The Haunted Palace

For my blog this week, I will be analysing another poem written by Poe that was already seen in his short story The Fall of the House of Usher. Here is a copy of the poem: The Haunted Palace

"In the greenest of our valleys by good angels tenanted, once a fair and stately palace-radiant palace-reared its head. In the monarch Thought's dominion-it stood there! Never seraph spread a pinion over fabric half so fair!" Here Poe could be describing the mind of Roderick Usher. It was once a "green", "fair", "stately", happy place filled with "radiant", positive thoughts. God and "good angels" took care of his mind and kept him sane. Usher was confident in his goodness and stood proud.

"Banners yellow, glorious, golden on its roof did float and flow, (this-all this- was in the olden time long ago,) And every gentle air that dallied, in that sweet day, along the ramparts plumed and pallid, a winged odor went away." The banners decorating the roof of the mansion could be considered Roderick Ushers hair when he was younger. It was blonde and beautiful and flowed from his head. Poe describes how his fair hair, that fanned out like feathers, was so light and warm that it kept "winged odors" away. 

"Wanderers in that happy valley, through two luminous windows saw spirits moving musically, to a lute's well-tuned law, round about a throne where, sitting (Porphyrogene!) in state his glory well befitting, the ruler of the realm was seen." In this verse, Poe explains how others saw Usher through his eyes (being the windows). Anyone who talked with Usher saw with their own eyes how hopeful and happy the spirits were that moved about in his head. He had positive, nice thoughts that practically sang of their goodness to others. 

"And all the pearl and ruby glowing was the fair palace-door, through which came flowing, flowing, flowing, and sparkling evermore, a troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty was but to sing, in voices of surpassing beauty, the wit and wisdom of their king." Here, Poe is representing the mouth of Roderick Usher. With his pearly white teeth and his ruby red lips, it was the door to his thoughts. Feelings and "Echoes" came "flowing" through and it was their job to express the mind of the their king, this being Usher. 



"But evil things, in robes of sorrow, assailed the monarch's high estate.) Ah, let us mourn!-for never morrow shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home, the glory that blushed and bloomed is but a dim-remembered story of the old time entombed." Here one can see the illness taking over the mind of Roderick. It is an "evil thing" attacking the kings mind (monarch's high estate). Everyone around Usher is affected by this illness because he will never be himself again. He will never be anything more than depressed and "desolate". The past is now only a memory, a "story", a happiness that will never return. 

"And travellers now, within that valley, through red-litten windows see vast forms, that move fantastically to a discordant melody, while, like a ghastly rapid river, through the pale door, a hideous throng rush out forever and laugh-but smile no more." Finally, Poe explains how others view Usher now. They see, through his bloodshot eyes the terrors that are overtaking his mind. They can see the madness, the "vast forms", the demons haunting him day and night. Through the pale door being his old, ugly mouth, there is no longer the wonderful thoughts of the king but an evil laugh. The king, overcome with his illness, smiles no longer, sings no more, but just laughs like a madman. In this poem, one can see the comparison of a person in his natural state of mind and then the progression into the madness of a disease of the mind.   

Ideas used from grade seven English class oral discussion  

The Fall of the House of Usher

This week for the Edgar Allan Poe blog, I will be summarizing one of his famous stories and giving details about his amazing use of symbolism. This story is called "The Fall Of The House of Usher" and here is a link to view it The Fall of the House of Usher.

Basically this story starts off with an old acquaintance of Roderick Usher being asked over to spend time with him to catch up. Usher is suffering from a disease which heightens his senses, meaning he is only able to wear certain clothes, listen to certain instruments (stringed) and he cannot stand strong smells or the faintest of light. Once the friend arrives at the House of Usher, he is immediately put off by something odd, and takes particular notice in a fissure running from the top of the house all the way to its base. Regardless, he continues forward to see his old friend. Usher explains to his friend about a different disease that is affecting his twin sister and mentions that she his last living relative.

The Usher family is a pure family thus meaning they are incest. While the friend is staying with Roderick, Lady Madeline (Roderick's sister) gets even more sick and is no longer allowed to leave her bed. Usher and his guest continue on to play music, to read and to paint together. These are Roderick's only pass times seeing as he hasn't left his house in years.

Eventually Lady Madeline dies and her brother delays the burial one night because of the unknown circumstances of her death. She is buried, in a screwed coffin, in a vault under the guest bedroom which is sealed by an iron door. It used to be a dungeon and a gun powder room due to its limited accessibility. As soon as Lady Madeline is buried, Roderick's condition worsens and he turns into a madman always staring into nothingness.

One night, on the midst of a storm, Roderick's friend starts hearing noises. He blames it on the storm at first but can't get back to sleep because of an uneasy feeling. Roderick then comes into his room and throws open the window yelling at the storm. To calm him down, his friend shuts the window and starts reading a book to him. Whenever a sound is described in the book it is as if that sound is produced mysteriously in real life. Finally, the guest can no longer pretend he isn't hearing things and jumps up in fright. Roderick starts ranting like a crazy person about how he's been hearing her faint struggles for days now, but he didn't dare open his mouth. He proceeds to admit that they buried Lady Madeline alive and that she has finally escaped. As he says this Lady Madeline, bloody and ghastly looking, stumbles through the door and scares Roderick Usher to death. She then dies from her struggles. As his friend flees in fright he sees the fissure in the Usher house start to part and the house collapses and sinks into the tarn lake, and is forgotten about forever.



For me, the biggest example of symbolism in this story would be the
fissure in the wall. "Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn." This mention of the crack in the wall of the House of Usher could have been foreshadowing that some sort of event would cause the crack to split in half. In my opinion, the the two sides of the crack represented the two twin siblings, Roderick and his sister. Each was linked to the other on deep levels even including insanity, considering the fact that Roderick "heard" his sister long before she escaped her coffin. They were the last living descendants of the Usher family and they were depended on to keep the family going however, this did not happen. The Usher family fell apart at their generation just as the house split apart when they both died. They were holding each other together and one could not go without the other. That fissure in the wall is symbolism of not only a house falling apart but a whole family line falling apart. Poe demonstrates this use of symbolism in this story as well as many others like The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven. 

Ideas used from grade seven English class oral discussion  

Alone

This week I will start interpreting Edgar Alan Poe's works. The first one I would like to begin with is a poem written in his childhood called Alone. This poem has a lot of hidden messages so I will talk about its meaning. Keep in mind that this is my interpretation meaning anyone could have a completely different opinion about the symbolism of this poem. Here is a link: Alone by Edgar Allan Poe


Firstly, I feel as if this poem was directly related to Poe's childhood. Although some of his Gothic stories about murders may not be about him, this one could easily be linked to his life as a youth. "From childhood's hour I have not been as others were-I have not seen as others saw-I could not bring my passions from a common spring..." These first few lines of Poe's poem demonstrate his feelings toward his peers. He claims to be different than everyone else the very first line. He proceeds by explaining how he doesn't see things the same way as others see them and he can't seem to find common passions with the other kids. This makes him feel excluded and alienated due to his differences. He seems to be more of an awkward child that doesn't fit in with anyone.

"...From the same source I have not taken my sorrow; I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone; and all I lov'd, I lov'd alone..." This part of the poem continues by demonstrating that Poe could not feel the same things as those surrounding him. When they are sad, he does not understand why. When they feel happy, he can't seem to feel the same joy. He is very different and the things that he likes aren't things that the other children like so he feels very alone. 

"Then-in my childhood-in the dawn of a most stormy life-was drawn from ev'ry depth of good and ill the mystery which binds me still:..." This represents the trigger in his life. It is describing an event which changed his life forever, which ends up being the beginning of a dark, "stormy life". It still affects him and "binds" him, not allowing an escape from this constant darkness and sorrow. This trigger, in my opinion, would be when his mother died. Although he was too young at the time to understand, he could look back at it when he wrote this poem realizing how much better off he would've been with his real mother. He comes to realization that his father had ditched their family so Poe feels a strong sense of abandonment.

"...From the torrent, or the fountain, from the red cliff of the mountain, from the sun that round me roll'd in its autumn tint of gold..." Here, Edgar describes the happy things in life. In my opinion, the image he creates here is absolutely beautiful. He is describing the natural beauties in life. At the same time when he describes "the sun that round me roll'd" it could represent his life just passing by in a blur. He is no longer keeping track of the days because he can't bring himself to care any longer. His childhood is rolling by.  

"...From the lightning in the sky as it pass'd me flying by- from the thunder and the storm and the cloud that took the form..." This part of "Alone" contradicts the wonderful things he described in the previous verse. He is portrays the darkness of a storm. It could be an example of all the chaos going on at the moment, with the lightning and the thunder and the overwhelmingly, numerous feelings and thoughts that are running through his head. These two parts together show that although he sees the nice things in life that make others happy, they do not affect him because they are hidden by a dark rain cloud representing his thoughts that are constantly in a chaotic cluster. His feelings are comparable to the dark, dismal mood of a storm. 

"...(When the rest of Heaven was blue) of a demon in my view."  In this final verse, Poe describes the dark storm cloud in the shape of a demon. He says that "the rest of Heaven was blue" meaning the rest of the world was happy, beautiful and amazing like he described earlier. On the other hand, this "demon" was blocking his sight and how he saw the world. Although he knows there are good things surrounding him there is an obstacle preventing him from being happy. This obstacle could be, like I mentioned before, his mixed up feelings about the loneliness he feels and the loss and abandonment due to the death of his mother. Another twist on the demon image could be his foster father. I did not go into great detail about his childhood life in the biography, but it was thought that Edgar's foster dad abused him physically and mentally. (What influenced Edgar Allan Poe's works?) This means that he could have used the demon as an image representing the conflict and abuse he dealt with at home because of his foster dad. In conclusion, this poem could very possibly represent Edgar Allan Poe's childhood because of the similar comparisons between his tragedies, his feelings and his conflicts.     

Ideas used from grade ten English class oral discussion  

Literary devices

Edgar Allan Poe was a literary genius due to his effective use of literary elements in his many Gothic short stories and poems. Firstly, what is a literary element? A literary element or device is a characteristic used by an author to enhance his writing. There are many examples of these, however I will only address the main ones I will be using while interpreting Poe's works.

First off, there is the alliteration. This is when the author repeats the same letters, sounds or words in the same sentence. For example, in The Bells, "To the swinging and the ringing of the bells, bells, bells, of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells", where the word bells is repeated allowing the reader to almost hear the bells themselves.  Next up is the simile. This is used when the author is trying to compare two things and in order to do so he uses the word like or as in between them. An example of a simile would be in The Fall of the House of Usher when the narrator says the house had, "...vacant eye-like window..." Here Poe compares the windows of the house to vacant eyes with the use of the word like.

A similar literary element often confused with the simile is the metaphor. This also consists of a comparison however it must be a comparison without the words like or as. In The Black Cat, Poe writes, "The fury of a demon instantly possessed me." This would be an example of a metaphor comparing the man's anger to that of a demons. A personification is when the author gives a human attribute to an inanimate object. This would be like in The Tell-Tale Heart, "...for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye." Here Poe is calling the eye evil but an eye cannot be evil. The personification is used very often in Poe's works because this is one of his favourite ways to bring the story and the things in his story to life.

Another literary device used by Poe is foreshadowing. He will sometimes put emphasis on a certain part of a story so one can infer what might happen in the end. For example, in The Masque of the Red Death, there is a lot of emphasis put on the red chamber and how nobody wants to go into it. This could foreshadow that they will eventually be forced into it. He also uses irony very effectively in his works to lighten up the mood a bit or to teach a lesson or moral. For example, in The Cask of Amontillado, the main character leads his friend Fortunato to find some Amontillado in a vault underground. Fortunato, unlike his name, is unfortunate and is murdered by his friend. The main literary element that makes Edgar Allan Poe such a successful Gothic literature author is his use of imagery. Imagery is the description of the five senses in any given situation. Poe effectively describes these senses in all his works allowing the reader to smell, taste, hear, touch, and see what the characters do, therefore attaching the readers to their characters.

Other literary devices less frequently used in Poe's stories and poems are the hyperbole, the onomatopoeia and the flashback. The hyperbole is an exaggeration for example in The Narrative of A. Gordan Pym, it is said "I felt, I am sure, more than ten thousand times the agonies of death itself." This is an exaggeration of the pain the narrator felt. Onomatopoeia is a sound that imitates the word like in The Pit and the Pendulum: "It was appended to a weighty rod of brass, and the whole hissed as it swung through the air." Here one can hear the hissing sound of the pendulum as it swings to and fro. Finally the flashback is when a character is thinking back on a past event, and describes what happens to give the reader further intelligence as to why certain things happen the way they do in the present day. For example, in The Raven: "Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December..." the author is thinking back on when the event occurred. Due to the use of these many literary elements in Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems, he can effectively make the reader feel any way he wants them to feel.