LITR 4328 American Renaissance / Model Assignments

Sample Student Research Project 2013
Journal

Katelyn Valis

Poe, Master of the Gothic

Introduction to the Gothic

            Gothic is a literary term used to create terror, to “open fiction to the realm of the irrational” (Campbell, 2014), and to evoke weird, wonderful feelings in the reader. The gothic usually takes place in a realm of mystery and is most likely an area that readers are unfamiliar with. For example; a grand abandoned castle or dark woods.

            Because the gothic can open another realm of the irrational, it is easy for the reader to become completely drawn into the story. Readers can lose all sense of reality and become lost within a gothic novel.

Characteristics of the Gothic

·         Gloom, terror, mystery

·         Elements that challenge reality or mysterious events

·         Supernatural beings or occurrences

·         Haunted space

·         Light and dark (shades of grey and blood-red colors)

·         Focus on death or the living who appear to be half-dead

·         Emotions of the gothic: fear, despair, revenge, or anger

History of Gothic

            Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th century in some areas. The term Gothic was coined by Italian writers of the Renaissance. Gothic architecture had a very grand, tall, and mysterious appearance. It used sharp lines, gaudy décor, and creepy statues such as gargoyles. It is no wonder that stories like Dracula and Frankenstein are associated with the dark, eeriness that is the gothic.

Introduction to Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is often regarded as one of the great American writers. His works are loved and appreciated greatly. “Poe can also plausibly be considered the pioneer of science fiction, the horror film, the short story, Symbolism, modern prose romance, modernism, perhaps even modern American literature itself” (Nicol, 2012). His abundant use of the gothic is what draws people in. His poetry mesmerizes people and almost puts them into a trance-like state of mind. When reading one of Poe’s works of literature, the reader can sometimes forget about the life they are living because Poe pulls readers in so deep with his strong use of imagery. It is almost as if the reader is there alongside Poe as he is telling his story.

            Poe was the total package back in his day. Dashing good looks and a brain made him a double threat. There were quite of few female characters that “pervade Poe’s fictional works, haunting them in repeated patterns of behavior with respect to strange diseases, doubtful deaths and subsequent resurrections” (Lopes, 2010). He was quite the clever man when it came to his work. His poetry is so melodic and has such a sing-song nature to them that makes them very easy and actually enjoyable to read. Poe draws you in with not only his words, but also his style.

The Raven

            The famous opening stanza sets the mood and scene of Poe’s beautifully gothic poem. At first there is a sense of fear as Poe is discovering what is making noise outside his door. The suspense is halted as he opens the door and finds nothing there, but then the suspense gathers once again as the tapping persists this time on a window.                 

[1.1]  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

[1.2]  Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,           

[1.3]  While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

[1.4]  As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

[1.5]  "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-

[1.6]  Only this, and nothing more."

Poe is famous for his use of eloquent language which is what makes reading his works so enjoyable and fantastical. The Raven has a sing-song type of melody that makes it exciting to read as well. Again noting how clever Poe is, he keeps the melody while at the same time rhymes every line to the next; which is quite a difficult and time consuming task given the length of this poem.

            Another style that draws the reader in to this poem is the repetitive style that Poe uses throughout. Because Poe consistently repeats himself about the tapping on his chamber door, readers can grasp the gothic idea that Poe is in a realm of the irrational himself.

            Readers can feel his despair as he calls out for Lenore thinking either she is outside his chamber door or the raven itself is harboring the spirit of Lenore and it is trying to tell him something.

            [5.1]  Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

        [5.2]  Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;

        [5.3]  But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

        [5.4]  And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!"

        [5.5]  This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"—

        [5.6]  Merely this, and nothing more.

Poe longs for Lenore so intensely that he believes this raven is the answer to his dreams. His feeling of despair quickly alters to anger as he realizes that the raven is not the spirit of his beloved, but rather an ordinary raven. He yells at the black bird for tricking him and orders it to leave his chamber.

Ligeia

            Poe harbors on the death of another beloved. This time the readers see another characteristic of the gothic: focus on death or the living that appear half-dead. As Rowena lay in her tomb, Poe believes he hears a breath or a sigh from his bride and he rushes over to where she lays to get a closer look. By what Poe describes, her skin has the color of the living rather than that of the deceased. He also says that he thinks she was smiling because he can see a glimmer of her white teeth beneath her lips that were not visible before.

[24] “I was a second time aware of some vague sound issuing from the region of the bed. I listened—in extremity of horror. The sound came again—it was a sigh. Rushing to the corpse, I saw—distinctly saw—a tremor upon the lips. In a minute afterward they relaxed, disclosing a bright line of the pearly teeth.  Amazement now struggled in my bosom with the profound awe…There was now a partial glow upon the forehead and upon the cheek and throat; a perceptible warmth pervaded the whole frame; there was even a slight pulsation at the heart. The lady lived…Suddenly, the color fled, the pulsation ceased, the lips resumed the expression of the dead, and, in an instant afterward, the whole body took upon itself the icy chilliness, the livid hue, the intense rigidity, the sunken outline, and all the loathsome peculiarities of that which has been, for many days, a tenant of the tomb.”

This supernatural occurrence that Poe has with his beloved Rowena screams gothic. Poe’s vivacious language makes the reader believe that this is really happening and that they are right there with Poe witnessing everything. Sublime is a literary term that can be umbrella-d with the gothic, because the sublime is a great terror that is awesome at the same time. As Poe sees this color flourish in his bride and can feel her body tremor, he is in such awe that he is terrified as well.

The Fall of the House of Usher

            This Poe creation falls under the psychological gothic because not only the setting is haunted, but the mind as well. Lady Madeline is Roderick Usher’s sister and Poe describes her character as if she is living yet half-dead because she floats around the house like a ghost almost in a trance-like state. Roderick Usher’s mind becomes haunted once he realizes that he buried his sister alive.

            I would say that this is the most gruesome, and horrifying of Poe’s stories. It resembles most like one of today’s horror films by how Poe describes the setting. “The tale is a tour de force of Gothic fiction” (Cook, 2012), it features a haunted castle, medieval décor, a family curse, symbolic doubling, an entrapped maiden, a self-conscious narrator, and a deeply buried secret that is exposed at the climax of the story.

[43] “there did stand  the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold—then, with a low moaning cry,  fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.”

This is Roderick’s nightmares come true. He has been tortured with guilt for burying his sister alive, and he claims to hear her footsteps on the stairs as well as the sound of her beating heart constantly.

            The color scheme of the gothic is shades of grey mixed with blood-red colors. In the very last paragraph of the Fall of the House of Usher, a blood red moon shone bright against the dark sky. The contrast of light and dark as well as the red colored moon are all elements of the gothic style.

Conclusion

            Edgar Allan Poe, the American gothic; author of ghost stories. The gothic style draws people in because there is something so enticing about themes of death, despair, terror, and the grotesque. What started out as haunted castles and houses, expanded to haunted minds and haunted woods. Perhaps the gothic genre will expand to other elements in the future. For now, the elements of light and dark, supernatural beings, mystery, gloom, and terror are what memorizes readers and takes them on a journey to a place in their minds they have never imagined before.

Works Cited

Campbell, Donna M. "Novel, Romance, and Gothic: Brief Definitions." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. 3 July 2014. Web. https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/novel.htm

Cook, Jonathan A. "Poe and The Apocalyptic Sublime: 'The Fall Of The House Of Usher'." Papers on Language And Literature: A Journal For Scholars And Critics Of Language And Literature 48.1 (2012): 3-44. MLA International Bibliography. Web.

Lopes, Elisabete. "Unburying The Wife: A Reflection Upon The Female Uncanny In Poe's 'Ligeia'." Edgar Allan Poe Review 11.1 (2010): 40-50. MLA International Bibliography. Web.

Nicol, Bran. "Reading And Not Reading 'The Man Of The Crowd': Poe, The City, And The Gothic Text." Philological Quarterly 91.3 (2012): 465-493. MLA International Bibliography. Web.

Poe, Edgar A. The Raven. (1845). Web.

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/AmClassics/poems/PoePoems/PoeRaven.htm

Poe, Edgar A. Ligeia. (1845). Web.

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/AmClassics/RomFiction/Poe/PoeLigeia.htm

Poe, Edgar A. The Fall of the House of Usher. (1840). Web.

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/AmClassics/RomFiction/Poe/PoeUsher.htm

"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA