Edgar Alan Poe

- Dark, romantic writer

- Master of the macabre, wrote poetry, short stories, horror stories
- Born in 1900
- Wrote for newspapers, literary magazines
- He barely made a living from his writing
- He invented detective fiction – the first story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
- He died at the age of 40
- A literary critic – formulated some rules according to which writer should write
- Literature should not be didactic, but should evoke certain feelings in the readers – in
many cases it was the feeling of fear

“The Pit and the Pendulum”

1. How a piece of story should be written according to “The Philosophy of Composition”

(1846)
− Any text should be preferably read in one-sitting
− Poetry should be focused on beauty combined with sadness and as a result should
evoke the feeling of melancholy = the death of a young, beautiful women – effect of
his personal experiences, his mother died when he was two, his very young wife (13
years old) also died
− Length of the text: they should not be too long
− Closed chamber, forest, mansion – confined space for poetry, indefinite, mysterious,
enclosed spaces because it is easier to build a certain atmosphere
− Some sounds repeated in the text contribute to the experience of reading
− Importance of refrain in order to close the stanza
− The establishment of the climax – the turning point – he produced his texts like a
mathematician
− Each literary work should contain a fantastic element, which moves the story to a
different level, raises the uncertainty
− The effect is crucial
− Poems of so called transcendentalism

“The Raven”
- Where? In his chamber
- When? December, it is windy
- Who? Unnamed, young character who mourns the death of his beloved lady
- What happens? He hears the tapping, opens the door but there is no on; after hearing
the tapping again he opens the wind and the raven enters the chamber
- The raven produces only one word – nevermore
- He asks the questions and actually knows the answer – nevermore; he tortures himself,
self-imposed tortures
- He asks questions about his lady
“Is there—is there balm in Gilead” – Old Testament, there was a lot balm in Gilead
which had curing abilities, he asks if he will ever find the cure for his suffering after
the death of his beloved one
“Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted
maiden whom the angels name Lenore” - he will not see his beloved in Eden, in
Heaven
 - „Perched upon a bust of Pallas” - the bast on which the bird is sitting, Athena as the
goddess of wisdom – the contrast between the pale sculpture and the black bird, the
wisdom and fantastic existence of the speaking bird, life and death;
Messenger sent from the afterlife to torment the young man
- When the poem ends, the raven is still there; we may suspect that the young man is
sleeping and dreaming about those events – we are left in this mysterious suspension
- Alliteration – playing with sounds ” What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and
ominous bird of yore”

“The Fall of the House of Usher”

- The title – the fall of the literal house, the building and the family of Ushers
- The narrator: unnamed narrator, comes from and returns to the outside
- Characters: Roderick Usher and Madeleine, they are twins – the brother
suffered for a mental disease, he was pale, very slim, sensitive to almost
everything, hypersensitivity of senses; the sister – she was sick and dying, she was
a cataleptic which limits her movements
- The atmosphere of uneasiness, it corresponded with the uneasy condition of the
characters, sick, unhealthy air
- Everyone believes that she is dead, they try to put her aside in a separate
chamber, they are grieving after her death – culmination: while they are reading,
the narrator hears all the sounds he reads about, what is really happening, is it
reality, dream; when Roderick sees that his dead sister comes into the room, he
collapses and dies, the same happens with his sister. The whole house starts to
shake and the narrator escapes right before the house collapses.
- Atmosphere – look of the house, not much light, a huge crack going across the
building as if the house was going to fall apart > suggests that something bad is
going to happen; windows look like eyes > a house has a life of its own, shatters
are moving, floors are squeaking, different sounds
- Lonely, desolate place, gloomy, gothic atmosphere, dark
- Based on doubles: twins correspond which each other (disease, death), the
house is cracked into two parts, double meaning of the house, reading corresponds
with actual sounds, the house stands next to the water of the tarns – it’s just next to
the water, house’s reflection > when the house collapses, it unites with its
reflection
- Philosophy of composition – can be read in one sitting, unusual element, death
of a young lady, melancholy, a house, chamber