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(2018
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm Answers 2018 #3: Web Highlights (Index) |
LITR 4328 |
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Cynthia Cleveland
The Sublime: Atmosphere and
Foreboding
The sublime is a fascinating concept that is often
encountered in texts across various forms of literature, though it is more often
than not a small concept or reference. Writers of the Romantic period were
especially inclined to insert this concept into their texts, as this period had
a distinct focus on nature. The sublime, in this context, is a very human and
universal experience, as we can relate to the feeling of gazing upon something
beautiful which ignites a sense of foreboding, all in the same instance. Though,
I had little experience with this concept in an isolated setting, I found that
the sublime was frequently used, I just hadn’t noticed before.
Alisha Blue’s essay “Poe’s Literary Devices Used in
Ligeia”, were an interesting study on a particular passage regarding the
mysteries of Ligeia’s eyes, which are presently as both perfect and terrible in
their divine construction. The very essence of this as Blue points out, is the
prevalence of the sublime. Of course, when I had first read this passage to
which she refers, I had stumbled upon the idea that perhaps this had been a
description of physical fits of “passion”, as Poe would say—and alluded to a
hidden temperament that we are never explicitly shown. However, Blue’s analysis
makes a great deal of sense when she puts us to question whether we have ever
been “so happy that you were afraid something was going to go off the rails and
mess everything up?” I believe this analysis stands on solid ground; our
narrator does elevate Ligeia to impossible standards of beauty and expresses a
great deal of love for our subject, and such a love could potentially be
sublime. Beautiful in its essence, yet terrifying in the thought that perhaps
something ill could befall such a happiness. Overall, I think it is fair to say
that this could be a very real fear of loss in the face of great love.
Ronni Abshier’s essay “Sublime: Not Just a Scary Good
Band Name” also focuses on the sublime, though her analysis expands beyond Poe’s
“Ligeia” and into Rip Van Winkle. Abshier describes Rip’s ascent up the
mountain, in which the author details for us the supreme beauty that the
mountains have to offer while also communicating the sheer ghastly size and
enormity of the rock upon which he treads. It gives us the sensation of being
small and insignificant in the face of such beauty that monstrously outsizes
us—in this we can see the sublime, which is further highlighted by the
thunderous sounds echoing through the mountains. Most interestingly however, is
Abshier’s idea that perhaps that thundering was a sort of warning for Rip, which
I found adds to sublime aspect of the story.
Teresa Edeen’s essay “Aesthetic of the Macabre” also
deals with the sublime but makes an interesting intersection with the Gothic. In
this essay she points out that “…the gothic and the sublime styles share a fair
bit of overlap…”, which I think is accurate, but depends on the text being
examined. In the case of Poe’s “Ligeia”, which she examines here, this claim is
most certainly valid. Poe’s affinity for the Arabesque in his aesthetics
certainly would indicate that both the Gothic and the sublime are working
together to create an atmosphere that is beautiful yet disturbing
simultaneously. The castellated Abbey is outwardly Gothic in style, but the
parapet that he decorates for his bride is dripping in the aesthetic of the
Arabesque, giving the atmosphere something of the beautiful and the
terrifying—which is only further accentuated by the phantasmagoric tapestries
that seem to move on their own—thus, the sublime and the Gothic work together
and create something unique.
Reading the essays of former students helped me discover
the different ways that the sublime was being used and how that use of the
element of the sublime served to elevate the story. In Poe’s “Ligeia”—as Blue
referred to it—the sublime is not simply an aesthetic and atmospheric value, but
also is capable of making a larger point. It is capable of creating an
atmosphere which, according to Blue, is able to communicate a fear—or real
sense—of loss and shows us how helpless we are in the face of mortality.
Abshier’s and Edeen’s views are similar, in that, the sublime is able to create
a sense of foreboding and possibly, foreshadowing of things to come. Though
Edeen’s view shows that the sublime is part of a larger concept within the genre
of the Gothic, in which aesthetics are important in creating an atmosphere which
sets the tone for the entire story. The aesthetics are largely important in many
of Poe’s stories and set the mood, much as Abshier describes in Rip Van Winkle
of something terrifying that is sure to come to pass.
