Madness and Horror in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

Pezer, Anamarija

Undergraduate thesis / Završni rad

2020

Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: Josip Juraj
Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences / Sveučilište
Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Filozofski fakultet

Permanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:142:886360

Rights / Prava: In copyright / Zaštićeno autorskim pravom.

Download date / Datum preuzimanja: 2024-11-09

Repository / Repozitorij:

FFOS-repository - Repository of the Faculty of

Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek
 Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku

Filozofski fakultet

Dvopredmetni sveučilišni preddiplomski studij engleskog jezika i

književnosti i pedagogije

Anamarija Pezer

Ludilo i strava u pripovijetkama Edgara Allana Poea

Završni rad

Mentorica: izv. prof. dr. sc. Biljana Oklopčić

Osijek, 2020.
 Sveučilište J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku

Filozofski fakultet

Dvopredmetni sveučilišni preddiplomski studij engleskog jezika i

književnosti i pedagogije

Anamarija Pezer

Ludilo i strava u pripovijetkama Edgara Allana Poea

Završni rad

Znanstveno područje: humanističke znanosti

Znanstveno polje: filologija

Znanstvena grana: anglistika

Mentorica: izv. prof. dr. sc. Biljana Oklopčić

Osijek, 2020.
 J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Double Major BA Study Programme in English Language and Literature and

Pedagogy

Anamarija Pezer

Madness and Horror in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

Bachelor's Thesis

Supervisor: Dr. Biljana Oklopčić, Associate Professor

Osijek, 2020
 J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department of English

Double Major BA Study Programme in English Language and Literature and

Pedagogy

Anamarija Pezer

Madness and Horror in Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

Bachelor's Thesis

Scientific area: humanities

Scientific field: philology

Scientific branch: English studies

Supervisor: Dr. Biljana Oklopčić, Associate Professor

Osijek, 2020
Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 8
1. The Features of Poe’s Literary Work ................................................................... 10
2. “The Black Cat” ................................................................................................... 12
3. “The Tell-Tale Heart” .......................................................................................... 18
4. “The Fall of the House of Usher” ......................................................................... 22
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 31
Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 33
Abstract

Edgar Allan Poe is an author whose contributions to American Literature are great. He is
known for his creative short stories and poems, but also for the invention of crime fiction. His
unique style of writing stems from Gothic fiction, which is known for its dark and symbolic
setting, horror atmosphere, mysterious characters and events as well as evoking fear.
Furthermore, the peculiarity of his work is seen through his fascination and desire to explore
the secrets of human psyche, especially madness as the dark and macabre side of human
mind. Thus, he expressed this fascination through his short stories. Some of his most famous
and eerie stories that deal with madness, and which are analyzed in this paper, are
undoubtedly “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
They evoke feelings of horror within the readers through portraying the narrations of
individuals whose ill mind has control over them and thus makes them do the most repulsive
deeds possible. The detailed portrayal of madness and its manifestation through the narrators’
behavior, the horror, the suspense, and the first person narrator is what makes these stories so
terrifying, yet so stirring. Consequently, this paper will offer the portrayal of some of Poe’s
most prominent features of writing, the analysis of the stories in terms of madness and horror,
and, lastly, the comparison of the stories.

Keywords: Edgar Allan Poe, madness, horror, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The
Fall of the House of Usher”
Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe can be considered as one of the most prominent and versatile authors
of the Romantic period, having written a great number of short stories, intriguing poems as
well as inventing the genre of modern detective fiction. In his work, led by the Romantic
interest in human mind, he was particularly intrigued by human psyche and its processes,
exploring madness as a dark side of human psyche. Thus, his curiosity for the psyche
manifested in his literary works, especially in his short stories “The Black Cat,” “The Tell-
Tale Heart,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” where the unsettling atmosphere sends
chills down the readers’ spine.

“The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are also known as the stories of the
psychotic personality where the characters fall into the state of madness and, consequently,
carry out the most abominable deeds possible. The unnamed narrator in “The Black Cat,” led
by a sudden loathing towards his once admired cat, decides to torture it and ultimately kills it
by hanging it on a tree. “The Tell-Tale Heart,” similarly, deals with an unnamed narrator who
falls into madness because he is bothered by an old man’s sick eye. The sight of that eye
triggers him to the point of suffocating the old man. What is especially ghastly about these
stories is the fact that the characters try to give a sensible interpretation of their insane and
uncontrollable acts in a confident way.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is Poe’s famous Gothic horror story, which
encompasses some of the crucial elements of Gothic fiction such as the setting in an old,
deteriorating mansion isolated in a far-away countryside, the atmosphere of mystery and the
supernatural as well as the deteriorating state of Roderick Usher, caused by his beloved
sister’s death.

Consequently, the aim of this paper is to discuss how madness, accompanied by the
horror atmosphere, manifests itself and differs in these stories through the analysis of the two
unnamed narrators in “The Black Cat” and “The Tell Tale Heart” and through Roderick Usher
in “The Fall of the House of Usher” in order to get a better understanding of Poe’s exceptional
literary work. The paper consists of four parts, the first one being the features of Poe’s literary
work; the second part is dedicated to the analysis of “The Black Cat”; the third part deals with
“The Tell-Tale Heart,” and finally, the fourth part will focus on “The Fall of the House of

8
Usher.” Finally, the conclusion will offer the comparison of the stories in terms of how
madness, accompanied by horror, manifests itself.

9
 1. The Features of Poe’s Literary Work

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) is an American writer who is well-known for his
accomplishments in the area of short stories, poems, and detective fiction. In other words, he
is praised for refining the short story genre as well as inventing famous detective fiction. To
be precise, his respectable literary work includes “the publication of more than 350 poems,
short stories, and critical reviews and essays, and his influence in creating a uniquely
American form of literature“ (Sova 3). However, Poe did not have an easy childhood as his
father abandoned their family, leaving the three children with their ill mother who soon died
due to tuberculosis. Thus, Poe was “orphaned at an early age“ (VanSpanckeren 41). In
addition, according to Sova, his life was marked by “gambling, drinking, addiction to opiates,
and other profligate behavior, combined with his marriage to a 13-year-old cousin” (3). As a
result, “he was doomed to live a lonely and miserable life all his lifetime. His creation
reflected his unique life experience, which laid a strong foundation to the unique style of his
work” (Sun 97).

Poe was especially intrigued by Gothic fiction whose main features are mystery,
evoking fear and terror, supernatural occurrences, horror atmosphere, and dark setting.
Consequently, these Gothic features are present throughout his works. Moreover, Poe was
fascinated with the human psyche and, thus, presented this fascination in his works. More
precisely, he was intrigued by the dark and eerie side of human mind: madness. As
VanSpanckeren notes: “to explore the exotic and strange aspect of psychological processes,
Poe delved into accounts of madness and extreme emotion. The painfully deliberate style and
elaborate explanation in the stories heighten the sense of the horrible by making the events
seem vivid and plausible” (42). When it comes to the characters, it can be said that Poe writes
about individuals whose madness creates complexity, but also makes them intriguing and
mysterious:

Poe’s characters are undeniably complex; goaded and tormented by imps of the
perverse, inspired by vengeance yet racked with guilt, fascinated by and
attracted to death yet fearfully and frequently grotesquely repelled by it, they
display an ambivalence that is beyond the too often reductive psychological or
physiological explanations of insanity - though insanity, or near insanity, is
often a product of this ambivalence. (Stahlberg 16)

10
 Another prominent feature of Poe’s literary expression is the use of the first person
narrator. According to Sun, unlike other American writers who used the third person
technique, Poe decided to use the first person perspective with the aim of familiarizing the
readers with the narrator’s thoughts and his overall inner state of mind. He also maintains that
Poe’s aim was not merely stating the reasons for all the heinous crimes, but rather he wanted
to depict characters’ inner worlds and their psychological processes while they share their
eerie stories. What is impressive about the way that he depicts these processes is the fact that
he is very detailed and creative, which makes it easier for the readers to truly indulge in the
mysteries of the stories. Moreover, by choosing the first person narration, the readers get the
feeling of intimacy. In other words, the readers feel as if the narrator is disclosing the story
and his feelings to every single reader personally, which consequently has a stronger effect on
the readers and thus creates a sense of reality and vividness (Sun 95).

Moreover, according to Sun, suspense and mystery are also the features that make
Poe’s work so captivating. In other words, Poe’s unique style of writing creates suspense
among the readers. In this suspense, the readers often wonder what happened, if it was real or
just a product of the narrator’s mind. The intriguing fact is that Poe never revealed an explicit
answer to the readers’ suspense, which consequently gave space for various explanations and
theories. Thus, this makes his stories so mysterious (Sun 95). Also, what makes some people
so attracted to his stories is the curiosity. Namely, from Sun’s point of view “the readers and
the people who have a normal life have an intense curiosity about those hardly intelligible and
weird things. This curiosity comes from a timid, proper, and disciplined man who wants to
pry into the inner heart of those who are wicked and violent” (Sun 97).

It can be said that Poe’s stories evoke feelings of horror among the readers. Normally,
feelings of horror have negative connotations, but Poe wanted the readers to experience
beauty in horror. As a writer, his aim was evoking emotional response in readers and, in this
sense, he wanted the readers to experience the thrill and tension that comes from the horror:

Under the condition of no real danger, Gothic fiction creates lots of horrible
scenes which bring a strong thrill to people and make people feel safe while
experiencing the extreme danger and death. People are provided with a
particular relaxation and pleasure. That is where the endless charm of Gothic
fiction lies in. (Pang, Wang, and Hu 19)

11
 2. “The Black Cat”

According to Sova, the beginning of the story is marked by contradiction and irony as
the narrator refers to the events that have happened as “a series of mere household events”
(Poe, “The Black Cat” 3) and “nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural
causes and effects” (Poe 3), yet he is in jail with a death sentence (Sova 34). Here, the readers
can see that something about these statements is strangely uncommon and even slightly
frightening, considering the fact that the narrator is imperturbably speaking of something
terrifying he had done, otherwise he would not have ended up in prison, sentenced to death.
Nonetheless, he continues in sharing the story in detail, starting from his early childhood
when he was known as a loveable child who was particularly affectionate towards animals:

From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition.
My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my
companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents
with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time, and never was
so happy as when feeding and caressing them. (Poe, “The Black Cat” 3)

Even in his manhood, the narrator did not lose these virtues, in fact, as he grew older,
his love towards animals grew stronger and, after getting married, he and his wife acquired a
great amount of various animals: “birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a
cat” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 3). One animal in particular held a special place in his heart:
“Pluto—this was the cat’s name—was my favorite pet and playmate” (Poe, “The Black Cat”
4).

However, his cordiality suddenly shifts and he “grew, day by day, more moody, more
irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 4). Unfortunately,
his wife and animals suffer as he becomes violent and unrecognizable. The first instance of
his madness is clearly visible when, upon coming back home one night “much intoxicated”
(Poe, “The Black Cat” 5), he cold-bloodedly cuts one of the cat’s eyes from its socket. The
description of his inner state of mind upon committing the wrongdoing gives away the notion
that he has lost his reason, but he rationalizes it by blaming it on the large amounts of alcohol
he had consumed earlier that night: “the fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew
myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a
more than fiendish malevolence, ginnurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame” (Poe, “The

12
Black Cat” 5). Gradually, his psychological state worsens and he hangs his once so beloved
cat on a tree blaming “the spirit of PERVERSENESS” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 5) for his deed.
Furthermore, Elswick notes that the narrator uses perverseness as a means of rationalization
for his madness, explaining how all people have experienced it (2). The narrator wonders:
“Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no
other reason than because he knows he should not?” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 6). By doing this,
Elswick argues, the narrator uses the bandwagon effect to make himself more relatable:

He uses the bandwagon effect to make his story believable, strongly

reinforcing the idea that he is not mad. Doing this, the narrator attempts to
connect with his readership, or the person he is confessing to, in order to
conceal or overpower the idea he may be under the influence of madness and
tilt the listener’s beliefs toward the unexplainable and out of the fault of the
narrator. (2)

The series of events that follows further incite the feelings of horror and disbelief.
Namely, soon after the mutilation and murder of the cat, the narrator’s house burns down and
the detail that shows up on a remaining bedroom wall leaves the readers truly appalled: “the
figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There
was a rope about the animal’s neck” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 7). It can be assumed that any
sane man would question this chain of events with true fear and incredulity, even wondering
if there might be something supernatural going on, but the narrator again has a “hectic urge to
establish a kind of reason in the story” (Adhikari 182) and thus he “offers an explanation so
preposterous that it ranks among American literature’s all-time whoppers” (Amper 480):

The cat, I remembered, had been hung in a garden adjacent to the house. Upon
the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd—by
some one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown,
through an open window, into my chamber. This had probably been done with
the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed
the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; the
lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass, had then
accomplished the portraiture as I saw it. (Poe, “The Black Cat” 7)

After the terrible misdoing, the narrator soon gets a strong desire to acquire a new cat,
as similar to the maimed one as possible, “as a mark of repentance of his misdeed” (Adhikari

13
182): “I went so far as to regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me, among the vile
haunts which I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same species, and of
somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 8). The
cat he comes across one night, strange as it seems but as he confidently claims, looks like
Pluto: “it was a black cat—a very large one—fully as large as Pluto” (Poe, “The Black Cat”
8) that “also had been deprived of one of its eyes” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 9). Yet, there is a
notable difference between the two cats: namely “this cat had a large, although indefinite
splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 8).
Elswick claims that the narrator’s madness is manifested here through hallucinations because
the chances of finding a cat almost identical to the cat he ruthlessly murdered are almost
impossible (3). Another instance of hallucinating is the strange white spot on the back of the
new cat. Seemingly, it was just an indeterminate white spot, but as the narrator later suddenly
claims:

It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name—and for this,
above all, I loathed, and dreaded, and would have rid myself of the monster
had I dared—it was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly thing—of
the GALLOWS!— oh, mournful and terrible engine of Horror and of Crime—
of Agony and of Death ! (Poe, “The Black Cat” 10)

The sudden shift in perception can be considered as a clear sign of madness in which he
“hallucinates an image of his guilt onto the cat, a seeming twin of his first victim” (Elswick
3).

After the heinous discovery, the feeling of loath towards the creature consumes the
narrator: “Evil thoughts became my sole intimates—the darkest and most evil of thoughts”
(Poe, “The Black Cat” 11). One fateful day, as he was accompanied by his wife into the
cellar, the cat cut through his way almost making him fall. This action, as he claims, drove
him “to madness” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 11) and he wanted to slaughter the cat with an axe,
but the interference of his wife enraged him even more. Consequently, with “rage more than
demoniacal” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 11), he murders his wife with an axe. The horror that
follows leaves the readers utterly appalled. Namely, the narrator does not feel any remorse for
brutally murdering his wife. What is more, after the “hideous murder” (Poe, “The Black Cat”
11) was “accomplished” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 11), he moves on to concealing her body.
Frightful as it is, it seems as if the whole process of concealing the body is like an adventure
for him, as his mind was teeming with different ideas:
14
 Many projects entered my mind. At one period I thought of cutting the corpse
into minute fragments, and destroying them by fire. At another, I resolved to
dig a grave for it in the floor of the cellar. Again, I deliberated about casting it
in the well in the yard—about packing it in a box, as if merchandise, with the
usual arrangements, and so getting a porter to take it from the house. (Poe,
“The Black Cat” 11)

Finally, the narrator decides to place his murdered wife into a wall. The action was
successfully executed, the cat was also gone, and the narrator was ecstatic. His “happiness
was supreme” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 13) and “no guilt mars his conscience or disturbs him”
(Elswick 4). Similarly, when the police arrive to investigate, they are unable to find any
evidence of the murder. Ultimately, the narrator’s pride and self-satisfaction destroy him
when, upon the failed police investigation, out of pure happiness, which “was too strong to be
restrained” (Poe, “The Black Cat” 13), he decides to knock on the same wall he placed his
wife into, which marks the beginning of his downfall:

No sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was
answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and
broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long,
loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a
wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen
only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the dammed in their agony and
of the demons that exult in the damnation. (Poe, “The Black Cat” 14)

Everybody present is filled with terror and disbelief, the atmosphere of horror rising with
every sound, until the wall finally collapses and reveals the motionless body of the narrator’s
wife accompanied by another creature:

The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before
the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary
eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and
whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the
monster up within the tomb. (Poe, “The Black Cat” 14)

Moreover, it is interesting to note how Poe connects the techniques of crime

confessions to expose the crime in the story: according to Kassin and McNail (qtd. in
Adhikari 182-83), there are two ways to make the suspect confess the crime: the first one by

15
exercising power and the second by using the method of befriending the suspect. These
techniques, which are regularly employed in criminal investigation, can be beneficial because
the suspect may assume that the investigators will be tolerant towards the crime and thus
confess the misdeed. The police also show no conjecture with the aim of alleviating the
suspect from the feeling of fear (Adhikari 183). Similarly, in “The Black Cat,” “the narrator
seeing the calmness and satisfaction of the police rapped heavily with his cane on that very
portion where he has deposited the body of his wife that ultimately brings the crime into
light” (Adhikari 183).

Another essential aspect to analyze is the narrator’s consumption of alcohol. In other

words, he blames the numbing effects of alcohol or, as he calls it “Fiend Intemperance” (Poe,
“The Black Cat” 4), for his sudden change of attitude and behavior towards the cat. However,
as Elswick claims, alcohol cannot be the reason for committing such heinous deeds because it
is introduced as “a momentarily lapse rather than a lasting addiction” (Elswick 4). That is, he
mentions being under the influence of it only upon mutilating Pluto, but there is no direct
mention of it when it comes to his murder, as well as the murder of his wife (Stark qtd. in
Elswick 4). In fact, Elswick claims that “no reasonable excuse can account for his murder of
the animal other than he wished to kill it and therefore did so” (4). Therefore, “his madness,
goaded into a frenzy by the cat and his wife’s intrusion in his attempted murder of it, is the
true reason behind his actions” (Elswick 4).

Furthermore, for the purposes of understanding the symbolism behind the title, it is
important to analyze some of the meanings behind the term “the black cat.” It is widely
known that there are various superstitions present when it comes to black cats. Namely, some
cultures believe that seeing a black cat represents good luck, while others consider them to be
a sign of calamity or death. According to Lazim, the first instances of symbolism can be seen
in the beginning of the story when the narrator’s superstitious wife expresses her belief on the
meaning of black cats. Namely, she “made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion,
which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise” (Poe qtd. in Lazim 58). The narrator
confidently dismisses this belief, not realizing that this same black cat will eventually embitter
his life. Therefore, “the black cat as sign powerfully represents, not only the mammal beast in
the physical world, but also the concept of death which is organically rooted in the veins of
the story” (Lazim 58). Furthermore, there is another intriguing symbolism behind the name of
the cat – Pluto. In “Greek and Roman mythology, Hades, god of the dead and the underworld
[is] also called Ades; Aides, Aidoneous, Pluton“ (Mercatante and Dow qtd.in Lazim 58).

16
 The horror is present throughout the entire story, namely “the maiming of Pluto, its
eventual murder, and the horrifying murder and stashing of his wife are such brutalities that
they become effective subjects of horror. Even with these topics, however, the true terror in
‘The Black Cat’ is the narrator’s madness and his lack of reason” (Elswick 5).

17
 3. “The Tell-Tale Heart”

“The Tell-Tale Heart” is one of Poe’s shortest Gothic horror stories. Nevertheless, it
manages to portray the deterioration of a madman in a truly startling way. Similarly as in
“The Black Cat,” there is an unnamed narrator who determinedly presents a strange and
terrifying chain of events. Consequently, the first person narration “allows the reader to see
into the mind of the madman who commits so heinous a crime” (Sova 173).

Right from the beginning of the story, the narrator strongly rejects any possibility of
him being mad: “TRUE!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but
why will you say that I am mad?” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 3). He even provides the
reasons for his alleged sanity –namely, he claims that a madman would not have been able to
tell this story so clearly and in detail as well as carry out his plan so carefully and
thoughtfully: “Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me. You should have seen
how wisely I proceeded—with what caution— with what foresight—with what dissimulation
I went to work!” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 3). Therefore, “the narrator seeks to convince
readers that his ability to engage in systematic action must prove him to be sane, despite the
fact that such action is directed toward committing a heinous crime” (Sova 174). It can be said
that he is being overly protective towards himself, so much so that his statement creates a
contradictory effect and “only increases the reader’s conviction about his lack of sanity”
(Sova174).

The narrator begins his alarming story by stating that there was really no particular
reason for committing such a ghastly murder. He lived with a friendly old man whom he
cherished very much: “object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He
had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire” (Poe,
“The Tell-Tale Heart” 3). However, there was one thing that started aggravating him to the
point of insanity: the man’s strange-looking eye: “I think it was his eye! yes, it was this! One
of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell
upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take
the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”
3).

The unduly loathing towards the old man’s eye is “the first sign of his madness“ (Sova
174), which gradually deteriorates to the point of plotting a murder. Every night for seven
days straight around midnight, the narrator goes to the old man’s room with a lantern and
18
points the light towards him, but the old man remains asleep and the narrator cannot execute
his plan because “it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye” (Poe, “The Tell-
Tale Heart” 4). Moreover,

there is a tension between love and hate capacities of the narrator; he loves the
old man but he hates his vulture’s eye. This paradox explained by Poe half a
century before Freud made it a leading concept in his theories of mind and
explored the psychological complication of human mind that people sometimes
harm even those persons whom they love or need in life. (Amir 604)

However, on the eighth night the narrator feels something special. In his madness, he
feels powerful, his mind is clear, and he is determined to execute the deed: “Never before that
night had I felt the extent of my own powers—of my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my
feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even
to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 4). The horror of the
statement lies in the fact that he seems to enjoy his madness and the urge to kill. Finally, on
the eighth fateful night, the old man wakes up and the narrator points the lantern towards him,
revealing the eye. Upon seeing the eye, the narrator “grew furious” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale
Heart” 5). Moreover, except the eye, there is another thing that infuriates him even more,
driving him deep into uncontrollable madness: “there came to my ears a low, dull, quick
sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was
the beating of the old man’s heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates
the soldier into courage” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 6).The narrator’s madness reaches the
level of hallucination as he is suddenly able to hear the man’s heartbeat. However, he denies
any possibility of madness and repeatedly tries to cleverly convince the readers that he is
sane: “and now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness
of the senses?” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 6). The narrator’s constant need to secure himself
and his sanity points out the innovative nature of Poe’s story:

The innovation of the story is that with all its genre, subgenre and philosophy,
it remains a masterpiece of narrative art and the narrator as if always
conversing with the reader, trying to clear even the slightest vagueness that
they might attribute, justify the breaks between the activities and thoughts that
they might term as insane or incomplete and thus always providing the
psychological reasons behind his acts. (Adhikari 181)

19
 When the sound of the old man’s heartbeat becomes insufferable, the narrator finally
suffocates the old man by throwing a mattress over him and pressing it until he cannot hear
the sound of the heartbeat. After murdering the old man, the narrator is relieved as “there was
no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale
Heart” 6). The process of hiding the dead body brings terror to the readers as the narrator
“becomes satiated and quite complementary at his own sagacity, how wisely and cunningly
all had been done” (Adhikari 181):

First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the arms and the
legs. I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and
deposited all between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so
cunningly, that no human eye—not even his—could have detected any thing
wrong. There was nothing to wash out—no stain of any kind—no blood-spot
whatever. I had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all—ha! ha! (Poe,
“The Tell-Tale Heart” 7)

The arrival of the police prompted by loud noises heard by the neighbors does not
trouble the narrator at all. In fact, he is completely serene because, as he claims, “for what had
I to fear?” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 7). His pride and self-satisfaction are at its peak when
he decides to take the officers to the crime scene where he places his chair right under the spot
where he deposited the old man’s body. They are chatting and everything is going well until
the narrator suddenly starts feeling uneasy and hearing strange noises: “My head ached, and I
fancied a ringing in my ears” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 8). Furthermore, as the time goes
on and the sound is getting more distinct, he becomes more and more irritable with “violent
gesticulations” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 8). He figures that if he can hear the disquieting
sound, then the officers must hear it too: “They heard!—they suspected!—they knew!—they
were making a mockery of my horror!” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 8). Finally, the narrator,
“overwhelmed by guilt” (Sova 174), breaks down with paranoia, his madness taking over
him: “I felt that I must scream or die!—and now—again!— hark! louder! louder! louder!
louder!— ‘Villains!’ I shrieked, ‘dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks!—
here, here!—it is the beating of his hideous heart!’” (Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” 8).

Consequently, the feeling of guilt plays a crucial role in the narrator’s downfall. Sun
claims that the sound of the heartbeat was just a projection of his own feelings. The fact is that
the officers did not hear the sound of the heartbeat because the sound was non-existent as the

20
man was murdered. He goes on to conclude that the sound was just an illusion prompted by
horror or the narrator’s culpable conscience (Sun 95).

Another important theme in the story is the theme of time. Even though it may not be
so apparent, it bears an intriguing symbolism. Sova argues that Poe uses flashbacks to hint
that the narrator was planning the murder, i.e. the time span of seven nights of observing the
old man and the killing on the eighth night. It is also important to mention that the narrator did
not perform the murder until he felt that everything was perfect (Sova 174). The sound of the
heartbeat, according to Sova, is also an important symbol because the heartbeat whose sounds
resemble that of a watch “leads him to confess the crime” (174).

21
 4. “The Fall of the House of Usher”

“The Fall of the House of Usher” is by many considered to be one of the best literary
works of Gothic fiction, which, in its complexity, “explores the capacity for experiencing fear,
hysteria and madness. All that lies on the dark side of the mind; what lurks on and beyond the
shifting frontiers of consciousness” (Amel 5). Furthermore, Sova notes that the popularity and
the success of the story may emerge from Poe’s own identification with the characters:

Many critics believe this tale reveals the most about Poe’s life—from one
critic’s assertion that the description of Roderick Usher is “the most perfect
pen-portrait of Poe which is known” to another’s suggestion that references to
“the morbid condition of the auditory nerve” and the shifting visual imagery in
the mansion unmistakably reflect a familiarity with the effects of opium.
Certainly, the wasting away of Madeline Usher strongly calls to mind the
sufferings of Poe’s child-bride VIRGINIA CLEMM, though Virginia suffered her
first serious illness in 1842, after the story’s publication. (Sova 68)

One of the most prominent features of Gothic literature is the portrayal of the setting,
namely a dark, frightening setting, usually accompanied by an old, deteriorating and
mysterious mansion that carries deep, dark secrets. Consequently, this setting creates an
atmosphere of fear, horror, and discomposure. This feature of Gothic literature is also very
prominent in the short story and carries an important meaning as “the atmosphere is used
extensively to do many things. The author uses it to convey ideas, effects, and images. It
establishes a mood and foreshadows future events. Poe communicates truths about the
character through atmosphere” (Pang, Wang, and Hu 17).

Moreover, the narrator opens his detailed testimony by describing the setting as he
approaches the Usher mansion with the aim of visiting his old childhood friend Roderick
Usher who is in a desperate mood and, thus, needs a friend to comfort him. The choice of
words Poe uses in the description of the landscape sets the atmosphere of the story. Namely,
the narrator arrives on “a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year” (Poe, “The
Fall of the House of Usher” 3). The use of adjectives and the fact that the story is set in the
autumn season when the nature is slowly dying immediately sets the atmosphere of bleakness.
Similarly, when it comes to the choice of adjectives in the story, Pang, Wang, and Hu notice
that Poe “uses descriptive words such as decayed, strange, peculiar, gray, mystic, gothic,

22
pestilent, dull and sluggish to create the atmosphere. Poe’s meticulous choice of words creates
a very effective atmosphere in the story” (17). Furthermore, an even more apparent indication
of a horror atmosphere is the House of Usher itself. Upon arriving and seeing the house, the
narrator is suddenly struck with “a sense of insufferable gloom” (Poe, “The Fall of the House
of Usher” 3). He notices that something about the house is unsettling, even terrifying, but
cannot grasp the reason for feeling so uneasy:

I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple
landscape features of the domain— upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant
eye-like windows— upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of
decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no
earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon
opium—the bitter lapse into every-day life—the hideous dropping off of the
veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed
dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into
aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so
unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? (Poe, “The Fall of
the House of Usher” 3)

Furthermore, the Gothic interior of the house leaves a similar impression on the
narrator: while walking “through many dark and intricate passages” (Poe, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” 6), he notices “the carvings of the ceilings, the somber tapestries of the
walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which
rattled” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 7). The detailed description of his passage
through the house gives away a similar atmosphere of darkness, chilliness, and decay. Also,
upon entering Roderick’s room the narrator again gives a rather detailed description of
everything he notices in the dark, gloomy room. Again, he is struck with a similar feeling of
strange discomfort: “dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse,
comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about,
but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An
air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all” (Poe, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” 7).

In his paper, Dali Amel notices that Poe, comparing the windows of the house to an
eye, personifies the house, but also, through lengthy, detailed and eerie descriptions of the
exterior as well as the interior of the house, hints that there is something dreadful about to
23
happen (33). Consequently, this kind of detailed description with many carefully chosen
adjectives incite feelings of interest, tension, and suspense as readers are eager to find out
what happens next in this eerie and horror story. Similarly, Sun asserts that “it is the curiosity
we showed toward the unknown things that we are attracted” (Sun 97) to.

As has been mentioned earlier, the narrator’s visit to the Usher house is prompted by
Roderick’s plea for help and companionship because he has found himself in a state of “an
excessive nervous agitation” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 8).Roderick is the
narrator’s boyhood friend, the last of the Usher family, who lives with his beloved sister
Madeline in the old, decaying Usher mansion. Upon arriving at the house, the narrator is
alarmed by Roderick’s negligent and intimidating appearance:

The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye,
above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been
suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated
rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect its
Arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. (Poe, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” 8)

Interestingly, Roderick’s unkempt and lurid appearance reflects the same frightful appearance
of the house:
Roderick is the human reflection of the house, which has “eye-like windows”
and doors like “ponderous and ebony jaws.” Comparable to Roderick’s hair,
described by the narrator as “of a more than weblike softness and tenuity,” the
top of the house is covered with “minute fungi” that hang “in a fine tangled
web-work from the eaves.” (Sova 72)

Such a literary technique is not unusual for Poe because, according to Benjamin F. Fisher, he
uses settings to portray the characters and their inner state of minds as well as their
appearance (30).

The first instance of Roderick’s peculiarity and illness is the fact that he is a loner. He
lives far away in a desolate countryside with no family but his ill sister. He spends his days
alone, confined by the dark, macabre walls of his decaying house. The only person Roderick
knows outside of the house is the narrator, his old boyhood friend. However, they have not
seen each other in a long time. Apart from a neglected appearance, the narrator also notices

24
that Roderick’s “behavior was remarkable for the sudden changes of mood” (Amel 15), which
can also be attributed to his mental illness. Namely, as the narrator vividly describes:

His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a
tremulous indecision (when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to
that species of energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and
hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly
modulated guttural utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or
the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense
excitement. (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 9)

Another instance of Roderick’s ill and overly-sensitive mind is manifested through his strange
behavior, namely through his episodes of being finicky:

He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food
was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odors
of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and
there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did
not inspire him with horror. (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 9)

Furthermore, what sets Roderick apart from the narrators in the previous two stories is
the fact that he admits that there is something wrong with him. According to Amel, even in
the beginning, in the letter he sends to the narrator, does Roderick admit that he is not well
(14). In his later conversation with the narrator, Roderick informs him about his life’s burden,
i.e. his constant feelings of nervousness, anxiety, turmoil, and fear:

I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be
lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I
shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which may
operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of
danger, except in its absolute effect—in terror. In this unnerved, in this pitiable,
condition I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive when I must abandon
life and reason together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm, Fear. (Poe,
“The Fall of the House of Usher” 9-10)

25
The reader further discovers that Roderick is especially fond of arts, namely music and
painting. In his, and other similar case(s), art serves as a source of expression: his paintings
“show a close relationship to his gradually crumbling sanity” (Sova 72).
The source of Roderick’s fear, as Amel claims, might be attributed to the influence of
the house. Namely, even the narrator has strange feelings about the house upon arriving and
feels that there is something bizarre and odd about it. Consequently, Roderick is under the
strong influence of it and “is refrained from leaving and does not make the attempt to defeat
this enduring power that holds him captive. The House causes the fears that control Roderick
Usher’s mind” (Amel 27). Similarly, Hill adds that Roderick “believes in ‘the sentience of all
vegetable things’ (Poe qtd in Hill 398) and connects this belief with the House itself. Thus he
can believe that the House has the power to dominate the lives of within” (Hill 398).
Additionally, Roderick’s poem “The Haunted Palace” is highly symbolic as it describes the
downfall and the deterioration of the house as well as the people who inhabited it (Amel 28):

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. (Poe 14-15)

Another contribution to his ill state can be attributed to the peculiarities of his family.
In other words, “he is the end product of in-breeding” (Hill 398) as it is possible that “Usher
cousin married Usher cousin and, to employ a phrase of that time, no new blood was
introduced to reinforce the family tree. In such a line of descent strong traits are very often
replaced by weaker ones” (Hill 398). However, an even more apparent reason for Roderick’s
anguish is: “the severe and long-continued illness—indeed to the evidently approaching
dissolution—of a tenderly beloved sister, his sole companion for long years, his last and only
relative on earth” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 10). His sister Madeline is the only
family he has, but her strange illness, which “baffled the skill of her physicians” (Poe, “The
Fall of the House of Usher” 11), is slowly taking over her. Madeline is undoubtedly a
mysterious character who does not talk nor is present throughout the story much. One day, as
she passes through the hallway, the narrator is again struck by a strange feeling:

26
 lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed through a remote portion of the
apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I regarded
her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread; and yet I found it
impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me as
my eyes followed her retreating steps. (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher”
10)

The strange feeling and uneasiness that the narrator feels throughout his visit to the
Usher house is nothing compared to the chain of events that unfold that same night, inciting
the feelings of dismay and terror. Namely, Roderick suddenly informs the narrator “that the
lady Madeline was no more” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 16) and that he expects
the narrator’s help in “preserving her corpse for a fortnight (previously to its final interment),
in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of the building” (Poe, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” 16). Uncanny as it is, the narrator accepts Roderick’s plea for help and they
place Madeline in a “small, damp” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 17) vault, also
described as a “region of horror” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 17) by the narrator.
In addition, before leaving, they take one last look at Madeline, but the way that the narrator
describes her incites suspicion as her appearance does not resemble that of a dead person: “the
mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile
upon the lip which is so terrible in death” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 18).
Consequently, this eerie description may suggest “that lady Madeline cannot be dead if she
possesses the features of someone who is alive” (Amel 29).

After the burial, the truly terrifying and ghastly things start to happen. Roderick’s
mental state deteriorates and his demeanor becomes almost unrecognizable to the narrator:

His ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or
forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and
objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more
ghastly hue—but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out. The once
occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a tremulous quaver, as
if of extreme terror, habitually characterized his utterance. (Poe, “The Fall of
the House of Usher” 18)

In addition to Roderick’s declining state, the narrator too starts having certain issues.
Namely, about a week after Madeline’s entombment, one night he “struggled to reason off the

27
nervousness” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 19) and eventually “an irrepressible
tremor” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 19) takes over him. It is evident that the
gloom and horror are slowly taking over him as well. In addition, the fact that there is a raging
storm outside contributes to the already strong atmosphere of horror. The narrator, in dire
hope of calming his nerves, leaves his room, but is appalled at the appearance of his friend
stating that “there was a species of mad hilarity in his eyes—an evidently restrained hysteria
in his whole demeanor” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 19). Throughout the night,
Roderick claims to have seen some strange apparition, but the narrator, still having a
somewhat reasonable mind, “attempts to present an unbiased account that avoids ascribing the
sense of foreboding to supernatural forces” (Sova 70) and claims that it was just an “electrical
phenomena not uncommon” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 20). To soothe
Roderick’s agitation, the narrator decides to read him a romance named “Mad Thirst” about a
knight named Ethelred who, in hopes of avoiding a storm, comes across a palace of gold
guarded by a dragon. In order to win the shield, it is necessary to kill the dragon, which,
ultimately, the knight does. The dragon dies “with a shriek so horrid and harsh” (Poe, “The
Fall of the House of Usher” 22) and, suddenly, the narrator seems to have heard the same
exact sound somewhere in the house:

Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild amazement—for
there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance, I did actually hear
(although from what direction it proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low
and apparently distant, but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or
grating sound—the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured
up for the dragon’s unnatural shriek as described by the romancer. (Poe, “The
Fall of the House of Usher” 22-23)

After this gruesome event, the narrator still tries to remain calm, but everything soon
“becomes increasingly difficult as the story progresses and the narrator begins to doubt his
own perceptions” (Sova 69).
Furthermore, upon reading about the shield that falls from the wall and produces a
“terrible ringing sound” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 23), a similar sound is heard
in the mansion: “no sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if a shield of brass
had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver—I became aware of a distinct,
hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation” (Poe, “The Fall of
the House of Usher” 23-24). Consequently, the sounds full of consternation aggravate

28
Roderick’s mental state who becomes frenzied and claims how the sounds are produced by
his sister Madeline whom he buried alive:
We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I
now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I
heard them—many, many days ago—yet I dared not—I dared not speak! And
now—to-night— Ethelred—ha! ha!—the breaking of the hermit’s door, and
the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangor of the shield— say, rather, the
rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her
struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! (Poe, “The Fall of the
House of Usher” 24)

Suddenly, the door of the bedroom opens and the sight of “the lofty and enshrouded figure of
the lady Madeline of Usher” (Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher” 25) covered in blood
leaves both the narrator and Roderick utterly appalled and horrified. Madeline then
approaches her brother and throws herself at him, ultimately killing him by shock. The
narrator, struck with disbelief and terror, flees the house and witnesses a truly gruesome
event: the literal fall and the collapse of the house of Usher, which symbolizes “the
anticipated final destruction of the family” (Sova 69).
The complexity of this remarkable piece of literature lies in the fact that the story can
be interpreted in more than one way. According to Stahlberg, the story can be understood as a
supernatural story as well as a psychological story where the events are merely an invention
of the human mind. Consequently, the majority of critics have accepted the psychological
interpretation and analysis of the story (Stahlberg 15). In addition, in his article, Hill posits a
theory about dual hallucinations, i.e. the impossibility of Madeline's resurrection and it being
the result of both Roderick’s and the narrator’s hallucinations. Furthermore, he states the
reasons and evidence for the impossibility of Madeline fleeing from the vault. Namely, there
is a shortage of oxygen, the air passage is made difficult due to copper, Madeline is locked in
the coffin, and the door is made of iron. Thus, a person ill and weak as her, abandoned
without life necessities such as food and water as well as being in a place with a deficiency of
air, is unable to break the coffin and the iron door and perform a murder. However, the fact
that the narrator, who is supposed to be sane and realistic, has witnessed the horrifying event
makes this theory hard to believe, yet Hill insists on the viability of his theory by emphasizing
the following reasons: the narrator’s gradual succumbing to the evil influence, the atmosphere
of the house, Roderick’s madness, and the narrator’s hallucinations (397). Moreover, there is

29
also a theory that Roderick did not actually bury his sister alive, but that it was all just a
product of his mad mind:

One of Roderick Usher’s abnormalities is an acute auditory sense; couple this

fact with the statement that a “favorite volume” was Directorum Inquisitorum;
blend these two facts with a third supplied by the narrator: Roderick is mad.
The result is an insane man whose interest in torture might well make him
imagine he had perpetrated one the most fiendish of tortures - burying someone
alive. And this insane man, if he possessed very acute hearing, might well
listen for the sounds which would confirm what his unbalanced mind set forth
as a fact. In short, Roderick hears the sounds from below because he wants to
hear them, and a shattered mind can hear whatever it wishes. (Hill 400)

Consequently, “everything attributed to Roderick Usher indicates mental instability: his

extreme nervousness, his belief in the sentience of vegetable matter, his fixation about being
ruled by the House itself, his wild music, and, most indicative, his fear of fear itself, which is
actually fear of his incipient madness” (Hill 398).

On the other hand, there is the supernatural approach to the story with Fisher
analyzing the story in terms of vampirism. Similarly, Fisher also wonders how Madeline, who
has been presented as seriously ill and weak, is able to flee from a sealed coffin. Unlike Hill,
Fisher proposes a theory about Madeline being a vampire. In other words, the explanation lies
in the fact that vampires are neither dead nor alive, but something in between. They are able
to remain alive without any kind of food for a long period of time, which would explain the
fact that Madeline managed to survive a week without food. Another interesting fact,
according to Fisher, is the fact that vampires hunt their families and beloved ones first before
concentrating on other victims (79). However, there is no definite answer as to what actually
happened and “the story leaves unanswered questions as to whether Roderick’s strange
behavior is the result of psychological disturbance or whether he is truly the victim of
supernatural forces” (Sova 70). Nevertheless, the indefiniteness of the story and Poe’s
remarkable literary expression create space for further creative interpretations and many
literary discussions.

30
 Conclusion

Despite a rather short literary career, Edgar Allan Poe managed to offer so much to the
world of literature that he has secured himself a place among the most famous writers of
American literature. His interest in the dark side of human mind as well as Gothic literature
resulted in some of the most respectable works of literature, which keep evoking the feelings
of shock and surprise among the readers to this day. The short stories such as “The Black
Cat,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” are considered to be
among his most famous and respectable works, dealing with individuals whose inner states of
mind are troubling and whose lives are consequently plagued by murder, guilt, and death.

“The Black Cat” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are fairly similar stories, but also have
their respective differences. As for the similarities, they both feature the insane first person
narrators who commit ghastly murders and place the dead bodies within the house.
Interestingly, both narrators are disturbed by the eyes, either the eye of the cat or the old
man’s. Moreover, both narrators seem to be experiencing hallucinations. Namely, it can be
said that the narrator of “The Black Cat” hallucinated an image of the gallows on his second
hat, which drove him to uncontrollable madness. Lastly, both narrators seem to be denying the
fact that they are mad. The narrator of “The Black Cat” desperately tries to establish
reasonable and logical explanations for his misdeeds, while the second narrator claims that his
ability to plan the murder as well as his ability to disclose everything so clearly is the proof of
his sanity. As for the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” in his hallucinations and paranoia, he
hears the dead man’s heartbeat. As for the differences, the most notable one is the reason for
committing the crimes. The narrator of “The Black Cat” blames the overconsumption of
alcohol for his behavior while the second narrator simply blames his sudden rage towards the
eye. Also, the ends of the stories differ as the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart,” plagued by
guilt, confesses the crime, while the second narrator destroys himself with his pride and self-
satisfaction.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” features a complex, overly-sensitive individual

whose madness stems from different factors – his family history, the influence of the house,
his isolation, and the attachment to his sister. Unlike the previous narrators, Roderick admits
and is aware that he is not well. The story is considered to be one of the most famous Gothic
stories with the setting having an immense influence on the characters and creating the
atmosphere of horror. Due to Poe’s unique style, there is no definite answer as to what

31
happens in the end so there is a lot of room for various theories, from supernatural theories
and vampirism to the psychological interpretations claiming that the narrator of the story,
once realistic and logical, cannot resist the dark, eerie, and depressing atmosphere and soon
starts delving into Roderick’s world of madness. Consequently, they are both unable to
distinguish reality from hallucinations. Nevertheless, in his stories, Poe managed to portray
human mind as a truly complex entity that holds many deep secrets. Consequently, Poe’s
unique style, which he accomplishes through suspense, mystery, detailed descriptions, horror
atmosphere and his interest in the complexity of human mind, makes him a truly intriguing
writer whose works will be read and discussed for a long time.

32
 Works Cited

Adhikari, Kousik. “Psychology in Crime and Confession: A Critical Study into Poe’s Short
Stories ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Black Cat’.” The ECHO: A Journal of
Humanities & Social Science, vol. 2, no. 3, 2014, pp 178-84.
http://www.thecho.in/vol-ii,-issue-iii,-january-2014.html. Accessed 12 Aug. 2020.
Amel, Dali. “The Psychoanalysis of the Gothic Elements in Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of
the House of Usher’: Interpretation of Dreams, Freudian theory and
Others.”Academia.edu,
https://www.academia.edu/34329932/THE_PSYCHOANALYSIS_OF_THE_GOTHI
C_ELEMENTS_IN_EDGAR_ALAN_POE_THE_FALL_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_US
HER_Using_interpretation_of_dreams_Freudian_theory_and_others. Accessed 26
June 2020.
Amir, Shamaila. “Analysis of the Short Story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” The
Creative Launcher: An International, Open Access, Peer Reviewed & Refereed E-
Journal in English, vol. 2, no. 3, 2017, pp. 596-606. ResearchGate,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328162362_Analysis_of_the_Short_Story_T
he_Tell-Tale_Heart_by_Edgar_Allan_Poe. Accessed 22 June 2020.
Amper, Susan. “Untold Story: The Lying Narrator in ‘The Black Cat.’” Studies in Short
Fiction, vol. 29, no. 4, 1992, pp. 475-85.
Academia.edu,’https://www.academia.edu/30233386/Untold_story_The_lying_narrato
r_in_The_Black_Cat. Accessed 17 June 2020.
Elswick, Morgan E. “The Unspeakable: Fearing Madness in Poe's ‘The Black Cat’.” The
Downtown Review, vol. 2. no. 2, 2016, pp. 1-6.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/tdr/vol2/iss2/2. Accessed 17 June 2020.
Fisher, Benjamin F. The Cambridge Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge UP, 2008.
Hill, John S. “The Dual Hallucination in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’.” Southwest
Review, vol. 48, no. 4, 1963, pp. 396–402. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43467554.
Accessed 12 Aug. 2020.
Lazim, Karim A. “Down Deep in the Dark: A Semiotic Approach to Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The
Black Cat’.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018, pp. 53-
61. ResearchGate,

33
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322866984_Down_Deep_in_the_Dark_A_S
emiotic_Approach_to_Edgar_Allan_Poe's_the_Black_Cat. Accessed 12 Aug. 2020.
Pang, Wenfang, Diqiu Wang, and Shanshan Hu. “Gothicism in ‘The Fall of the House of
Usher’.” Advances in Literary Study, vol. 3, 2015, pp. 15-20. DOI:
10.4236/als.2015.31003. Accessed 12 Aug. 2020.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Black Cat.” Ibiblio,
https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Black_Cat.pdf. Accessed 20 June 2020.
---. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Ibiblio, https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Tell-Tale_Heart.pdf.
Accessed 21 June 2020.
---. “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Ibiblio, https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Usher.pdf.
Accessed 26 June 2020.
Sova, Dawn B. Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe: A Literary Reference to His Life and
Work. Facts On File, Inc. and Infobase Publishing, 2007.
Stahlberg, Lawrence. “The Source of Usher’s Fear.” Interpretations, vol. 13, no. 1, 1981, pp.
10–17. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23241346. Accessed 26 June 2020.
Sun, Chunyan. “Horror from the Soul—Gothic Style in Allan Poe’s Horror Fictions.” English
Language Teaching, vol. 8, no. 5, 2015, pp 94-99. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n5p94. Accessed 27 June 2020.
VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. Outline of American Literature. The United States Department of
States, 1994.

34