Weaks - Poe Blog

Edgar Allen Poe was the master of the macabre, and arguably the father of the short story. In many of his short stories Poe presents a gothic view of nature. Through Poe’s “gothic lens” we see nature as a place where evil lurks, a place inhabited by demons, a place to fear. Poe’s true genius though is better revealed in his poem, The Raven.  A simple knock on a door leads to terror, to the total collapse of a man that prior to that knock was quite normal. Through his poetry and short stories, Poe does a masterful job of exposing the natural depravity inherent in all humans and his short story, The Black Cat seems an excellent choice to begin an in depth look at this genius.

In the short story, The Black Cat, Poe reveals, “the spirit of Perverseness. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not?” In this passage Poe is acknowledging the natural depravity of humans and to relate that Natural Depravity in Puritan terms, I chose a verse from the poem, The Flesh and the Spirit written by Anne Bradstreet.

"Be still, thou unregenerate part,
Disturb no more my settled heart,
For I have vow'd (and so will do)
Thee as a foe still to pursue,
And combat with thee will and must
Until I see thee laid in th' dust.
Sister we are, yea twins we be,
Yet deadly feud 'twixt thee and me,
For from one father are we not.
Thou by old Adam wast begot,

In my opinion, the key phase in this passage is “unregenerate part.” Those two words in and by themselves acknowledge the Puritan view that natural depravity inherent in all humans. Similarities between Poe’s writing and that of the Puritans abound.

Turning to another Puritan, we again see similarities with Poe. In Mary Rowlandson’s, The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682) we find what can be termed gothic sentiment and pre-destination in many areas of her narrative. I quote from the prologue, “and to see our dear friends, and relations lie bleeding out their heart-blood upon the ground. There was one who was chopped into the head with a hatchet, and stripped naked, and yet was crawling up and down. It is a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood, some here, and some there, like a company of sheep torn by wolves, all of them stripped naked by a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting, and insulting” That passage not only reveals gothic sentiment, its also nothing short of macabre. Continuing from the prologue we find what I consider a reference to pre-destination in the following quote, “yet the Lord by His almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried captive.”

If we move on to Poe’s Masque of the Red Death we find more evidence of possible influence from Mary Rowlandson’s narrative. I quote, “[The maskers] become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before. And the rumour of this new presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise--then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.”  I again quote Poe’s Masque of the Red Death, “But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood--and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.” Like Mary Rowlandson, Poe uses the element of blood to invoke horror. However, a major difference between Poe and Rowlandson is Poe’s writings are fictional, where as Rowlandson’s narrative is a true account. The blood in Rowlandson narrative is real, not created in the mind of a disturbed author.

Once more, returning to Rowlandson’s narrative, the Eighteenth Remove in particular, we are provided yet another example of how gothic sentiment denies human perfectibility. I quote, “Being very hungry I had quickly eat up mine, but the child could not bite it, it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing and slabbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.” Much of Mary Rowlandson’s narrative could be considered in the gothic genre, but passages such as the one above exemplify it. The question begs, “was that her intent?” In Poe work, there is not much doubt that his mission was to, shock, frighten, terrorize, and also expose the natural depravity of humans.

If we are searching for terror in Poe’s words, in his works, what better place to find it than in the poem, The Raven, A simple knock on a door leads to sheer terror for the narrator, the occupant of the room. The following verse is just one of many that could be selected to demonstrate this.

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'
Merely this and nothing more.”

If we turn to another of Poe’s short stories, Ligeia, Poe uses his gift for exposing the natural depravity of humans with passages such as the following, “In halls such as these -- in a bridal chamber such as this -- I passed, with the Lady of Tremaine, the unhallowed hours of the first month of our marriage -- passed them with but little disquietude. That my wife dreaded the fierce moodiness of my temper -- that she shunned me and loved me but little -- I could not help perceiving; but it gave me rather pleasure than otherwise. I loathed her with a hatred belonging more to demon than to man.” In this passage the narrator is admitting that the misery he brings to his wife brings him pleasure.

We will conclude this week’s blog with a look at Poe’s short story, The Murder’s in the Rue Morgue. This story also has many elements of gothic writing. In particular, it illustrates again how gothic sentiment denies human perfectibility. This is revealed in the sailor’s reluctance to identify himself as the owner of the Ourang-Outang responsible for the murders in the Rue Morgue.  Auguste Dupin says to the sailor, “You can get him [the Ourang- Outang]  in the morning. Of course you are prepared to identify the property ‘To be sure I am, sir.’” The sailor then offers Dupin a reward. ‘Well,’ replied my friend, ‘that is all very fair, to be sure. Let me think! - what should I have? Oh! I will tell you. My reward shall be this. You shall give me all the information in your power about these murders in the Rue Morgue.’” With this reply the sailor’s realizes he is outed. “The sailor's face flushed up as if he were struggling with suffocation. ‘My friend,’ said Dupin, in a kind tone, ‘you are alarming yourself unnecessarily… We mean you no harm whatever…I perfectly well know that you are innocent of the atrocities in the Rue Morgue…You have done nothing which you could have avoided - nothing, certainly, which renders you culpable. You were not even guilty of robbery…On the other hand, you are bound by every principle of honor to confess all you know. An innocent man is now imprisoned, charged with that crime of which you can point out the perpetrator.’” In this story one is lead to believe that the sailor that did not have prior difficulties with the law; yet he was willing to allow an innocent man to face prison rather than reveal that his Ourang-Outang was responsible for the murders.

In this blog, we examined, “Poe’s view of humans’ natural depravity [and we attempted to relate it] to the Puritan view of Natural Depravity.” We also attempted to, “show how gothic sentiment denies human perfectibility.” Poe is considered the father of the short story and the greatest gothic author of his time and the works we were exposed too, did nothing to diminish that lofty status.