Literary Analysis



Literary Analysis

Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe, an American poet, critic and writer of the XIX-th century, is a world- recognised master of the horror genre. Poe's Tales of Arabesque clearly demonstrate his talent for cultivation of mystery, terror, and macabre. The process of this horror cultivation is very subtle and complicated. Poe, like an artist of arabesque who intertwines and interlaces flowers into an elaborate pattern, weaves a net of mystery and horror and entangles the reader in it. Poe starts any work 'with consideration of the effect' it would have on the reader. All other stages of story creation and literary devices used for it depend on that main effect. Thus, the genre of Poe's works, their plot structure, type of narration, word choice, and imagery are the devices, with the help of which Poe creates and heightens the effect of terror and horror. Such works as 'The Cask of Amontillado' and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' serve as vivid examples of Poe's sophisticated but very effective horror creating technique.

Analysis of Two Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe was a master of writing Horror fiction, with The Cask of Amontillado and The Fall of the House of Usher being examples of his best. In both short stories the narrator is in first person limited omniscient and unreliable. In The Fall of the House of Usher the narrator is unreliable for he has only limited information himself, and is presented as a sane man, trapped in an insane place (Poe, 1978). The House of Usher, meaning both the literal house and the family, is shown as being insane with the two siblings, Madeline and Roderick, being the final two of the family. The two can be interpreted as doppelgangers of each other, with neither complete with out the other one. Thus, when Madeline is entombed prematurely, "an observable change [comes] over the features of the mental disorder of [Roderick]" (Usher 7). The story concentrates on the horror of House and Family while providing a clear view of Roderick as he is 'ushered' into insanity by the narrator and his sister Madeline. In The Cask of Amontillado it opens with an insane narrator, Montresor and there is no explanation of his descent. For "the thousand injures of Fortunato [he] had borne… [Montresor] vowed revenge" (Cask 1) (Poe, 1983). The opening line indeed has a double meaning, and in the light of ...