Langer Poe Blog

Gothic literature combines the elements of both horror and romance. Through his short stories and poems, Poe looks to detail aspects of the human psyche through illicit emotions and intense mental agony. For example, in Poe's poem The Raven, Poe creates the portrait of a rational man. Rationality can be corrupted, though. The narrator quickly disregards a knock at the door for a "visitor" until he opens the door and discovers "darkness there, and nothing more." His soul is full of sorrow because of the loss of his late wife, but it is plain that he is a rational being. The Raven's constant quothing of "nevermore," slowly brings the narrator into irrationality, seeking answers about his late wife, Lenore. He asks the raven if, in heaven, "there is a sainted maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?" The narrator is hoping that despite any sort of human depravity that his wife, or himself, have engaged in that heaven still lies above. The raven has driven him into insanity, convincing him that his soul "shall be lifted -- nevermore!" He will never be reunited with Lenore because of his depravity and cannot make his way past the Raven.

The concept of The Black Cat was utterly ridiculous, but the way Poe described the main character's fall into madness was very entertaining. As the narrator spends more time with the black cat, Pluto, the more irritable and irrational he becomes. The black cat is actually the accelerator to our narrator's ensuing madness. Although the cat never does anything horrific, there is a natural depravity within human beings. Unfortunately, there seems to be a natural original sin that one must overcome to be a morally and socially acceptable human being. The narrator claims that "perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart." Natural, original sin is a something that resides in all human's hearts, and it is something that must be overcome or it will overcome the subject. The narrator gave way to "do wrong for wrong's sake only." He longed to satisfy and inkling for violence that he had never given way to before. This horrific side of human nature is exactly what Poe is trying to depict and what Puritans try to deny when it comes to human depravity. God's true people will not commit these types of morally corrupt acts, yet Poe claims that this is inside all of us. Resistance is what separates the morally good from the morally corrupt.
Through the Murders of the Rue Morgue, Poe emphasizes the ideal of ratiocination. Everything can be figured and solved through rationalization. All problems of moral conduct, of moral depravity even, have their reason. Murders of the Rue Morgue is all about that "moral activity that disentangles." The moral activity of rationally defining the contexts and reasoning of human actions is a sport for Poe's characters. While rationalizing out the clues of the apparent murder, Dupin disregards any human depravity. He rationally goes through every clue to try and free any human of sin and guiltiness of murder. Dupin excuses the moral depravity of human beings. He does not believe that one can be blamed for such a gruesome murder based on the evidence and uses rational thought to find a different solution.

Masque of the Red Death was a fantastic story about the revels of Prince Prospero. He celebrates his riches by having a large party, complete with seven different colored rooms. He attempts to escape the Red Death by having a large party. He invites over a thousand people to remove themselves from the "redness and horror of blood." While trying to evade death, the Prince also looks to tease the Red Death with the seventh room in his abbey. This room is dark black, but with scarlet red windows to symbolize the Red Death that has come over the country. Eventually a figure representing the Red Death arrives, moves through each room, and eventually is confronted by Prospero. Prospero suffers the Red Death when he realizes that no one is inside of the clothes, as do the rest of the people at the party. This looks like a criticism on the sin of overconsumption. Although the rich CAN escape the everyday human maladies that the lower class must endure does not mean that they should. Instead of using their riches and wealth to help, instead the rich look to party and celebrate their prosperous lives. Human depravity is simply seen here, where the rich cannot help but indulge in their own fancy while bypassing the ill-fated situations of others.
In Ligeia we find the story of a man trying to overcome the inevitability of death. Ligeia is the narrator's lover who dies multiple years into their marriage and love. Ligeia is an intelligent woman who "wisdom too divinely precious not to be forbidden." The narrator's main sin is trying to bring back the dead. After lamenting over the death of his second love, Lady Rowena, he looks to bring back Ligeia. The end of the poem reveals the "the black, and the wild eyes, of my Lady Ligeia!" The narrator shows an extremely strong will to overcome death and bring back the woman that he loves.
Bradstreet shows through her poems the concepts of predestination and human depravity. In her poem called The Vanity of all Worldly Things, she cites the multiple facets of depravity that many humans fall into. They focus too much on riches and beauty, and not enough on being a morally stable person as a whole. One cannot find true consolation on Earth, but must always strive for the afterlife. As opposed to Prince Prospero in the Masque of Red Death, who admires all of his prosperity and looks to attain happiness and solitude in his riches, Bradstreet dismisses all of his revels as vain. He will find solace in his actions. Bradstreet says, "he heaps up riches, and he heaps up sorrow, it's his today, but who's his heir tomorrow?" Worldy revels are not worth it to the Puritans, who claim that living for the after life is the whole point of life on Earth. The concept of predestination forces them to search for their importance in their life on Earth, and to live to the fullest to reunite with God in the afterlife. Man is not perfect, and Poe shows this with multiple sins throughout his stories. Bradstreet also shows from a Puritan point of view how man seems to always fail. What does help attain God's blessing is a strong human will and a genuine appreciation for human depravity. Man is not perfect, but strong morals can help to overcome those imperfections.