Literature of Romanticism
School of Foreign Languages and
Literatures
Shandong University
Li Baojie
March 30, 2012
Definition
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Romanticism was a complex artistic, literary and
intellectual movement that originated in the second
half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained
strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution.
In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and
political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a
reaction against the scientific or artificial
rationalization of nature.
It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts,
music, and literature, but had a major impact on
historiography, education and natural history.
Basis and Emphasis of Writing
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Romanticism validated strong emotion as an authentic
source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis
on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror
and awe — especially that which is experienced in
confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its
picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories.
William Wordsworth: “Poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from
emotion recollected in tranquility: the emotion is
contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the
tranquility gradually disappears, and an emotion,
kindred to that which was the subject of contemplation,
is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in
the mind.”, (“Preface” to Lyrical Ballads p242, p250).
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Poe chose Beauty to be the theme of the poem,
since "Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the
poem" (Poe, 1850). After choosing Beauty as the
province, Poe considered sadness to be the highest
manifestation of beauty. "Beauty of whatever kind in
its supreme development invariably excites the
sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most
legitimate of all the poetical tones" (Poe, 1850).
Of all melancholy topics, Poe wanted to use the one
that was universally understood, and therefore, he
chose Death as his topic. Poe (along with other
writers) believed that the death of a beautiful
woman was the most poetical use of death, because
it closely allies itself with Beauty.
“Annabel Lee” and "The Raven"
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It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something
noble, made of spontaneity a desirable character (as
in the musical impromptu), and argued for a "natural"
epistemology of human activities as conditioned by
nature in the form of language and customary usage.
Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it
perceived as heroic individualists and artists, whose
pioneering examples would elevate society. It also
legitimized the individual imagination as a critical
authority, which permitted freedom from classical
notions of form in art.
Examples include: Song of Myself and Walden
Characterizations
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According to Arthur Lovejoy (1873 – 1962), influential American
philosopher and intellectual historian, it is difficult to pin it down
with exact and definite characterizations. He even suggests
stopping using the term. (See "On The Discrimination of
Romanticisms" in his Essays in the History of Ideas,1948).
Welleck, in Concepts of Romanticism in Literary History (1949)
attempts to find common denominators and tries to show the
unity of European Romanticism. According to him, there is a
common style, theme, subject and philosophers in all the
Romantic writers:
(A) There is common concept of poetry and working of poetic
imagination. (B) There is same conception of nature and its
relation to mind. All the romantic writers are influenced by
nature in same way or the other way. (C) There is a same
poetic style. Style is that of using imagery, symbolism and myth,
which is clearly distinct from that of 18 th century neoclassicalism. So Romantic period has its own style, themes,
philosophies, that are distinctly different from those of the past.
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Individualism and Freedom: Like the Europeans, the
American Romanticism demonstrated a high level of moral
enthusiasm, commitment to individualism and the unfolding
of the self. Romanticism embraced the individual and rebelled
against the confinement of neoclassicism and religious tradition.
Source: William Ellery Channing as a case in point on this
issue
Literary expression: It celebrated that personal
understanding, intuitive perception and free expression, as
illustrated by Henry David Thoreau’s isolation and Emily
Dickinson’s reclusion.
Writers also put more effort into the psychological
development of their characters, and the main characters
typically displayed extremes of sensitivity and excitement. Eg.
Thoreau’s Walden and his opinion on solitude: “I never found
the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are
for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men
than when we stay in our chambers”. (From "Solitude," Walden,
1854)
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Dr. William Ellery Channing (April 7,
1780 – October 2, 1842) was the
foremost Unitarian preacher in the
United States in the early
nineteenth century and, along with
Andrews Norton, one of
Unitarianism's leading theologians.
He was known for his articulate and
impassioned sermons and public
speeches, and as a prominent
thinker in the liberal theology of the
day. Dr. Channing's religion and
thought were among the chief
influences on the New England
Transcendentalists, though he
never countenanced their views,
which he saw as extreme.
Channing’s grave at Mount Auburn
Cemetery in Cambridge,
Massachusetts
In opposition to traditional American Calvinist
orthodoxy, Channing preferred a gentle, loving
relationship with God. He opposed Calvinism
for:
 … proclaiming a God who is to be dreaded.
We are told to love and imitate God, but also
that God does things we would consider most
cruel in any human parent, "were he to bring
his children into life totally depraved and then
to pursue them with endless punishment"
(Channing 1957: 56).
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Human being can not and does not need to
completely understand God, but they should
value the great gift of knowledge granted to
them by God.
 In comparison, Calvinism advocates total
depravity with the image of human being as
sinner, illustrated through Jonathan Edwards’
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”(1741).
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"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment
out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
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Most of the sermon's text consists of ten "considerations":
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1.God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.
2.The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice does
not prevent God from destroying the Wicked at any moment.
3.The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's
condemnation to Hell.
4.The Wicked, on earth - at this very moment - suffer the
torments of Hell. The Wicked must not think, simply because
they are not physically in Hell, that God (in Whose hand the
Wicked now reside) is not - at this very moment - as angry
with them as He is with those miserable creatures He is now
tormenting in hell, and who - at this very moment - do feel
and bear the fierceness of His wrath.
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5.At any moment God shall permit him, Satan stands ready to
fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own.
6.If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of
wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently,
would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
7.Simply because there are not visible means of death before
them at any given moment, the Wicked should not feel secure.
8.Simply because it is natural to care for oneself or to think
that others may care for them, men should not think
themselves safe from God's wrath.
9.All that wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's
pains shall afford them nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
10.God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for
those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace.
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Religious expression: It appealed to those in
opposition of Calvinism, which includes the belief that
the destiny of each individual is predestined. The
Romantic movement gave rise to New England
Transcendentalism which portrayed a less
restrictive relationship between God and Universe.
The new religion presented the individual with a more
personal relationship with God.
Nature: The double implications of the term includes
both the objective existence of Nature outside or in
comparison with human mentality, as well as the
natural traits of humanity. Romanticist perception of
nature is characterized by an assumption that the
natural world was inherently good, while human
society was filled with corruption, so that one of the
recurrent themes is the respect for a new, wilder,
untrammeled and "pure" nature.
Solitude and meditation: Several romantic
authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, based their writings on the
supernatural/occult and human psychology.
 “My nearest neighbor is a mile distant, and no
house is visible from any place but the hill-tops
within half a mile of my own. I have my horizon
bounded by woods all to myself; a distant view
of the railroad where it touches the pond on the
one hand, and of the fence which skirts the
woodland road on the other. But for the most
part it is as solitary where I live as on the
prairies…. ”
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To be alone was something unpleasant. But I
was at the same time conscious of a slight
insanity in my mood, and seemed to foresee my
recovery. In the midst of a gentle rain while
these thoughts prevailed, I was suddenly
sensible of such sweet and beneficent society
in Nature, in the very pattering of the drops, and
in every sound and sight around my house, an
infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at
once like an atmosphere sustaining me, as
made the fancied advantages of human
neighborhood insignificant, and I have never
thought of them since…
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I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To
be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and
dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that
was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part
more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we
stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always
alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the
miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.
The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of
Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The
farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing
or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed;
but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room
alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can
"see the folks," and recreate, and, as he thinks, remunerate
himself for his day's solitude; and hence he wonders how the
student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day
without ennui and "the blues"; but he does not realize that the
student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and
chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks
the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it
may be a more condensed form of it. (From Walden by Thoreau)
Major Representatives
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This period is sometimes called the American
Renaissance, with its distinguished writers like
William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving,
James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Edgar Allan
Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Whittier, Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, Walt Whitman, as well
as James Russell Lowell.
Transcendentalism
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Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in
literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that
emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th
century. It is sometimes called American
transcendentalism to distinguish it from other uses of
the word “transcendentalism”.
It developed as a protest against the general state of
culture and society, and in particular, the state and the
doctrine of intellectualism at Harvard University.
One of transcendentalists' core beliefs was the belief
in an ideal spiritual state that "transcends" the physical
and empirical and is realized only through the
individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines
of established religions.
Representatives
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Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
and others.
Emerson's essay “Nature” (1836) is usually taken as
a cornerstone to indicate the booming of
transcendentalism. In his essay "The American
Scholar“, Emerson wrote, "We will walk on our own
feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak
our own minds ... A nation of men will for the first
time exist, because each believes himself inspired
by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men."
Major Principles
New England Transcendentalism is, in essence,
the romantic idealism on Puritan soil.
 Strong influence of the new German idealism:
The term transcendentalism sometimes serves
as shorthand for "transcendental idealism,"
which is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and
later Kantian and German Idealist.
 Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "To go into
solitude, a man needs to retire as much from
his chamber as from society."
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The transcendentalists placed emphasis on
spirit, or the oversoul, as the most important
factor in the universe.
 The stressed the importance of individual and
advocated an ethics of self-trust, self-reliance,
and self-sufficiency. Individual was regarded as
the most important element of the society.
 They offered a fresh perception of nature as
symbolic of the Spirit or God. They attached
great importance to nature since nature was
more than purely physical. Moreover, it was
alive, as the garment of the Oversoul, with
God’s overwhelming presence.
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Reading Poe
The poem is made up of 18 stanzas of six
lines each. Generally, the meter is trochaic
octameter — eight trochaic feet per line, each
foot having one stressed syllable followed by
one unstressed syllable.
 Syllabic structure of a verse:
 Onceup/ ona/ mid-night/ drear-y/, whileI/ pondered/ weakand/ wear-y
 Rhyme scheme: ABCBBB
 What do you think “the raven” signify?
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Aesthetic Interpretation
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It was important to Poe to make "The Raven" "universally
appreciable." Poe chose Beauty to be the theme of the poem,
since "Beauty is the sole legitimate province of the poem" (Poe,
1850). After choosing Beauty as the province, Poe considered
sadness to be the highest manifestation of beauty. "Beauty of
whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the
sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate
of all the poetical tones" (Poe, 1850).
Of all melancholy topics, Poe wanted to use the one that was
universally understood, and therefore, he chose Death as his
topic. Poe (along with other writers) believed that the death of
a beautiful woman was the most poetical use of death,
because it closely allies itself with Beauty.
To Helen(1831)
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Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
Annabel Lee
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In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may
know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other
thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
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I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than
loveI and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and meYes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the
love
Of those who were older than weOf many far wiser than weAnd neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing
me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright
eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the
side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my
bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1949)
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American author, poet, editor and
literary critic, considered part of the
American Romantic Movement.
Best known for his tales of mystery
and the macabre, Poe was one of
the earliest American practitioners
of the short story and is considered
the inventor of the detective-fiction
genre. He is further credited with
contributing to the emerging genre
of science fiction. He was the first
well-known American writer to try
to earn a living through writing
alone, resulting in a financially
difficult life and career.
Life and Important Events
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He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts;
he was orphaned young when his mother died shortly
after his father abandoned the family. Poe was taken
in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia,
but they never formally adopted him. He attended the
University of Virginia for one semester but left due to
lack of money.
He was the first well-known American to try to live by
writing alone, but he chose a difficult time in American
publishing to do so. America was then hampered by
the lack of an international copyright law. Publishers
often pirated copies of British works rather than paying
for new work by Americans. Poe, throughout his
attempts to live as a writer, had to repeatedly resort to
humiliating pleas for money and other assistance.
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Poe secretly married Virginia, his cousin, on
September 22, 1835. He was 26 and she was 13,
though she is listed on the marriage certificate as
being 21. Although they had a second wedding in the
next year in public, Poe was still widely criticized as
immoral.
The unstable life and hardships gradually engaged
Poe in drinking, thus earning him a bad name.
On October 3, 1849, Poe was found on the streets of
Baltimore delirious, "in great distress, and... in need
of immediate assistance", according to the man who
found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the
Washington College Hospital, where he died on
Sunday, October 7, 1849, leaving behind a series of
mysteries ever since.
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I know not how it was - but, with the first glimpse of the
building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my
spirit. I say insufferable ; for the feeling was unrelieved
by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic,
sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even
the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible.
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 eyelike 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 everyday 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.
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What was it - I paused to think - what was it that so unnerved
me in the contemplation of the House of Usher ? It was a
mystery all insoluble ; nor could I grapple with the shadowy
fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to
fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond
doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects
which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of
this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was
possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the
particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be
sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for
sorrowful impression ; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my
horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in
unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down - but with a
shudder even more thrilling than before - upon the remodelled
and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly treestems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. (The beginning
paragraph of “The Fall of the House of Usher”)
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Unique nature of the Usher family: “Although, as boys,
we had been even intimate associates, yet I really
knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always
excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his
very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind,
for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying
itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art,
and manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of
munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a
passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even
more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable
beauties, of musical science.”
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Symbolic description of the appearance of the house:
“Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a
dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of
the building. Its principal feature seemed to be that of
an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had
been great. Minute fungi overspread the whole
exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the
eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary
dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen ;
and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency
between its still perfect adaptation of parts, and the
crumbling condition of the individual stones.”
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The appearance of Roderick Usher: “Surely, man had
never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as
had Roderick Usher ! It was with difficulty that I could
bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being
before me with the companion of my early boyhood.
Yet the character of his face had been at all times
remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion ; an eye
large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison ; lips
somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly
beautiful curve ; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model,
but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar
formations ; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its
want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of
a more than web-like softness and tenuity ; these
features, with an inordinate expansion above the
regions of the temple, made up altogether a
countenance not easily to be forgotten.”
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I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken
and equivocal hints, another singular feature of his
mental condition. 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 - in regard to an influence
whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too
shadowy here to be re-stated - an influence which
some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of
his family mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he
said, obtained over his spirit - an effect which the
physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim
tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length,
brought about upon the morale of his existence.
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He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of
the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a
more natural and far more palpable origin - to 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. "Her
decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget,
"would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the
ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, the lady Madeline
(for so was she called) passed slowly 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. When a door, at length,
closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the
countenance of the brother
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Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels
within this region of horror, we partially turned aside
the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon
the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between the
brother and sister now first arrested my attention ; and
Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out
some few words from which I learned that the
deceased and himself had been twins, and that
sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always
existed between them. Our glances, however, rested
not long upon the dead - for we could not regard her
unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the
lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all
maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, 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.
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And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an
observable change came over the features of the
mental disorder of my friend. 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.
There were times, indeed, when I thought his
unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some
oppressive secret, to divulge which he struggled for
the necessary courage.
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But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a
strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered
about his lips ; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and
gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending
closely over him, I at length drank in the hideous import of his
words."Not hear it? - yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long long - long - many minutes, many hours, many days, have I
heard it - yet I dared not - oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I
am! - I dared not - I dared not speak! 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! Oh whither shall I fly?
Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for
my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not
distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
Madman!" - here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked
out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul --" Madman ! I tell you that she now stands without the door! "
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As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there
had been found the potency of a spell - the huge
antique pannels to which the speaker pointed, threw
slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and
ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust - but
then without those doors there did stand the lofty and
enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher.
There was blood upon her white robes, and the
evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of
her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained
trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon
the person of her brother, and in her violent and now
final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse,
and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.
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Gothic tales to describe a
struggle between reason and
superstition, light and darkness.
Eg. a sentient house, a dead
body (or two), an underground
tomb, dark and stormy nights.
Examples of symbolism in the
story? Eg. Fungi, the house, the
twins.
Mysterious setting: nameless
narrator, unknown geographic
position of the house and the
specific year of the story.
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According to the late Poe expert Thomas O. Mabbott,
"Roderick Usher, his sister Madeline, and the house
all shared one common soul". The explicit
psychological dimension of this tale has prompted
many critics to analyze it as a description of the
human psyche, comparing, for instance, the House to
the unconscious, and its central crack to the
personality split which is called Dissociative identity
disorder. Mental disorder is also evoked through the
themes of melancholy, possible incest and vampirism.
An incestuous relationship between Roderick and
Madeline is not explicitly stated, but seems implied by
the strange attachment between the two.
Roderick Usher: Victim of self-imposed
feelings of fear, doom and guilt
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Usher closely resembles the bedazzled, melancholy genius
who is haunted by death and madness. However, he inspires
awe as well as repulsion, owing to his corpse-like appearance.
He is even, to a certain extent, a comic character. Indeed, he is
both a sublime musician and writer as well as a hopeless drug
addict. He is seemingly in love with his own sister, whom he
irresponsibly buries even though he knows she is cataleptic.
Roderick Usher, like many Poe characters, suffers from an
unnamed disease. His disease causes his hyperactive senses.
The illness manifests physically, but is based in Roderick's
mental or even moral state. He is sick, it is suggested, because
he expects to be sick based on his family's history of illness and
is, therefore, essentially a hypochondriac. Similarly, he buries
his sister alive because he expects to bury her alive, creating
his own self-fulfilling prophecy.
The Raven
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a perverse conflict between desire to forget and desire to
remember. He seems to get some pleasure from focusing
on loss. The narrator assumes that the word "Nevermore"
is the raven's "only stock and store", and, yet, he continues
to ask it questions, knowing what the answer will be. His
questions, then, are purposely self-deprecating and further
incite his feelings of loss.
The narrator begins as weak and weary, becomes regretful
and grief-stricken, before passing into a frenzy and, finally,
madness.
Common themes of Poe’s works: obsession and addiction,
and mental disorder or destruction that therefore follows.