Blog Set 10

The Fall of the House of Usher

This was my first time reading Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher, it wasn’t as difficult to get through as I thought it would be. The elements depicted in the story immediately gave me chills as I envisioned the creepiest house possible. The description Poe used through out his story was impeccable, he gave the house a personality itself and I almost felt like the house itself could’ve easily been part of the problem. It reminded me of those old traditional families who have always lived in the same place for generations, each birth and each death taking place in the same place. Which is also what Poe is known for, finding that blurred line between life and death. The symptoms of the narrators childhood friend seemed to trace back to the same weakness of a vampire, light sensitivity, lack of appetite for food, paleness, and enhanced features. The User’s twin sister was also suffering from the same illness but the way the Usher had her corpse left once she passed was as if he knew she wouldn’t be long for gone, as if it was a family secret. This also led me to think maybe the family was indeed a part of the undead and that’s why they kept to themselves and the house. The stereotypes of a typical haunted house during the entire story. First the house itself is generations old and sit’s with large windows that are described as eyes watching all that happens around it, the doors are massive, heavy and threatening. The inside is dark despite the large windows because the inhabitants cannot stand the light and the family tomb is conveniently located on the premises, filled with lines of corpses.  

Afterward

1910

As I began reading Edith Wharton’s “Afterward” I noticed how the house was also made into it’s own character within the story, demanding an equal amount of attention and concern as the characters that are people do. The house is also perceived as eerie, deceiving, and that haunted feeling remains. I think this story fit in nicely with the American gothic genre, with the haunted setting but still the glimmer of hope since the couple finally got what they wished for, to live with a member of the supernatural. All I can say is be careful what you wish for. What they used to dream for became a nightmare, as the husband dies “afterward” when the mystery is solved but it is too late.

Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with the disturbed, the unusual and the creepy. What better words to describe the one and only Edgar Allan Poe? In life Poe was known to be depressed, erratic and you can absolutely feel his emotions through his writing as if they were you own. You mourn for the loss of women you only know through the words of another man and you feel the hatred Poe did towards the outside forces that took his lovers away.

“The Raven”

Published in 1845 depicts a mood of bleak sorrow stating that the setting is in a lonely December night, with a fire that is burning out and slight insanity as the narrator is consumed with his troubles but trying to distract himself from his current reality, a reality without “Lenore” who is a main symbol within this story. The story begins with orderly emotions as the narrator drifts off into thoughts about Lenore but as the poem continues the narrator is losing control line by line. He finds himself speaking to a raven, even though we know ravens cannot speak so we assume he must be mad, or maybe he isn’t? Maybe we’re the mad ones. He then symbolizes the Raven as actually being a sinister devil like creature sent to haunt the narrator and remind him how he will never have Lenore again, she is “nevermore”. I think Poe is trying to communicate his pain and confusion as to why death would take away his lover and why she still plagues him but he cannot actually have her.

“Annabel Lee”

My parents actually decided my middle name would be Annabel because of their mutual adoration for this poem. Published a few years after “the Raven” in 1849 and focuses once again on the loss of a love interest, because we are unsure of who Lenore and Annabel are it is often assumed that they are the same person. Throughout the poem I think Poe is referring back to true innocent affection, where love was careless, easy and free. He continuously states that their love is “gentle” and forgiving. The narrator also continues to blame everyone but himself for the death of his beloved, he blames the Angels, and even nature itself but never once himself. Communicating that she was taken from him too soon, that their love was still pure and lacking corruption like most love partners do. That fate was unfair to both of them and he will always grieve over his adored and she will be rich in his memory.

Happy Ever After or Happy Never After?

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Ever After is one of the fairy tales that I grew up with; it was my mother’s favorite movie and slowly became one of mine. I love how in the alter tale Danielle does not rely on a man of higher status, even royal status to come to her rescue. She has always had self-respect and continues to independently save herself from harmful situations and make herself happy, the prince is just a bonus.  I am in the grey with Bruno Bettelheim’s statement, I feel like the age group watching should also be factored in to determine how “sanitized” the characters are but the again this defeats the entire purpose of a fairy tale. Fairy tales are or were originally folk tales and serve to teach the listeners or readers an important moral/life lesson.  The “Cinderella” story has been around for hundreds of years, originally a story for all age groups that showed the harsh realities of becoming an orphan, being a woman in an era where women basically had no rights, and depended on a man to be her “savior”. As the story became more modernized personal values adjusted to match the time period and the crowed. Fairy Tales are more commonly seen as “children’s” stories or movies so characters are sanitized to make it a happy hopeful story even though it is as a whole unrealistic. The traditional tales included gruesome grim details that could relate back to reality. One common childhood fear that Cinderella explores is the fact that both of Cinderella’s parents die, leaving her to serve as a slave to her awful step mother and bratty stepsisters Honestly, when my parents divorced I was terrified of losing them and being forced to live with a cruel step parent because of this story when in reality not all step parents or siblings are evil and you can actually love them and be a whole equal family. Other fairy tales that explore everyday fears are Snow White, where another evil stepmother is also involved, Beauty and the Beast where Belle exchanges her life for her only remaining parent, her fathers and falls in love with her capture, which is alarming because it is extremely similar to Stockholm syndrome.