Final Paper Lit Americana

8/4/2019 Final Paper Lit Americana

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Outline:

Outline 1

1. Introduction 2

2.Biography 3

3 Socio-Historical background 4

3.a- Romantic Movement 4

3.b- Age of Enlightenment 5

3.c- Transcendentalism 5

3.d- Industrial Revolution 5

4 Plot Synopsis 6

Romanticism in The Fall of the House of Usher 7

5 Main Characters 8

6 Major Themes 8

7.Symbols 10

Conclusions 12

9.Bibliography 13


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1-Introduction:

The Fall of the House of Usher is a great short story that shows all of the elements

of Romanticism: nature, individualism, exotic setting, supernatural, imagination,exploring psyche, among others elements are used in great detail easilyinterpreted and explained throughout the story by descriptions and symbolism. Allof these elements were vividly described in great detail for every reader tounderstand.

The purpose of this paper is to give a look and relevant information about thisperiod of the Literature through one of the most brilliant representative writers,Edgar Allan Poe, and one of his works.

This paper also includes some relevant information about the author, the socio-

historical aspects, and distinguishing features of the main characters among otherdata included on the paper.


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2. Biography: Edgar Allan Poe

Died October 7, 1849 (aged 40)Baltimore, Maryland United States

Born January 19, 1809Boston,Massachusetts United States

Occupation Poet, short story writer,editor, literary critic

Genres Horror fiction, Crime fiction,Detective fiction

Edgar Allan Poe was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic,and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for histales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest Americanpractitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre ofscience fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a livingthrough writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career

Poe's parents (both actors) died when he was young. Poe was taken in by Johnand Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia, but they never formally adopted him.After spending a short period at theUniversity of Virginiaand briefly attempting amilitary career, Poe and the Allans parted ways. Poe's publishing career beganhumbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems(1827), credited only to "a Bostonian".

Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working forliterary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literarycriticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he marriedVirginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. . In January 1845, Poe published hispoem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two yearslater, her early death may have inspired some of his writing. He began planning toproduce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he diedbefore it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore;the cause of his death is unknown and has been attributed to alcohol, braincongestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and otheragents.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore,_Marylandhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Massachusettshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Massachusettshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_storyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_critichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macabrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamerlane_and_Other_Poemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamerlane_and_Other_Poemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia,_Pennsylvaniahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Eliza_Clemm_Poehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ravenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stylushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stylushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholerahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_diseasehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholerahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stylushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ravenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Eliza_Clemm_Poehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia,_Pennsylvaniahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimorehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamerlane_and_Other_Poemshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_Virginiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macabrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_critichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_storyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fictionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genrehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employmenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Massachusettshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston,_Massachusettshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore,_Maryland


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Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world,as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and hiswork appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. Anumber of his homes are dedicated museums today.

3. Socio-historical background:

3.a) Romantic Movement:Romanticism was a European movement historical phenomenon which took place(in England) between the latter half of the 18 th c and the first quarter of the 19thcentury and extended in different european and American countries at differenttimes. This movement was not restricted to literature, but of all art forms: music,painting, etc. by freedom of form, emphasis on feeling, originality, and the creativeimagination and on the artist's own personality, and by sympathetic interest in

nature, medievalism, and the common man.

CHARACTERISTICS:- The importance given to individual talent and subjectivity.- Connection between subjective experience and a spiritual or mysticalsignificance.- The value given to nature, especially in its grander, wilder aspects alsoconnected with religious experience and with the sublime: a key term in thedevelopment of R. Essentially concerned with feelings of spiritual awe and wonder,often occasioned by an emotional response to natural grandeur. Mountainouslandscapes, for ex, were increasingly seen as appropriate settings for sublimity of

feeling. Although an ancient term, it was given new life in the 18th

and 19th

centuries notably in Burkes A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideasof the Sublime and Beautiful(1757).- Questioning of social codes, morality codes, social order. The traditional valuesystems in general.- Political radicalism.- Emotions, even extreme and passionate, were highly valued over reason andrationality.- Admiration for, almost veneration of nature, innocence.- Also valued high feelings or senses such as wonder, alienation, or even terrorand madness. And they were fascinated by altered states of consciousness, as

those induced by drugs.- Hero-figures and heroic deeds were central.

Romanticism is also associated with the Gothic (example of romantic/gothic novel:Frankensteinby Mary Shelley), with which it shares certain characteristics, forexample:

Fascination for the past (medieval era), for exotic settings and locations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology


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Romanticism in The Fall of the House of Usher:Various elements of Romanticism are interwoven throughout Edgar Allan Poe's"The Fall of the House of Usher." The first of these elements is one of the mostrecognized themes of Romanticism, in which a person is moved to "follow the heartover the head." The second element is Roderick Usher's "sympathetic vibrations,"shown in his suffering from nervous exhaustion. The last element is the negativeinfluence of nature on the psychological state of Usher and the physical state of hishouse. An important aspect of Romanticism is that Romantics rely solely on theirperceptions. Being moved to rationality is not common, as Romantics are mostoften going to follow their inner voice and heart alone.

In examining Roderick Usher's mental state throughout "The Fall of the House ofUsher," one can see that Roderick is suffering from nervous exhaustion. He oftenmentions throughout the story that his "heart is quivering." He suffers from bouts ofhysterical mania, followed by extreme depression. In other words, he is a manic-depressive. His morbid acuteness of the senses has made most thingssurrounding him seem unbearable. Roderick is "enchained by certain superstitiousimpressions" as if his home is haunted. He is able to perceive supernaturalsensations that the common person would not be able to sense. Roderick is also ahypochondriac - he is constantly in fear of his crumbling health. And his highlysensitive impressions can only find concrete expression through his abstractpaintings.

Exploring the physical surroundings of the Usher home, utter dreariness candescribe the type of intense influence that this environment has on Roderick. It is aGothic atmosphere, with "excessive antiquity," "old wood-work which has rotted forlong years," crumbling stones, cobwebs. The "minute fungi" and miasma whichhave formed around the house are causing it to decay. The dreary house hasmade Roderick a captive hostage to his own insanity and the sheer gloom thathangs around him. Roderick's physical surroundings now represent the fact that heis a "victim of ennui." His paintings and music no longer thrill him; he is wrapped upin the terror of his depression. And although Roderick is highly artistic, he believesthat he can not feel beyond the climax of emotion and passion that he has alreadyexperienced, musically and artistically: he feels "burned out."

In "The Fall of the House of Usher," the inevitable collapse of Roderick's lineage,house, and health, all portray the unavoidable reality that nothing ever lasts in the

material world. In the end of his life, Roderick Usher is led to pursue the twinges ofhis emotions and senses because the physical dimension no longer has anyimpact on him in a positive, healthy way. Roderick only has the urgent desire tofollow his heavy heart. This intense emotional sensation is what evokes RoderickUsher's hysteria and ultimately his compelling desire to eradicate the passion andlife force within him.


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5. Main Characters:

The Narrator: We know little of his background, and we never even learn hisname. He was childhood friends with Roderick Usher. He arrives on horseback atthe house with the intention of helping Usher. Though he details precisely the

nature of Usher's madness, it is suggested through the course of the narrative thathe too may be losing his sanity. Indeed, given his terrified description of the ghastlyhouse in the opening passages of the tale, the reader must wonder whether hewas sane from the start.

Roderick Usher: The last living descendant, along with his ailing sister Madeline,of the Ushers, a time-worn family of wealth and prestige, known as patrons of thearts and givers of charity, but also stricken with a peculiar temperament that seemsto run through their blood. Never having crossed lines with other families, theUsher name lies entirely "in the direct line of descent"--so that, after Madeline dies,Roderick is his family's sole living exponent. At the beginning of the story he

already suffers from a severe mental illness, which steadily grows worse as thetale progresses. After his sister's death, he seems to retreat completely intomadness. Before that precipitous fall, however, he dabbles in painting and showshimself to be an able guitar player. A man of culture and erudition, Roderick Usherspends his days inside his dark and cavernous mansion, avoiding sunlight or thesmells of flowers, and obsessing over "the sentience of all vegetable things."

Madeline: Roderick Usher's sister. She suffers from a mysterious illness,cataleptic in nature, never otherwise explained. What is most important to thestory, however, is the degree to which Roderick loves her. He seems unable tobear the thought of her death. The fact that the two of them live together without

spouses in the great family mansion suggests, given the pecularity of the two andtheir unusual family history, the possibility of an incestuous relationship.

6. Major Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideasexplored in a literary work.

Mortality: The plot of Poe's tale essentially involves a woman who dies, is buried,and rises from the grave. But did she ever die? Near the horrific finale of the tale,Usher screams: "We have put her living in the tomb!" Premature burial was

something of an obsession for Poe, who featured it in many of his stories. In "TheFall of the House of Usher," however, it is not clear to what extent the supernaturalcan be said to account for the strangeness of the events in the tale. Madeline mayactually have died and risen like a vampire--much as Usher seems to possessvampiric qualities, arising "from a sofa on which he had been lying at full length"when the Narrator first sees him, avoiding all daylight and most food, and roamingthrough his crypt-like abode. But a more realistic version of events suggests thatshe may have been mistaken for dead--and luckily managed to escape her tomb.


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Either way, the line between life and death is a fine one in Poe's fiction, andUsher's study of the "sentience of all vegetable things" fits aptly with Poe's ownpreoccupations.

Madness: Poe writes that Usher "entered, at some length, into what he conceived

to be the nature of his malady." What exactly is his "malady" we never learn. EvenUsher seems uncertain, contradictory in his description: "It was, he said, aconstitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy--amere nervous affection, he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soonpass off." The Narrator notes an "incoherence" and "inconsistency" in his oldfriend, but he offers little by way of scientific explanation of the condition. As aresult, the line between sanity and insanity becomes blurred, which paves the wayfor the Narrator's own descent into madness.

Fear: If we were to try to define Roderick Usher's illness precisely, we mightdiagnose him with acute anxiety. What seems to terrify Usher is fear itself. "To an

anomalous species of terror," Poe writes, "I found him a bounden slave." Ushertries to explain to the Narrator that he dreads "the events of the future, not inthemselves but in their results." He dreads the intangible and the unknowable; hefears precisely what cannot be rationally feared. Fear for no apparent reasonexcept ambiguity itself is an important motif in Poe's tale, which after all begins withthe Narrator's description of his own irrational dread: "I know not how it was--but,with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded myspirit." Later, Usher identifies fear itself as the thing that will kill him, suggesting thathis own anxiety is what conjures up the blood-stained Madeline--or that she issimply a manifestation of his own deepest neuroses.

Incest: What binds Usher to Madeline, and what renders him terrified of her? Ifhe conjures up her specter, arisen from the grave to bring him to his own, whydoes he do so? There is a clear incestuous undertone to the relationship betweenthe brother and sister. Without spouses they live together in the great family home,each of them wasting away within the building's dark rooms. The Narratordescribes the strange qualities of the Usher family--that it never has put forth "anyenduring branch," that "the entire family lay in the direct line of descent." Theimplication is that incest is the norm for the Ushers, and that Roderick's andMadeline's strange illnesses may stem from their inbred genes.

Friendship: The Narrator arrives at the House of Usher in order to visit a friend.While the relationship between him and Roderick is never fully explained, thereader does learn that they were boyhood friends. That Usher writes to theNarrator, urging him to give him company in his time of distress, suggests the closerapport between the two men. But Poe's story is a chronicle of both distancing andidentification. In other words, the Narrator seems to remove himself spiritually fromUsher, terrified of his house, his illness, his appearance, but as the narrativeprogresses he cannot help but be drawn into Usher's twisted world. Alas, family (ifnot incest) trumps friendship at the end, when Usher and Madeline are reunitedand the Narrator is cast off on his own into the raging storm.


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Burial: There are three images of would-be "tombs" or "crypts" in "The Fall of theHouse of Usher." The house itself is shut off from the daylight, its cavernous roomsturned into spacious vaults, in which characters who never seem entirely alive--Madeline and Usher--waste away. Second, Usher's painting is of "an immenselylong and rectangular vault or tunnel," foreshadowing the third image of a tomb, the

real one of Madeline's temporary burial. What Poe has constructed therefore is akind of mise-en-abime (story-within-a-story)--tombs being represented withintombs. The implication, especially once the entire House of Usher sinks into a newgrave below the tarn, is that the world itself is a kind of crypt.

The Arts: Despite (or because) of his madness, Usher is skilled at music andapparently is quite a painter. The Narrator compares Roderick's "phantasmagoricconceptions" to those of a real artist, Fuseli, and the Narrator seems bothentranced and terrified by them. "If ever mortal painted an idea," he proposes, "thatmortal was Roderick Usher." Insofar as art might be deemed a stab at immortality,the death-obsessed Usher, so certain of his own demise, strives to cling to timeitself by producing works which can last beyond him. And insofar as art is a fleetinggood in itself, Usher might at least claim a bit of beauty in the midst of his anxieties.Ironically, though, the one painting of his that the Narrator describes portrays atomb, and everything is finally destroyed by the House's collapse. It would seemthat his art fails Roderick Usher.

7. Symbols: Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used torepresent abstract ideas or concepts.

Reality and Art:You might have noticed a strange mingling of the fictional with the real in this story.Rodericks artistic creations have a definite connection with what happens to theHouse of Usher. He paints an underground tomb; Madeline is entombedunderground. He sings about the decline of a house; the House of Usher declines.He screams that the dead Madeline is standing at the door and so she is at thedoor. In fact, way back the beginning of the story Roderick declares that will diefrom fear, which in fact comes true at the end of the tale.One possibility is that Roderick, with his magic, lustrous eye, can foresee thefuture. He knows these events will transpire and so he prophecies them aloud.Another possibility is that Roderick actually causes these things to happen, so thathe is consumed by fear he manifests his fear in reality, along with the help of somemagic pixie dust from his haunted mansion.

Doubling:Weve seen that art mirrors reality in this story, but there are several other cases ofdoubling or reflection going on. Starting off the story is the inverted reflection ofthe House of Usher in the tarn that lies before the house. Youve also got the


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inverted dichotomy between Madeline and Usher, twins, but male/female,mental/physical (see Character Analysis), alive/dead. Dichotomy means adivision between two opposing things.

The House of Usher

There are several levels on which we can interpret this title. First is the actual,physical House of Usher, the mansion the narrator visits and the setting for thestory. At the end of the story, the House of Usher falls, literally, into the tarn or poolof water in front of the house

The Small FissureThe narrator observes a crack in the mansion upon his arrival to the Usher estate.Since hes just mentioned that The House of Usher refers both to the family andthe building, we should have an eye out for symbolic connections between the two.And indeed, we can see this small fissure as representative of a disruption in theunity of the family, more specifically, between Madeline and her brother. This is thedisruption that ultimately tears the family and the mansion to pieces.


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8. Conclusions:

With all the elements of Romanticism explained, and the characteristics of thenovel exposed, when can see that "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a clear

representation of its time period. Using symbolism and vivid description Poe helpsthe reader to connect the element of Romanticism to the plot of the story.

The way that Edgar Allen Poe wrote this story, helps to develop a connectionbetween the plot of the story and the themes. Also the detail and the symbolismhelp develop a single affect of horror in the story because the way every singledetail is explained. With a unique way of writing, given by the author, the setting isbrought to life in full color and the reader feels like he or she is actually in the story.

Maria de Lourdes Ulloque2010


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9. Bibliography:

VANSPANCKEREN, Kathryn, Outline of American Literature, Published by

the United States Department of State, 1994

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foot Britannia Dictionary

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.htm Merriam Webster

Dictionary and Thesaurus online

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/summary.html Spark Notes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidays Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foothttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foothttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.htmhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.htmhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/summary.htmlhttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/summary.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidayshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidayshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holidayshttp://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/summary.htmlhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.htmhttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foot

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