such supernatural beings were revived in the sensational novels of the third quarter as ghosts, werewolves or vampires. The terror infused in of the nineteenth century and sporadically since.” his works is not fantastic or ‘German’ but it is realistic The gothic fiction, which is considered as a subgenre of and based on true principles of human nature and gothic-horror first originated in the hands of the british conduct. author Horace Walpole, through his 1764 novel The J.J. Ingram writes of Poe – “His readers are well aware Castle of Otranto. Gothic novels are also considered to how clearly Poe’s idiosyncrasies, both in his prose and in contain the essence of romanticism and similar his verse, show through the transparent mask behind atmospheric substances, which were also flourishing at which his heroes are supposed to be hidden and in the the time of its origin. To be mentioned, that several ‘Narrative’, it is rarely that the imaginary hero is thought romanticist author, including P.B Shelley is reknown for of otherwise than as identical with Poe himself.” Like his penning Gothic novels. The gothic fiction gained poems Poe’s tales are notably unequal. The best of his immense popularity in the Victorian era, through the narrative work is to be found in his analytical tales, in everlasting works of Edgar Alan Poe, Mary Shelley’s certain stories in which he combines his analytical gift Frankenstein, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Gothic fiction’s with the imaginative sensibility as in The Fall of the origin also lies with the Gothic architecture, which House of Ushers. In all of his short stories, he displays a follows the patterns of pseudo-medieval buildings, and skill of concentration and of construction and shows also which are recurring backdrop of Gothic fiction. himself as a master of English style and approaches the Gothich novels also produced several more subgenre, eloquence and splendor of De Quincy. such as German Schauerroman and the French Georgia. Keywords— Gothic fiction, American Gothic Genre, When Horace Walpole first attempted to pen down Castle Poe, Modern Psychological Fiction, Freud, of Otranto, his primary aim was to create an intricate and Doppelganger. experimental fusion of mediaeval romanticism and modern novel. This unexpectedly gave birth to the Gothic I. THE NOTION OF THE GOTHIC fiction. The novel contained many of the original gothic George Saintsbury explained Supernatural as “...Of the clichés, such as ancestral curse, labyrinthal passages, terror and mystery novel (the ‘novel of suspense’, as some chilling plot and a weak hearted heroine. call it, adopting from Scott a label doubtfully intended as Ann Radcliffe was one of the most prominent gothic such) the chief writers – almost the only ones now known, authors of its early stages, along with being a significant except to special students – were Mrs. Radcliff and Victorian female author. She was the first one to give ‘Monk’ Lewis. But in the eighteenth century it enjoyed an birth to the much used literary device of the “Byronic enormous popularity, secretly registered and Hero”. She is also well known for using the method of irremediably ridiculed in Miss Austen’s Northanger explained supernatural, in which every supernatural Abbey. In Lewis’s hands (as it had done in those of the occurrence can be traced back to a natural explanation. www.ijels.com Page | 39 International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS) Vol-2, Issue-5, Sep - Oct, 2017 https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijels.2.5.6 ISSN: 2456-7620 Her work The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) is considered works were, Sophie Albrecht's Das höfliche Gespenst an all-time best gothic novel. (1797), Graumännchen oder die Burg Rabenbühl: eine Clara Reeve, another remarkable authoress of that time is Geistergeschichte altteutschen Ursprungs (1799). well known for her work The Old English Baron (1778). In the later years, E. T. A. Hoffmann rose to fame with his She skillfully adapted Walpole’s plot, and applied it novel The Devil's Elixirs (1815), which was richly according to the demands of the modern times, with influenced by The Monk, and at the same time plays with added pinch of fantasy and realism. the device of doppelganger. Few other considerably Through the passageway created by authors such as influential Gothic fiction authors of this era are, Jean Paul François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard d'Arnaud (Siebenkäs), Adelbert von Chamisso (Peter Schlemihls and Madame de Genlis, the gothic novel apparated in wundersame Geschichte, 1814), Joseph Freiherr von France as the Roman Noir or the Black novel. While in Eichendorff (The Marble Statue, 1819), Ludwig Achim Germany it took the form of Schauerroman or shudder von Arnim (Die Majoratsherren, 1819), Wilhelm novel, debuting through the works like The Ghost-Seer Meinhold (The Amber Witch, 1838 and Sidonia von (1789) by as Friedrich Schiller, and like Das Bork,1847), Jeremias Gotthelf (Black Spider 1842), Petermännchen (1791/92) by and Christian Heinrich Theodor Storm (The Rider on the White Horse, 1888). Spiess. Russia, another major country of overall literary Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk first provided with a evolution have also seen the influence of Gothic Fiction, continental perception of the proliferation of gothic however not until very recently was it gained the term fiction throughout Europe. The novel bleakly ‘gothic’, instead it remained in latent form for a long time. incorporated the elements of sadistic inquisitors, The earliest works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky might be corrupted monks and spectral nuns. labelled as ‘Gothic’. However most critics prefer to use Marquis de Sade can also be considered as a significant terms such ‘romanticism’ or ‘fantastique’ instead of figure in the overall growth of Gothic fiction throughout naming it Gothic. Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin could Europe. He implied and incorporated, perhaps be the first Russian author to be considered the pioneer of subconsciously and unintentionally some of the gothic Russian Gothic fiction. His novel which poses all the infrastructure in his works like The Misfortunes of Virtue qualities of Gothicism, is Ostrov Borngolm (1793). The and Eugenie de Franval. remarkable Russian author who practiced in this genre is, In Germany, Gothic fiction flourished as Schauerroman Nikolay Ivanovich Gnedich, with his novel Don Corrado (shudder novel), quite interesting while evolving and de Gerrera, (1803) getting popular throughout Germany, it frequently shared, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol is perhaps the only important interchanged and mutated its elements with other author during the transition who has explored the gothic subgenres such as, Gespensterroman or Geisterroman vividly. His collection of gothic stories is titled Evenings (ghost novel), Räuberroman (robber novel), and on a Farm Near Dikanka (1831–1832). Other Ritterroman (chivalry novel). Though the term contemporary authors include Count Aleksey Schauerroman is considered as the German Gothich Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Yevgeny Baratynsky, Vladimir fiction, however it can be evaluated as partially true, as Fyodorovich Odoevsky, Mikhail Zagoskin and Józef there are some original and unique traits of Sękowski/Osip Senkovsky (Antar). Few remarkable later Schauerroman, which differs it from a conventional years authors include Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, Fyodor English Gothic fiction. Some of the fundamental differing Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Grigory Petrovich traits of Schauerroman are the existence of secret Danilevsky, Grigori Alexandrovich Machtet. societies, practices of dark arts and necromancy, and a It is well known that many notable romantic poets, much gloomy and pessimistic plot. Some successfully including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats and Percy early German gothic works are, Karl Grosse's Horrid Bysshe Shelley wrote gothic fictions or experimented Mysteries (1791–1794), Christian Heinrich Spiess’ Das with it. However the greatest landmark of this genre Petermännchen (1793), Der alte Überall and Nirgends might be Edgar Alan Poe. His works less played with the (1792), Die Löwenritter (1794), Hans Heiling, vierter und physical manifestation, instead it fixated onto the soul. In letzter Regent der Erd- Luft- Feuer- und Wasser-Geister his own words, “the terror of the soul”. His outstanding

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