The Question Of Originality In Edgar Allen Poe

America’s lack of literary tradition underpins much of the writing of Poe’s 19th century contemporaries. One must remember that to this day America remains a relatively young nation, and in Irving’s time in particular it was no more than an infant. Compared to the literary canon of Europe - greats such as Milton, Shakespeare, Pope - America’s history seemed scant and unremarkable. As a result we see novelists like James Fenimore C

1. A disintegrating and sloughing of the old consciousness.

Yet I would also contend that in Poe there is a clear desire to create an American mythos; fairytales for future generations, perhaps, and to push the boundaries of 19th century fiction. While his writings delve into the darker recesses of insanity and death far more than, say, Washington Irving’s moral fables, they remain inherently American. In 1925, William Carlos Williams said of Poe that “The local causes shaping Poe’s genius were two in character: the necessity for a fresh beginning, backed by a native vigour of extraordinary proportions, - with the corollary, that all “colonial imitation” must be swept aside. This was the conscious force which rose in Poe as innumerable timeless insights resulting, by his genius, in firm statements on the character of form, profusely illustrated by his practices; and second, the immediate effect of the locality upon the first, upon his nascent impulses, upon his original thrusts; tormenting the depths into a surface of bizarre designs by which he’s known.”#

Once again, Poe is taking us into the human mind; not to the depths of insanity, but rather into the light of reason. There is a scientific element to this tale that, while depriving it of certain conventional devices, adds to its ingenuity. As I have said before, one cannot help but find the character of Dupin tiresome and two-dimensional, yet the mind Poe has infused him with is a startling literary creation. It is in these stories that Poe, who spent much of his literary career more valued as a critic than a writer, laid the foundations of one of the most popular literary genres of the twentieth century.

Ultimately, neither Poe nor our nameless narrator offer an explanation for the strange events of the story - like so many of Poe’s tales, there is no clear-cut resolution. The spectral figure of Madeline Usher that returns to claim her brother is never truly explained; nor is her brother’s rash action of burying her alive in the first place. It is easy to understand why literary critics of the day may have found Poe’s tale a simple, exploitative attempt to terrify the reader without ever actually making any cohesive literary statement, as there is no true moral centre and much ambiguity. Yet closer inspection reveals that The Fall Of The House Of Usher is a tale of degeneration and madness that needs no conventional explanation - it is irrational in its very character. It is perhaps best to allow D. H Lawrence final say on this topic of degeneration - “He [Poe] is absolutely concerned with the disintegration processes of his own psyche. As we have said, the rhythm of American art-activity is dual.

Some topics in this essay:
Red Death, Madeline Usher, Raven’ Poe’s, Brander Matthews, DH Lawrence, Red Death’, English Romanticism, Fenimore Cooper, Auguste Dupin, Williams Poe, ‘the masque, red death, byron’s poem, ‘the masque red, masque red death’, red death’, masque red, 19th century, house usher, poe’s tale, byron shelley, dh lawrence, 19th century fiction, edgar allen poe,