Narrative Techniques Of Poe Essay Research Paper

Narrative Techniques Of Poe Essay, Research Paper

Narrative Techniques of PoeThe short narrative author which I have chosen to research is Edgar AllenPoe. After reading one of his plants in category, I realized that his cryptic styleof composing greatly appealed to me. Although many critics have different positions onPoe & # 8217 ; s composing manner, I think that Harold Bloom summed it up best when he said, & # 8221 ; Poe has an eldritch endowment for exposing our common incubuss and hysterialurking beneath our carefully structured lives. & # 8221 ; ( 7 ) For me, this is done throughhis usage of puting and narrative manner. In many of Poe & # 8217 ; s plants, scene is used to paint a dark and glooming picturein our heads. I think that this was done deliberatly by Poe so that the reader canmake a connexion between darkness and decease. For illustration, in the & # 8220 ; Pit andthe Pendulum & # 8221 ; , the scene is originally pitch black. As the narrative unfolds, we seehow the scene begins to play an of import function in how the storyteller discoversthe many ways he may decease. Although he must trust on his senses entirely to feelhis milieus, he knows that someplace in this dark, glooming room, thatdeath awaits him. Richard Wilbur tells us how suiting the chamber in & # 8220 ; The Pitand the Pendulum & # 8221 ; really was. & # 8220 ; Though he lives on the threshold of the cavity, on thevery brink of the dip into unconciousness, he is still unable to disengagehimself from the physical and temperal universe. The physical oppreses him in theshape of lurid cemetery visions ; the temporal oppreses him in the form of anenormous and deathly pendulum. It is wholly appropriate, so, that thischamber should be compressing and cruelly angular & # 8221 ; ( 63 ) . Puting is besides an of import feature is Poe & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; The Fall of the Houseof Usher & # 8221 ; . The images he gives us such as how both the Usher household and theUsher sign of the zodiac are crumpling from inside waiting to prostration, assist us to connectthe background with the narrative. Vincent Buranelli says that & # 8220 ; Poe is able tosysatin an atomosphere which is dark and dull. This is one of the fast ones whichhe laregely derived from the tradition of the Gothic tale & # 8221 ; ( 79 ) . The whole settingin the narrative provides us with a feeling of melancholy. The Usher mansionappears vacant and waste. The same is true for the storyteller. As we picture inour heads the utmost decay and decomposistion, we can feelas though the lifearound it is besides crumpling. Narrative is besides an component in Poe & # 8217 ; s short narrative manner that appears to linkall of the narratives together. He has a type of creativeness which lets the reader seeinto the head of the storyteller or the chief character of the narrative. Many of thecharacters in Poe & # 8217 ; s narratives seem to be insane. The storyteller frequently seems to havesome type of psychological jobs. For exapmle, In Poe & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; The Cask ofAmontillado, & # 8221 ; the narrative opens with a first individual storyteller ( Montresor ) speakingabout the planning of Fortunato & # 8217 ; s decease. By the choler and compunction thatMontresor has for Fortunato, one might believe that this was a recent incident. It isnot until the really terminal of the narrative that we realize, that the full event occurredfifty old ages ago. David Herbert Lawrence says, & # 8220 ; To the characters in Poe & # 8217 ; s narrative, hatred is every bit excessive as unrecorded. The lecherousness of hatred is the inordinate desire to consumeand ineffably possess the psyche of the despised one, merely as the lecherousness of unrecorded is thedesire to possess or be possessed be the beloved, uterly. & # 8221 ; ( 33 ) . Poe & # 8217 ; s storiesoften have storytellers that feel utmost hatred or utmost love for another characterin the narrative. Another illustration of Poe & # 8217 ; s narrative manner is seen in his narrative entitled, & # 8221 ; The

Black Cat & # 8221 ; , wh

ere the narrator seems to have an obsession with pets. He hasone “special” pet which is a black cat. Although their original relationship witheach other is one of respect and love, the situation soon changes. The narratorbecomes somewhat possessed with the hate for the car. He turns against hiswife and stabs his cat in the eye. By the end of the story, he killed his wife in anattempt to kill the cat. Afterwards, the narrator does not even feel remorse forthe wrongful death of his wife. Instead, he is just happy that the catdissapeared. This is just another instance in which the reader wonders what isthe driving force begins the narrator’s insanity. Buranelli, “In both Poe’s “TheCask of Amontillado” and his “The Black Cat”, the barrators act withoutconscience. There are no doubts, hesitiations or second thought to impede thenarrative. Both narrators just sought revenge” (77). Even though there are many more elements to Edgar Allan Poe’s shortstories than just his creative use of narration and setting, these arecharacteristivs which has attracted the most attention. Poe has a way of writingin which he does not have to reveal too much, or paint a pretty picture for thereader in order to attract his attention. In D.H. Lawrence’s Studies in ClassicAmerican Literature, the author states, “Poe’s narrowness is like that of a sword, not that of a bottleneck: it is effective rather than constricting. Nothing adventitious is in his great stories, only the essentials, the mininum of characterization, plot, and atmosphere. By ridding himself of everything except what is precisely to the point, he achieves unity of effect. ” (66). There is also a prominent distinction between right and wrong in Poe’stories. Viscous characters tend to come to a bad end. This lets the readeraccept these endings as a triumph of good over evil. As stated by Buranelli:”He has created a universe, given it psychological laws without denying the existence of the moral law, and peopled it with characters appropriate to such a universe. Puttng overt mortality out of bounds helps to give him uniqueness” (74). After researching Edgar Allan Poe more in depth, I now have a muchgreater respect for him and a slightly different perspective of his stories. While itis still evident to me that narrative style and setting have a great deal to do withthe development of Poe’s short stories, I also realise now that we can’t overlapand intertwine with other aspects of the story, making them equally as important. I will end with a quote found in Vincent Buranelli’s Edgar Allan Poe: “Even though Poe is often looked upon as a gifted psychopath who is describing with consumate artistry his personal instablities and abnormalitiesm the fact remains that his superiority is more than a matter of art. There is a violent realism in his macabre writings unequaled by the Americans who worked in the same genre.”Bibliography1. Bloom, Harold, Ed. Modern Critical Views on Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 2.Buranelli, Vincent. Edgar Allan Poe. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1977. 3. Lawrence, D.H. Studies in Classic American Literature New York: The Viking Press, 1961. 4.Lawrence D.H. Modern Critical Views on Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 5. Wilbur, R. Modern Critical Views on Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. Harold Bloom. NewYork: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. 6. Pickering, James. Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Stories. NJ:Prentice Hall, 1995. 7. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Vintage Books, 1975.