O'Donnell Poe

The beauty of gothic literature could be that people like to be scared. But instead of using monsters or aliens to do the scaring like modern horror films, Edgar Allen Poe uses the darkness of gothic work to emphasize hopelessness and inner monsters in humans. What could be scarier than the evil humans are capable of? For example, in “The Raven,” the imagery of the black bird, the visiting stranger in the night, and lines like “Once upon a midtnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,” have a scary, sad affect. “The Black Cat” shows that even a seemingly kind individual has a very dark, cruel side. Puritans would agree with this theme in this story, because they would feel that human perfectibility is impossible because we are all constantly surpressing inner demons and evil. “The Black Cat” begins with the narrator being “noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets.” However, with no logical reason he becomes a cruel alcoholic. He says of himself, “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others…I even offered [my wife] personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-used them.”

The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson has similar themes to the gothic Poe tales. The entire journey is likened to hell and the American Indians to “barbarous creatures.” The images of the Indians dancing conjure notions of evil magic and a demonic presence. Throughout her hellish ordeal, Rowlandson occasionally admits that this experience is necessary, that this pain is inevitable. She writes in the “Twentieth Remove,” “But now I see the Lord had His time to scourge and chasten me. The portion of some is to have their afflictions by drops, now one drop and then another; but the dregs of the cup, the wine of astonishment, like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food, did the Lord prepare to be my portion. Affliction I wanted, and affliction I had, full measure (I thought), pressed down and running over.” In this excerpt it is clear that Rowlandson believes that she is not unhappy about the fate that has befallen her, because it would have happened in some fashion, at some point in her life anyway. 

“The Red Death” parallels this notion of the inevitability of  suffering, using a pestilence as a symbol. Poe’s story shows that, even at a lavish party, death (which could be a symbol of sadness or pain as well) is still afoot. The party at hand is described as an excessive, debauturous affair. Poe writes, “There were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.” At this party, Prince Prospero is attempting to evade the inevitability of contracting this illness, just as many people may try to evade the inevitability of their of evilness. But in the end, he and his friends die in the seven chambers. 

The story, “Ligeia,” is based on a favorite subject of Poe’s, the death of a beautiful woman, or women in this case. The women at hand are the beautiful Ligaia, and Lady Rowena, who is very much her opposite. The gothic nature of this tale is especially apparent. The story takes place in an “old, decaying city near the Rhine.” The author has “become a bounden slave in the trammels of opium.” Also, the final scene of Rowena’s regeneration is especially eerie. This story seems to somewhat pit the wives against each other. Ligaia dies, and Rowena refuses her own mortality. Rowena’s returning to life and then back to death could be symbolic of, like “The Red Death,” the inevitability of pain and death. The main character himself shows the depravity of human nature alone. But the death of Ligeia, and the death and resurrection of Rowena could be symbolic of a moral, ethical death.