Setting and Psychology in Edgar Allan Poe s Short Stories. Whenever the subject of American Gothicism is discussed, several names are certain to

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1 Peed 1 Setting and Psychology in Edgar Allan Poe s Short Stories Whenever the subject of American Gothicism is discussed, several names are certain to be mentioned: Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and undoubtedly Edgar Allan Poe. One common thread that binds these writers together is their use of distinctly Gothic settings such as cramped chambers, dark castles and Gothic architecture. Some of these writers incorporate these settings merely for decoration or to create a dark, mysterious mood. Poe, however, has a more significant purpose for his settings. In addition to creating detail and mood, Poe s uses Gothic machinery in his tales to symbolize states of mind in his characters tormented by intimations of death, insanity, and other forms of annihilation and chaos (Unrue 114). Of this Gothic machinery, Poe s settings in particular reflect the agitated psychological states of his characters. In all of Poe s horror stories, at least one character, most often the narrator, suffers from a severely disturbed psyche, caused by mental illness, extreme emotional suffering, or both. Mental illness fascinated Poe, who had a genuine understanding of unconscious processes and imaginative powers (Shulman 245). This fascination evidenced itself in his inclusion of psychotic characters in so many of his short stories. One such character, the narrator in Berenice, suffers from monomania, a mental disease that causes him to experience intense and painful meditation (172). This disease drives him to muse for long unwearied hours (172) on the most trivial household objects and eventually causes his sadistic obsession with Berenice s teeth. The narrator in The Cask of Amontillado, though not a monomaniac, does show signs of psychotic obsession through his singular drive for revenge against Fortunato. The Iago-like Montresor declares, I must not only punish, but punish with impunity (191) and refuses to be satisfied until his rival has suffered more than he. The narrator in Ligeia also

2 Peed 2 demonstrates obsession, especially in his worshipful description of Ligeia. In describing her forehead, he says, It was faultless how cold indeed that word when applied to a majesty so divine! (98). In his case, though, at least part of his mental derangement stems from the use of opium. As one critic states, He is living out compulsive fantasies which obtrude upon the opium traces in which he has sought refuge (Hoffman 253). William Wilson suffers from a different form of mental illness than obsession multiple personality disorder. He describes a person with striking similarities to himself same name, same birthday, same dress but says the imitation, apparently, was noticed by myself alone (161), causing the reader to recognize the other William Wilson exists only in the narrator s mind. Roderick Usher, though not a narrator, is still a key character in the story The Fall of the House of Usher and, unlike most of Poe s psychotic characters, actually admits he is mad. Usher s mental agitation is further heightened by his morbid acuteness of the senses (181) he hears, smells, feels everything. In addition to mental disorder, Poe s characters often experience severe emotional distress, usually caused by some kind of loss. Frequently, this loss concerns one of Poe s favorite subjects the death of a beautiful woman. The narrators in Berenice and Ligeia lose a fiancé and wife respectively. Ligeia s husband is overwrought with grief at her death, and Berenice s betrothed, though he does not really love her, still appears greatly disturbed by the announcement of her death. Roderick Usher loses a tenderly beloved sister his sole companion for long years his last and only relative on earth (181). The losses experienced by the narrators in The Cask of Amontillado and William Wilson occur mainly in their minds, but are nevertheless real and disturbing to the characters themselves. Montresor s pride has been wounded when Fortunato ventured upon insult (191), possibly leading him to believe he has lost a part of his

3 Peed 3 reputation or dignity. Wilson, on the other hand, believes he has suffered the loss of his actual identity and is severely distressed at the thought. The agitated psychological states of the characters are reflected in the settings in which Poe places them. In a way, the settings serve as outward manifestations of the characters disturbed psyches and perform a thoroughgoing Gothicization of consciousness (Botting 19). First, the settings reflect the mental confusion that the characters experience in their agitated states. The house in The Fall of the House of Usher serves as an excellent example. It is dark and comfortless and, what is worse, impossible to know (Halliburton 287). The dark and intricate passageways, the somber tapestries, and the ebon blackness of the floors (179) create a feeling of dimness and obscurity. Just as the darkness of the house inhibits the ability to make out specific objects, so Roderick Usher s disturbed mental condition inhibits his ability to think and act rationally. As Donald Ringe states, No clearer image could be drawn of a darkened mind, disoriented within itself and unable to establish a relation to the world without (137). Additionally, the scattered books and musical instruments in Usher s studio further exemplify the disordered state of his mind. The house in William Wilson also represents the narrator s confused mind with its myriad staircases, hallways, and nooks. In fact, Ringe calls it Poe s most convincing depiction of the human mind: its complexity, its hidden recesses, and the dark chambers where one s secret self lies concealed (140). As in The Fall of the House of Usher, this house characterizes the inability to understand the psychotic mind. The house challenges the mind s desire to know, only to baffle that desire by proving inexhaustible (Halliburton 301). Darkness also plays a key role in the settings of William Wilson. The bedroom of Wilson s doppelganger is dark besides the lamp, the candles in the room at Eton are extinguished, and the chamber at Oxford is dimly lit. In each of these settings, Wilson encounters

4 Peed 4 his double and, because of the darkness, can, at least initially, barely make him out. Likewise the narrator s mind seems to almost make out the fact that the other Wilson does not exist in reality but never truly discerns that fact. The dimly lit and bizarre bridal chamber in Ligeia functions as another example of setting as an outward manifestation of the narrator s mind. The chamber, with its eclectic furnishings Venetian glass, semi-gothic and semi-druidical specimens, Eastern candelabra and ottomans, an Indian couch, and an Egyptian sarcophagus externalizes the narrator s disordered mind (Hoffman 251). In addition to reflecting the confusion of the characters minds, Poe s settings also demonstrate the psychological isolation that their disturbed mental states create. For example, in Berenice, the library acts as a picture of the detachment from society that the narrator s monomania has caused. The narrator spends almost his entire existence in the library of his family s mansion. One critic argues that he is unable to consciously leave the library because its boundaries are identical with consciousness (Halliburton 201). This isolation causes a complete reversal of reality in the narrator s mind: he views reality as visions and fantasy as reality. His mind becomes enclosed by its own intellectuality, objectified by the room s function (Ringe 139). The words silent and alone appear repeatedly in the story, underscoring the library s quietness and seclusion, which represent the narrator s mental isolation. Interestingly, the narrator is sitting in the most secluded inner apartment of the library (174) when he experiences his worse episode of monomania the commencement of his obsession with Berenice s teeth. Thus, the inner apartment, which is greatly separated from the social world, especially symbolizes the narrator s extreme mental detachment from reality. Another example of mental isolation occurs in The Cask of Amontillado. The catacombs and the wall that Montresor builds illustrate the mental captivity caused by his psychotic obsession with revenge.

5 Peed 5 The tomb he builds for Fortunato also serves as the prison of his own mind. Even fifty years later, the murder remains the one singular event in Montresor s life that is constantly on his mind. His ability to think of anything else stands chained in the dank vault with Fortunato (Hoffman 219). Roderick Usher s house in The Fall of the House of Usher similarly symbolizes his state of mental isolation. The house features utter isolation of the rooms (Ringe 137) and windows so far from the floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within (180). This isolation and inaccessibility mirrors Usher s inability to let anyone, even the narrator, fully into his life because of his mental agitation. The disturbed mental states and resulting isolation of the characters reflected in their surroundings have consequences with the reader because they cast doubt on whether the characters, particularly the narrators, can be trusted. The reader cannot be sure that, in their troubled emotional and psychological situations, the narrators have recounted all the details of the stories correctly. Commenting on Ligeia, Roy Basler says, The reader must keep constantly in mind that, if the hero is suffering from obsession, his narrative cannot be accepted merely at its face value as authentic of all the facts (122). In his psychotic craze, the narrator of Ligeia gives hazy details at best. His obsession with Ligeia s beauty prevents him from recalling other non-physical details about her such as where she is from and her last name. He has even utterly forgotten the circumstances which originated or attended (97) their meeting. This inability to recount such significant details because of his mental state certainly discredits any other details which he relates. The account of the narrator in Berenice proves unreliable as well because of his psychological inversion of reality. Because reality affects him as visions, and as visions only (171), the details of his story take on a certain ethereal and obscure quality. His recounting of the discovery of what he has done consists of sporadic images muddy

6 Peed 6 clothing, nail prints in his hands, a spade, dental instruments, and finally the thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances (177). From these images the reader may deduce the narrator s heinous act but lacks a complete and totally clear picture. In some cases, the narrator is so disturbed and his account so bizarre that the reader must question whether the event did, in reality, occur at all. This point has caused the myriad interpretations of Poe s stories that exist among critics today. For example, while some critics say we are intended to take literally the revivification of Rowena s corpse by the soul of Ligeia (Ringe 135), many claim a literal interpretation is absurd and insist that the narrator, in his madness, imagined the experience. Some even go so far as to say it must be recognized that the hero has murdered Rowena in his maniacal attempt to restore Ligeia to life (Basler 124). Similarly, the conclusion to William Wilson cannot be taken at face value. Because of the extreme psychotic state of the narrator in the final scene along with previous evidence of multiple personality disorder, few critics believe Wilson literally kills a physical double of himself. Significant debate does exist, however, over whether he actually kills himself in a fit of psychosis or just murders his conscience. The reader cannot clearly distinguish whether Wilson does survive the murder of his doppelgänger, or whether he speaks his lurid confession from beyond the grave (Hoffman 209). What actually occurs remains a mystery to the reader, reflecting the inability to understand the disturbed human mind. Poe s clever juxtaposition of dark, unknowable settings and mentally unstable characters creates an external visual representation of intangible psychological agitation. The Gothic trappings (Unrue 114) with which he surrounds his characters serve as an outward extension of their disturbed rationales, intensifying the reader s empathy for them and the suspicion that the human mind cannot be trusted. Perhaps Poe s success as the cosmographer of the troubled,

7 Peed 7 destroying, and creating self is due in part to his own bout with mental agitation when his wife Virginia was fluctuating between life and death. Concerning this time, Poe wrote a letter to George W. Eveleth saying, I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity (356). Whatever Poe s source of inspiration for his psychotic characters, he remains undoubtedly one of history s single best illustrators of the human psyche, surpassing even the most scholarly modern psychologists and psychiatrists.

8 Peed 8 Bibliography Botting, Fred. "Poe's Phantasmagoreality." Edgar Allan Poe Review 11.1 (2010): MLA International Bibliography. Web. 22 Feb Braddy, Haldeen. Glorious Incense: The Fulfillment of Edgar Allan Poe. Washington: Scarecrow, Print. Gargano, James W. The Question of Poe s Narrators. College English 25.3 (1963): JSTOR. Web. 24 March Halliburton, David. Edgar Allan Poe; a Phenomenological View. Princeton: Princeton UP, Print. Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print. Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. London: Robson, Print. Basler, Roy P. Ligeia as a Tale of Obsession and Hallucination. Social and Psychological Disorder in the Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Claudia Durst Johnson. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven, Print. Lima, Maria Antónia. "Poe And Gothic Creativity." Edgar Allan Poe Review 11.1 (2010): MLA International Bibliography. Web. 22 Feb Lloyd-Smith, Allan. American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction. New York: Continuum, Print. Martin, Robert K., and Eric Savoy, eds. American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, Print. Peeples, Scott. The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe. Rochester: Camden House, Print.

9 Peed 9 Ringe, Donald A. American Gothic: Imagination and Reason in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, Print. Shen, Dan. Edgar Allan Poe's Aesthetic Theory, the Insanity Debate, and the Ethically Oriented Dynamics of The Tell-Tale Heart. Nineteenth-Century Literature 63.3 (2008): JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb Shulman, Robert. "Poe and the Powers of the Mind." ELH 37.2 (1970): JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Garden City: Doubleday, Print. ---, To George W. Eveleth. The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. John Ward Ostrom. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Harvard UP, Print. Unrue, Darlene Harbour. "Edgar Allan Poe: The Romantic as Classicist." International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1.4 (1995): JSTOR. Web. 22 Feb

Just Dark Enough: A Conservative Writer s Walk on the Dark Side with Poe. by Chris Wolfe

Just Dark Enough: A Conservative Writer s Walk on the Dark Side with Poe by Chris Wolfe December, 2012 for Engl 2110 American Lit 1, ETSU, Fall 2012 Edgar Allen Poe spins a dark tale of opium dreams, ghostly