Psychological Study of Edger Allan Poe
Paper 10: The American Literature
Psychological Study
of Edger Allan Poe
KAUSHAL DESAI
PG
Enrollment No: BU13141001177
MA
Sem.: 3
Roll
No: 12
Department
of English,
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinghji Bhavnagar University
Bhavnagar(Gujarat-India)
Bhavnagar(Gujarat-India)
Abstract
“I became insane, with long intervals of
horrible sanity”. ~Edgar Allan
Poe. Edgar Allan Poe, the noted American Author, Poet, Editor, and Literary
Critic. He considered as major part of observing the paranormal literature.
Who gave a new way of establishing the work in sense of thinking of horror,
which is now a days this genre is so popular. In other sense his tales of
mystery and imagination is conveys the mind of something that is beyond
something and not a normal person can think in the way that Edgar Allan Poe
thinks. It’s interesting to study Edgar Allan Poe with going through his short
stories and Poems. He observed Fantasy and defectiveness in America for that
his way of writing based his invention of this. In which it gives the idea of
how his mind reflects and as beyond thinker, he himself what wants to convey
is so connective to this study of him. In this way we will discuss some of his
highly influenced short stories that will clarify our point. He coolly
enumerated the narrative modes he meant to exploit: “the ludicrous heightened
into the grotesque; the fearful colored into the horrible; the witty
exaggerated into the burlesque; the singular wrought out into the strange and
mystical.” Committing himself to an extreme art sometimes approaching “the
very verge of bad taste,” Poe aimed to achieve celebrity by shocking the
public. Every aspect is important in his study and I attempting to give
justice by his work.
Edgar Allan Poe gives a view of
different world, the world of imagination, fantasy, horror, and thriller. One
can say that he is beyond thinker of paranormal things. If we going to talk
about his foremost work then we surely come cross this works; The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Cask of
Amontillado, The Gold-Bug, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue,’ ‘The Purloined
Letter’ and ‘The Mystery of Marie
Roget’. But the most influenced thing we find in him and his works is also
affected by his early life.
It is important to
look at his life. Edgar’s father, a son of General David Poe, the American
revolutionary patriot and friend of Lafayette, had married Mrs. Hopkins, an
English actress, and, the match meeting with parental disapproval, had himself
taken to the stage as a profession. Notwithstanding Mrs. Poe’s beauty and
talent the young couple had a sorry struggle for existence. An alien presence in
the first generation of professional American authors, Edgar Allan Poe has
fascinated generations of readers around the world while perplexing scholars.
From the outset he overturned expectations and flouted conventions. The
self-proclaimed need to “conquer or die succeed or be disgraced” drove
Poe to stretch the boundaries of literary representation. Poe’s paradoxical
trafficking in corporeality and spirituality, in vulgarity and sublimity, in
banal humor and mortal seriousness may have something to do with his wide
appeal as well as his resistance to facile categorization. His compulsion to
astonish or perplex led him to overturn familiar assumptions, as when his
detective C. Auguste Dupin observes: “Truth is not always in a well. In fact,
as regards the more important knowledge, I do believe that she is invariably
superficial.”
When Edgar, at the
age of two years, was orphaned, the family was in the utmost destitution.
Apparently the future poet was to be cast upon the world homeless and
friendless. But fate decreed that a few glimmers of sunshine were to illumine
his life, for the little fellow was adopted by John Allan, a wealthy merchant
of Richmond, Va. A brother and sister, the remaining children, were cared for
by others. In his new home Edgar found all the luxury and advantages money
could provide. He was petted, spoiled and shown off to strangers. In Mrs. Allan
he found all the affection a childless wife could bestow. Mr. Allan took much
pride in the captivating, precocious lad. At the age of five the boy recited,
with fine effect, passages of English poetry to the visitors at the Allan
house. From his eighth to his thirteenth year he attended the Manor House
school, at Stoke-Newington, a suburb of London. It was the Rev. Dr. Bransby,
head of the school, whom Poe so quaintly portrayed in ‘William Wilson.’
Returning to Richmond in 1820 Edgar was sent to the school of Professor Joseph
H. Clarke. He proved an apt pupil. Years afterward Professor Clarke thus wrote:
‘While the other boys wrote mere mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry;
the boy was a born poet. As a scholar he was ambitious to excel.
He was remarkable
for self-respect, without haughtiness. He had a sensitive and tender heart and
would do anything for a friend. His nature was entirely free from selfishness.’
At the age of seventeen Poe entered the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.
He left that institution after one session. Official records prove that he was
not expelled. On the contrary, he gained a creditable record as a student,
although it is admitted that he contracted debts and had ‘an ungovernable
passion for card-playing.’ These debts may have led to his quarrel with Mr.
Allan which eventually compelled him to make his own way in the world. (The Works
of Edgar Allan Poe)
Then
the part of his genius mind that is so important to discuss about psychological
study of him. And that is Mystery and
Imagination. His way of thinking
is must be affected and how to see the characters of his stories is also a task
to go deep into the situational mind. One can also say that this is what some
people can’t think or their out of
capacity. And in this we find several themes like;
♦ Death and its
physical signs
♦ Mystery, horror and
violence
♦ Fictional detective
♦ The power of the imagination
In The Gold-Bug we
follow a man’s obsessive search forburied treasure. After finding a bug of real
gold, the man is convinced that it will lead him to the treasure and make his
fortune. Despite the skepticism of his friend, the man persists with his
search, uncovering clues and breaking a secret code until finally, with the
help of his servant and of his friend; he sets off on a journey into the hills
that ultimately leads them to an amazing discovery.
The Fall of the
House of Usher tells of some very
strange happenings. A man goes to visit an old friend who appears to be
suffering from some strange mental disorder. His sister is very ill and he has
been very badly affected by this. He has lost his taste for life and is
extremely afraid of the future. He feels strongly that the very walls of his
old crumbling house have gained an influence over him. His friend tries to help
him by talking to him and painting with him, but when the man’s sister finally
dies, things go from bad to worse. The man is not convinced that his sister is
really dead and worries that he has buried her alive. The story reaches a
dramatic climax when the dead sister reappears at the door of the house.
The Cask of
Amontillado is another story of
terrible revenge. A man lures his rival into a deep cellar with the promise of
tasting an expensive Spanish wine. The victim’s pride and his single-minded
desire to give his opinion on the wine prevent him from seeing the trap he is
walking into. Even at the last moment, as he is being walled into his death
cell, he seems unable to fully comprehend the terrible nature of his
predicament.
It is a horror beyond the nature
of human mind and psychologically its depressed human conditions. Edgar Allan
Poe gives the idea of how the atmosphere can be taken as an inner side of
mental thoughts and situations. In raising images of
horror, also, he has strange success, conveying to us sometimes by a dusky hint
some terrible doubt which is the secret of all horror. He leaves to imagination
the task of finishing the picture.
‘For
much imaginary work was there;
Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,
That
for Achilles’ image stood his spear
Grasped
in an armed hand; himself behind
Was
left unseen, save to the eye of mind.’
The great masters of imagination have
seldom resorted to the vague and the unreal as sources of effect. They have not
used dread and horror alone, but only in combination with other qualities, as
means of subjugating the fancies of their readers. And here I would like to
give one quote from his work;
“Horrors of
a nature most stern and most appalling would too frequently obtrude themselves
upon my mind, and shake the innermost depths of my soul with the bare
supposition of their possibility.” (Poe)
Poe’s fame nowadays rests more on his macabre tales of
mystery and horror than on his poetry or literary essays. Furthermore he dealt
with mystery, horror, violence and the supernatural and the stories often took
place in dramatic, romantic settings such as ruined castles. They were
extremely popular at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the
nineteenth. Perhaps the most famous example of the genre is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(1818). In his work of poetry, one can also find the element of his
creational genre of horror and madness. Some phrases he tries to give a factual
view of human mind and its perception of thinking.
That motley drama-oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore,
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of madness, and more of sin,
And
horror the soul of the plot. (The Conqueror Worm)
In the
matter of horror so he is challenging the exorcism and it rules. However, the
time become the character’s observation and after then character’s relief from
the situation. ‘Blood shade in the heart of innocent mend’ is also the
fact by which Poe is describing the beauty of madness. And desire for blood is
also the symbol of Poe’s concept. And in his work wrote that “The horrors of this dark deed are known only to one, or
two, living human beings, and to God.” And I also do not forget to write about
his art of ‘The Cryptogram’ and it’s said. The main pole of his
mind thinking and his concept is come out from the childhood as he passed as we
mentioned so one phrase is also there that he writes romantic poems also not
just writes, but as a classics he did his work. So, one think also should be
clear in this way. His tale of the stories is based on the surrounded
conditions. Poe’s stories are remarkable for their inventiveness, their
fine construction, their vivid descriptions and their psychological insight.
Since their first publication, Poe’s powerful stories have captured the
imagination of generations of readers. Many of the stories have been made into
films or television dramas or they have been the source of inspiration for
countless adaptations. In other way looking on the
power of his imagination and the reifying the characters so one can say here
that;
One
idea that obviously interested Poe is the power of the imagination and how it
can possess or haunt a person. We see this theme developed in a number of
stories, particularly William Wilson, The Fall of the House of
Usher and Metzengerstein. Poe was also interested in analyzing how a
person (often a lonely figure) reacts in moments of extreme terror or despair
facing death or torment. We see this in The Pit and the Pendulum,
The Fall of the House of Usher and The Whirlpool. Poe examines
the themes of revenge and punishment in The Barrel of Amontillado, The
Red Death and Metzengerstein while in the detective stories his
underlying theme is the power of deductive reasoning to solve a seemingly
insurmountable problem. (notes)
To be concluding my attempt to
study of him as a psychological way, he defines as a genius thinker of every
possible aspect. He also keenly observer of society based paranormal things and
how the human mind conditioned by this. It is also a good study of seeing him
as a playing sense of various places stick to his short stories. Somewhere
there is inner side of him that maybe no one knows and it is possible. But as
my study of him, I can say that he is a insane thinker and a romantically
killer. So much long can one think and then kill. It’s like “I hate you, but I
love you and I will kill you”. In the sense his works are detective mysterious
so as we mentioned he tell us a vision to think about. And psycho senses that
gives a kind of view of his works to study very intensely.
Works Cited
Teacher's Notes. "Tales of Mystery and
Imagination." PENGUIN READERS Teacher Support Programme Level 5
(2008).
Poe, Edgar Allan.
"The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal." the Raven
Edition 1 (n.d.): 45-126.
"The Conqueror
Worm." PoemHunter-The World's Poetry Archive (2012).
"The Works of
Edgar Allan Poe." The Raven Edition Volume 1 (n.d.): 419.
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