American Literature: Romanticism research assignment Student Research Submissions 2013 research essay

Munira Omari

May 6, 2013

                      Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell Tale Heart and The Premature Burial

          In recent years, people have become fond of what is considered to be dark and taboo. Watching horror movies and listening to hard metal rock has become a fashion and a style of interest for millions of people around the world. Why this fascination with Goth has become a major part in their life?   

          Gothic literature has been a common interesting style of literature for a few hundred of years. It is synonymous with dark castles, haunted houses, grave yards and unsolved, horrific deaths. Gothic literature has various images and elements and the main goal of Gothic is to plant the seed of fear in the hearts of those who see or read them. In a way, I think it is an idea of escape, the escape from reality and the morals of a society is somewhat realistic for people; thus having this attachment to Gothic literature. During the 19^th century, Gothic was side by side compared with the Romantic literary style in which Gothic had this dark side to it, whereas Romantic literature had a bright and shining aura that also attracted many. It has brought a connection between Romanticism and death, darkness and love in one genre. This paper will analyze the elements of Gothic in the works of Edgar Allan Poe: The Premature Burial and The Tell Tale Heart.

          Gothic literature has been predominant for hundreds of years. As mentioned earlier, it has the mixture of Horror and Romance in one. There seems to always be a love story hidden in the horrors of the situation; however, the stories I have chosen, the main characters are not in a romantic relation with a female. The affect of the Gothic is mainly the comfort or release after fear. As Stephen King indicates in his essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies?” people are in their nature “mentally ill”. People chAllange themselves by watching gruesome movies or riding roller coasters we know are scary because we want to feel normal. Having the sense of normality through discovering that the world is not only beautiful, but that it is also gruesome is the reason why we are attracted to what is scary; and basically why we are attracted to Poe’s work. King also mentions in his essay that there is no such thing as ‘normal’ and that we all enjoy seeing people in pain and Gothic literature and horror movies gave us that.

          Gothic has many elements and forms that are clearly seen in the writing, and especially in Poe’s writing. Some elements are clearly seen in the background: haunted houses, ghosts, creepy forests, grave yards and death and can also have psychological meanings to it. Poe followed these rules and used death and grave yards in his stories. It was said that Poe was an insane person, especially when he drank. Basically, since we were children, our mothers, fathers and our communities warned us and tried to scare us. They tried to plant fear in our hearts from death, murder and being buried alive that we see it as normal and at the same time not normal. Our society has considered these topics as taboo and that only the mentally ill (insane) people would do them. King emphasizes on this point in his essay “Certain of these emotional muscles are accepted – even exalted – in civilized society; they are, of course, the emotions that tend to maintain the status quo of civilization itself. Love, friendship, loyalty, kindness -- these are all the emotions that we applaud, emotions that have been immortalized…” and thus Gothic is considered to be more psychological than factual, and this is why Poe was so talented. Thus, the works of many Gothic writers speak of a deeper psychological meaning, and Poe using what he knows in his writing, as Burwick states about Poe, “Poe's imagination exhibits its 'submissive,' 'self-pitying,' or 'depressive' phase” (2).

 Edgar Allan Poe is the father of Horror and Gothic literature. He is well known for his Romantic and Gothic short stories and poems. With his writing, he creeps into the mind of the reader and causes fear that trembles the soul. His style in writing transitions the reader into a state of distress and despair, following it a cathartic relief, but how cathartic can Poe be? He was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. He lived as an orphan after his mother died and his father abandoned them. Then he was taken by John and Frances Allan, who took care of him but never formally adopted him. After realizing he was not successful in the military, he decided to leave his family and write poems and prose. At that point in his life he published his successful poem “The Raven”.

          The Premature Burial was published in 1844. It is one of Poe’s short stories. It is about an unknown man who suffers from catalepsy—a disease that affects the nerves—and in this short story, this man narrates various tales of premature burials that he had heard of; and clearly he is afraid of it himself, as we will learn at the end of the story; he takes certain precautions to which has an unpleasant ending. However, in The Tell Tale Heart, the narrator tells the story of the killing of an old man with a vulture eye. He explains the situation and the killing in details, and this story as well has a shocking ending for the reader.

          From the titles of the short stories, we can clearly classify them under the Gothic genre. Both stories are dark and gloomy. The Premature Burial has a very chilling tone to it. The one thing that people are mostly afraid of is being buried alive and it was something that no one could possibly dare to speak of; however, Poe did. The Tell Tale Heart has the same Gothic tone to it, but it has an unease feel to it. The story takes place in a dark and lonely house. In The Premature Burial he wrote a complete short story of the many premature burials which existed over a period of time, without using his voice, but the voice of a man who is in pain. In the period of time, there have been many factual stories of premature burials. He indicates in the beginning of this story that people have great satisfaction when in pain or seeing other people in pain. “We thrill, for example, with the most intense of ‘pleasurable pain’” (The Premature Burial). King also noted in his essay that people in their deep and darkest minds we all feel pleasure with pain we cause. He also states that all humans are “mentally ill”.  Meaning we enjoy the pain we inflect on people. Thus, we can see the connection between these two writes that are famous for their horror genres and their manipulation of the human mind and how it works. It is clear that the two famous Horror writers agree with that statement.

 The first noticeable style is that he gives the illusion of relief just before the ending, then, he surprises the reader. His style of writing in both short stories The Premature Burial and The Tell Tale Heart is an appealing style. He gradually prepares the reader for the final release, or as we can also say, the final exhale; then he shocks the reader back into reality and back into the fear zone. We can clearly see this in the beginning of The Premature Burial as the unknown narrator explains how he prepared his grave and as he was relieved that he was not buried alive by giving these multiple examples of cases in which people were accidentally buried alive, and him being able to strategize his escape if he was accidentally trapped in the tomb; and after shocking the reader as he is trapped in an unmarked grave struggling to get out. It is as if Poe wanted the reader to feel the struggle and fear of the narrator. In The Tell Tale Heart, Poe uses that technique of leaving the narrator nameless, which we will discuss later. He has the reader also believe that once the old man was dead, he would feel that feeling of comfort, or catharsis. However, to the surprise of the reader, the servant hears the heart of the old man and surrenders himself to the officers. This technique I would like to call it Reverse Catharsis. Somehow, the greatest Horror fiction writers seem to agree on this concept. This method is sometimes used in horror movies, where the protagonist comes to a feeling of safety and security and in an instant they might be killed by the monster of the movie. The method of reverse catharsis has an affective reaction from the audience. I remember a time when I watched a movie called “The Ring”. It is a horror movie that did not have a happy ending as we shall call it. After the movie, I had that sense in which I thought that the monster of the movie was going to attack me because it did not die in the end. This style of writing that Poe uses for his endings has the same effect as unresolved horror endings do. To my surprise, Poe did not have any background psychology of any kind as he wrote this and yet he has caused many hearts to tremble.

Poe, in both short stories, uses the first person narration. First person narration means that he uses the pronoun “I” instead of a name or a pronoun for the narrator. This style of writing is also connected to the style of Poe and psychology. Poe’s goal in his writing is to have the reader connect to the story and he does that by forcing the reader to say “I”. By doing this, he is not excluding anyone from that situation. Subconsciously, he is driving the reader to admit and make them become one with story that no one is safe. It is basically as the point of view shots in films, where the director forces the viewer to see things in their point of view. This concept is to show the reality or factuality of the situation, and thus putting fear in the reader’s heart that they are not immune to it. He intends to put the reader in his mind; the mind of sanity and insanity. The use of this first person allows him to communicate his thoughts and his feelings towards one thing by speaking through a narrator. From the realistic reports, we can assume that Poe was meaning to educate and warn people from the medical mistakes and to put fear in the hearts of the reader.

Understanding the mind of the reader is one of the most important concepts of writing literature. A person who writes literature must have the ability to connect to the reader.  As far as to Freud, the father of psychology, Poe had no relation to him. He died before Freud was born. As far as his knowledge of psychology, Poe did not research about it and I was not a common topic at the time. But where did Poe get the skill to enter the mind of the reader and use psychology in his writing. I believe that Poe had the tendency to understand the mind of the reader through his own experiences in life. As we have mentioned in the introduction, Poe was not a happy child and his only success was in his writing. I also believe that the people who were attracted and loved his writing were people who wanted change. People who thought of the clinically insane people were evil and demons were living in their bodies. Poe’s alcoholism was also a key concept in understanding his mind and his ability to influence people. With this Poe understood the meaning of “getting into the mind of the reader” by pointing out something far more fearful, such as being buried alive. In the beginning of this story, the unnamed narrator was pointing out stories that he had heard of from the newspaper and these stories were specifically about premature burials. In the end of the short story, the narrator indicates all the precautions he took in order not to get buried alive. Although The Tell Tale Heart he did not use the same method as in The Premature Burial, he used a more realistic one. Meaning, he used a more everyday life situation in the story, which also means that Poe invaded the minds of the people with realistic situations. Let’s compare this to a modern day horror movie. When we watch a horror movie about vampires, werewolves or zombies, we do not feel the same fear as if we watched a horror movie about demons or serial killers. And the fact is that we know that vampire and werewolves do not exist. They were created out of the imaginations of the writer. However, in movies about serial killers, we tend to fear for our lives because it is something that we hear about in the news and possibly in the neighborhood. That is something that Poe focused on in these two short stories.

Another point that was dominant and easily noticeable in Poe’s stories and its connection to his life as an orphan and an alcoholic is the entrapment and enslavement of the narrator. In The Premature Burial, the narrator was entrapped in his grave as he struggled for freedom. And not only that, but he also was enslaved and obsessed by his fear of being buried alive. This concept is also seen in The Tell Tale Heart as the narrator indicates that:

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees -- very gradually --I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.

From the text taken from the story, it is clear that the idea was planted in his mind and was a slave to it as it consumed him and it was his mission, as it was in The Premature Burial, it was the narrator’s mission to protect himself from the thought that was haunting him. This notion is connected to Poe and his feelings of entrapment, since he was not good at anything as he was growing up.

          Another aspect that is seen in Poe’s work is transcendence. Transcendence means the feeling of elevation and reaching a higher place. In both stories The Premature Burial and The Tell Tale Heart, it is noticed that both narrators elevate to a higher sense of greatness after their achievement. “I then smiled gaily, to find the deed so far done” (The Tell Tale Heart). In The Premature Burial, the narrator describes how happy he felt as he took all his precautions in his tomb. This is what Poe was aiming at in his stories, the tragic ending of the hero. As mentioned earlier, Catharsis and Tragedy go with each other. And that is what I feel makes Poe’s work amazing. Since the beginning of playwright and poems, Tragedy plays were famous and ended in giving the viewer a cathartic feeling. Many great writers, such as Shakespeare and Sophocles wrote such plays and had done an amazing job with them.

In a way, I will need to agree with the famous horror story writer in our days. We are all “mentally ill ; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all” (King). People need an escape. It is true that Poe had a dark and mysterious ending, but in the end his escape was through his stories. He wrote what he thought would release that loneliness. We all need an escape and we have that evil in us. Poe understood that and King also understood the need to watch horror movies or to read horror stories because we all need to release our insanity and our instincts. And that is why we are attracted to Gothic and Horror.

The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized . . . and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark…[and watching these films is] as lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath. Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man. It keeps them down there and me up here. It was Lennon and McCartney who said that all you need is love, and I would agree with that.

As long as you keep the gators fed (King).

                                                           Works Cited

Burwick, Fredrick. "Edgar Allan Poe: The Sublime, the Picturesque, the Grotesque, and the Arabesque."American Studies. 43.3 (1998): 423-436. Web. 5 May. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/41157397 .>.

King, Stephen. "Why We Crave Horror Movies?." (1981): n. page. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. <http://www.vonsteuben.org/ourpages/auto/2013/1/4/56603637/StephenKing_Why We Crave Horror Movies.pdf>.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell Tale Heart. 1850. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Premature Burial. 1850. Print.