crystal.ashton

                                                                                                             English 2600

I did an essay using archetypal criticism and psychoanalytic criticism. I chose my essay on this particular piece of writing because I feel as though most of Edgar's ailments were reflected in this.

Essay on Edgar Allen Poe's  House of Usher  by Crystal Ashton

 

Edgar Allen Poe, I think wanted to convey with this story a sense of how depression is passed down to others as an extended metaphor.  Now most people believe that depression is simply a state of mind and a chemical problem. However this seems to say that he feels depression is actually spiritual oppression and a dilapidation that turns physical after manifestation. It is sad to note that ones unkempt surroundings can show the signs of depression, such as the Usher place. The crack in the structure; the musical instruments strewn everywhere the dilapidated décor etc. Abstract metaphors that the story lists are: “It displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations.” “ To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. “He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth.”

 

What is the interesting thing about this story is that the narrator actually sees the apparition of Roderick Usher’s sister. Her death was not out of any known disease at the time, it baffled the physicians and “wasted her away with settled apathy”. What I find  most ironic about depressed people is there are times when you just know that no matter what you cannot help them. The narrator comes to this realization when they feel how the veil of it is metaphorically pervading from Roderick. The blanket of depression as described by many, feels like a dampening of the spirit that can take years to shed. Not to say that trying to help a person is going to be completely futile it just needs to be done by a trained professional, and even then there are some individuals that boggle experts.  Often what happens with family is that instead of coercing the member to get help it is brushed under the rug or the other members are depressed also and the issue seems either almost normal. Neglect that exists today has gone on within society for way too long we need to stop making this a family tradition. The apparition of the Usher sister can represent this. When Roderick thinks that she has been buried alive this shows his guilt and remorse for knowing deep within himself that there might have been something that saved her.  However, there was not the right kind of doctors at the time.

 

Use of personification is executed quite well in this piece. The house can be compared to a person’s head, the mention of eye windows. Also staying within ones own depressed mind and never venturing forth from “out of the box’ will make a person a hermit and a possible hypochondriac as so the narrator calls Roderick. I am not sure if Edgar Allen Poe meant this meant to be but it is paradoxical that he called Roderick a hypochondriac because there was no way to prove if the character was one or infact had some unknown malady within story.

 

An allusion to the archetype being haunted noted in other works is sort of a prevalent theme. Not just the spirit of his sister but the miasma of  “ there hung an atmosphere that had no affinity to the air of heaven but reeked up from the decayed trees. A pestilent and mystic vapor” and also “law of sentiment as having terror as a basis.” This creates a personified feeling knowing that the place and whatever external force inhabiting can actually get into your mind. Almost as though it speaks like a ghost.

The vocabulary through out this short story is very carefully chosen to create a sense of dread, loneliness emptiness and I believe almost all the attributes affiliated with depression and sometimes madness. The connotations that Roderick has a twin sister and the narrator did not know shows neglect of affection and social interaction often manifests in people with such disorders. The  idea of Madeline having been buried before she actually died was to me almost a hope of an ending on the lips of her twin. Showing that he wishes to join her, or that she come back to life. He is not happy to be the last of the Ushers.

 

 

A sense of foreshadowing about the ending is obtained through the story “The Haunted Palace”. The last lines describe what happens to both Ushers succinctly: “A hideous throng rush out forever, and laugh—but smile no more.” A person can go into a psychotic lapse if they are very intelligent, apt to thinking too much, and cannot kick sadness off.

I learned various elements of writing in this essay. It enriched my understanding and appreciation of classical literature and helped me know how to write better papers in general. I no longer dread writing essays because I have all the tools I need for looking at styles of writing, figurative language, structure and criticism style.

 

 

I did a parody on My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. I wanted to challenge myself to be able to play on words and actually bring out an interpretation on the poem at the same time. I seriously thought that it was going to be a pain to do but it came naturally, probably the cynic in me.