James R. Hood

4 March, 2004 

Gothic Markers and the Psychology of Exploration Literature

The literature of space and exploration, although in some ways very similar to that of Travel writing, incorporates elements from several other literary styles as well, including the Science Fiction, Romance, and Gothic genres, and it may be presented in various narrative forms, often in combination with each other. One such example of this interweaving of narrative forms and literary genres is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, the only novel written by this master of the short story. Other methods of presenting exploration literature include journals (both scientific and personal), as well as memoirs and interviews, with many of these styles represented in an anthology of works edited by Clint Willis, entitled Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration. Although Poe’s novel and these various works differ in style and substance—Pym is a work of fiction, while the selections from Ice are non-fiction—they do share many of the same markers of Gothic literature, and those elements affect these explorers—whether they be fictional or non-fiction characters—who share similar psychological strengths and weaknesses.

The title character in Poe’s novel is a young man who wishes to escape from an environment where he finds himself a prisoner of a social construct that equates “norming” with success. To effect this escape from “civilized society,” Pym’s friend, Augustus, smuggles Pym aboard a vessel bound for exploring unknown regions, stowing the young man away in the cargo hold of the ship. Pym fancies the notion of becoming an adventurer, and mentions two prominent explorers of the nineteenth century, Lewis and Clark, who also journeyed to unknown regions on a quest for knowledge—in their case, geographical. Pym’s journey, though predating the actual conquest of Antarctica and the South Pole, examines the psychological workings of the mind of the explorer as much, if not more, than the external forces that he encounters.

Pym does tell of several catastrophes, both natural and man-made, that he endures, but these events are nearly always, as one will see in many of the selections from the Ice anthology as well, recounted in terms of their psychological effect on the characters involved. For example, Pym writes of having been trapped within the confines of the ship’s cargo hold, a horror that he likened to being entombed alive, which is a theme that runs through much of Poe’s other works. Pym recalls that during this period of being trapped within the bowels of the ship that his “dreams were of the most terrific description. Every species of calamity and horror befell me” (Poe 21). Pym states that, among other things, his dreams included visions of demons, serpents, and limitless deserts, and these images disturb him psychologically (Poe 21). According to The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2003), Gothic elements of literature include monsters or devils, as well as settings that are gloomy or bleak, which describes not only Pym’s “physical” surroundings—the dark and gloomy cargo hold of the ship—but those that exist only within his mind as well—the “monsters and devils,” and this manifestation of the demons in Pym’s dreams indicates that the Gothic elements of his external surroundings are affecting him psychologically, or internally.

This psychological tug-of-war manifests itself not only in fictional characters such as Pym, but in real characters as well, as evidenced in many of the Ice anthology’s offerings. While Objective 5(c) of this course in the Literature of Space and Exploration suggests that an individual might possess a certain psychological makeup that leads him or her to want to venture beyond the borders of society, the very nature of the unknown is that it is psychologically threatening, since an individual never can be sure of what lies “out there.” Oftentimes, the explorers will find themselves “exposed” to the elements, which suggests that the person is vulnerable, both physically and psychologically. This fear of the unknown is mediated by a desire to overcome nature, which itself is another marker of Gothic literature. Who can forget Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which the title character “creates” life from death, thus performing the ultimate act of mastering nature? In this quest to conquer nature, however, explorers need not only to confront the external forces of nature, but must deal with the “demons” within their own minds that result from being exposed to these hardships as well.

In his book review, entitled “A Magnificent Failure,” A. Alvarez writes of Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World  in terms of its psychological implications. Alvarez suggests that part of explorers’ psychological makeup can be attributed to those individuals’ desires to “escape” society, much as Pym does. Alvarez offers an anecdote on this trait, stating that

Mallory’s famous reason for wanting to climb Everest—“Because it’s there”—was only half the story. The other half was “Because you’re here”—where “you” included the town, the job, the hierarchies, the wife, the kids, the dog, and, above all, the kind of person who would ask such a stupid question in the first place. (Alvarez 7)

While Alvarez believes, much as Tom Wolfe does, that true adventurers possess “The Right Stuff,” that does not mean that these individuals are not affected psychologically by external forces. Even Apsley Cherry-Garrad, whom Alvarez thinks highly of, succumbs to despair, much as Pym, the fictional character. In Poe’s novel, Pym bemoans being “entombed alive” with the “blackness of darkness” his only companion (Poe 148), while Cherry-Garrard writes that while enduring the bitter cold of his journey was difficult enough with daylight, “It was the darkness that did it,” with regards to what made the journey nearly unbearable from a psychological standpoint (Cherry-Garrad 65).

Pym and Cherry-Garrard also share similar thoughts of ending their suffering, it seems, as evidenced by passages in both narratives. Pym writes of “longing to fall” when descending the cliff while he and Dirk escape, which indicates that he may believe that death would be a welcome alternative to his suffering (Poe 166). Similarly, Cherry-Garrard begins to wonder, during his ordeal, “if only I could die without much pain,” which illustrates the degree to which the elements of darkness, gloom, and fear of the unknown have affected him psychologically (Cherry-Garrard 65). Near the end of this excerpt from The Worst Journey in the World, he also writes that “madness or death may give relief” and begins to envision “death as a friend,” both remarks reflecting his despair (Cherry-Garrard 99).

One might posit that Gothic elements contribute to that psychological state, since Cherry-Garrard lists so many Gothic devices in his description of Terror Point. He writes that they were surrounded by fog, and that

…quite suddenly, vague, indefinable, monstrous, there loomed something ahead. I remember having a feeling as of ghosts about as we untoggled our harnesses from the sledge, tied them together, and thus roped walked upwards on that ice. The moon was showing a ghastly ragged mountainous edge above us in the fog, and as we rose we found that we were on a pressure ridge. We stopped, looked at one another, and then bang—right under our feet. (Cherry-Garrard 82).

With the devices of fog, something looming monstrously nearby, ghastly ragged edges of a mountain illuminated by moonlight, and the unexpected bang of the cracking ice underneath, this narrative might well have been taken from a Gothic fiction novel, in which there is always a measure of uncertainty—the “unknown” in this case being the barren, cold, darkness of Antarctica—with which the characters must contend. The constant stress of “not knowing” what lies ahead certainly takes it toll on even those whose psychological makeup drives them to explore the unknown.

Another literary work that illustrates the difficulty in reconciling these opposing psychological forces is Alone, written by Richard Byrd, in which he describes having lived by himself under similar conditions for an extended period of time. Although Byrd had the “luxury” of having a more hospitable shelter in which to live under these conditions, he had to do so, as the title suggests, alone—without the benefit of fellow explorers’ physical companionship. Although Byrd did have radio contact with others, for the most part he preferred to take advantage of the opportunities for self-reflection that his isolation offered, displaying the writing skills that scientists trained in the “classics” possess by crafting the wonderful prose, full of literary references, that one sees in his work. Byrd’s first impression of the solitude of his Antarctic environs was that “It was a queer business. I felt as though I had been plumped upon another planet or into another geologic horizon of which man had no knowledge or memory” (Byrd 139).

Byrd documents his thoughts on being alone in this unknown world, managing to keep human emotions separate from reasoning, which may be attributed to the detached, objective manner of analyzing phenomena that most scientists have been trained to perform, although, in this case, the “subject” of his analysis is himself. Byrd writes of the psychological issues that one contends with when one is subjected to this sort of isolation in a harsh, unforgiving world where fear of the unknown constantly permeates one’s thoughts, stating that “It was one thing to instruct the mind; it was another to make it obey” (Byrd 143).

Francis Spufford’s offering in the Ice anthology, an excerpt from I May Be Some Time, tacitly agrees with this belief that the psychological effects of these hardships might outweigh those of a purely physical nature, stating that “nothing that happens to our bodies really matters” (Spufford 294). This implies that Spufford places psychological well-being ahead of physical well-being, most likely reasoning that if one’s mind is beaten by these conditions, all is lost, whereas with the loss of a finger or toe, the “person” survives. Spufford does write, however, about how difficult it is to maintain this psychological well-being by describing the “terrific and terrifying” environment that surrounds the explorers (Spufford 293). Indeed, Spufford writes that the explorers should fear this unforgiving world, stating that “It’s too big, too silent, too cold. It’s all too much” (Spufford 314). Even something much smaller than those overwhelming and threatening elements of nature may affect one psychologically, since, as Spufford quotes of Cherry-Garrard, even the “loss of a biscuit crumb left a sense of injury which lasted for a week” (Spufford 318). One can only imagine the psychological effects that these many hardships have on explorers, particularly when their very lives could depend on a single biscuit-crumb.

While most of the explorers in these selections possess the psychological demeanor necessary to face these types of hardships with what Cherry-Garrard refers to as “good manners,” others cannot cope with the sort of psychological issues that are present in those situations. Barbara Sharp, a student in an earlier Literature of Space and Exploration course at this university writes that

When Edgar Allan Poe wrote his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, he centers the tone on the element of fear. Poe connects the outer world of an exploration to the South Pole with the inner world of an exploration into the human mind. Outer fearful adventures are faceted with the turmoil of inner anxiety and fear. (Sharp 2002)

Anxiety and fear of the unknown are two markers of Gothic literature that lend themselves easily to the Literature of Space and Exploration, because explorers are venturing into regions, as Byrd states earlier, “of which man had no knowledge or memory” (Byrd 139). This journey into the unknown, however, not only tests one’s physical endurance—it also, as evidenced by the tales recounted in Pym and the Ice anthology, tests one’s mettle psychologically, and the Gothic elements present in these harsh environments certainly contribute to that testing of one’s will.

Although many of these offerings from the Literature of Space and Exploration genre depict characters who do “pass the test,” one must also recall that there are many others who fail, such as Robert Falcon Scott. Indeed, Scott’s last journal entry comes just over two weeks prior to the sinking of the Titanic. The fact that two catastrophic events involving “exploring new worlds” come on the heels of each other nearly half a world apart would most likely have had a profound psychological effect on society, since both events illustrated the risk involved in venturing beyond the safety of civilization, far into the dark, cold, unknown regions where only the strong of heart—and mind—survive.

Works Cited

Alvarez, A. “A Magnificent Failure.” Rev. of The Worst Journey in the World, by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard. The New York Review.

Byrd, Richard E. Alone. Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration. Ed. Clint Willis. New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 1999.

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration. Ed. Clint Willis. New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 1999.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Arthur Gordon Pym. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Scott, Robert Falcon. Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals. Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration. Ed. Clint Willis. New York: Thunder Mouth Press, 1999.

Sharp, Barbara. “Relating Crisis and Tragedy in Exploration: When's It Appealing?” UHCL Literature of Space and Exploration Course Midterm, 2002.

Spufford, Francis. I May Be Some Time. Ice: Stories of Survival from Polar Exploration. Ed. Clint Willis. New York: Thunder Mouth  Press, 1999.