The Dark Side of Individualism
pg. 446-448
 Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1765) spawned Gothic tradition in
English fiction
o People loved: weird setting and macabre plot
 Greatest Gothic creatures:
o Frankenstein (1818) Mary Shelley
o Dracula (1897) Bram Stoker
o Lestat (?) Anne Rice
 Spirit and Imagery of Gothic lit tradition comes from Gothic architecture of
Middle Ages
o Cavernous Gothic cathedrals (inspire awe and fear)
 Irregularly placed towers
 High stained glass windows
o Gargoyles (mascot of Gothic)
 Small deformed creatures
 Ward off evil spirits
 Looked demonic themselves
 Romanticism helped give Gothic lit rise
o Freed imagination from Reason
 Followed the imagination wherever it went
o Threshold of unknown
o Shadowy region where fantastic, demonic, and
insane reside
 Gothic tradition call be called the dark side of individualism
 Romantics saw hope, Gothic writers saw evil
o Romantics saw beauty of nature, Gothic writers saw supernatural
 Gothic tradition firmly in Europe before American writers had made names for
themselves
 19th century: Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving and
Herman Melville
o Used Gothic elements in writing
 E.A.P. master of Gothic form is US
o Dark, medieval castles
o Decaying ancient estates
o Male characters are insane
o Female characters: beautiful and dead (or dying)
o Plots include extreme situations (reveal a person’s true nature)
 Murder
 Live burials
 Physical/mental torture
 Retribution from beyond the grave
 Hawthorne used Gothic elements to express important truths
o Examined human heart under:





Fear
Greed
Vanity
Mistrust
Betrayal
Traditions Across Time: Southern Gothic
 Gothic writing waned in US after Civil War
o Realism replaced Romanticism
 20th century: Gothic spirit once again became popular for its particular brand of
truth telling (American South)
 Southern Gothic (b/c of gloom and pessimism in fiction)
o William Faulkner
o Carson McCullers
o Truman Capote
o Flannery O’Connor
 William Faulkner
o Crumbling medieval castle of 19th century became decaying plantation
o Fallen aristocratic family isolated in time and place
o Ghost of past hounding his not-so-noble characters to madness and death
 Instead of ghostly figures and noble heroines
 Flannery O’Connor
o Saw pressures of modern life making grotesques of us all
 Interested in human heart and potential for evil (like Hawthorne)
 Old moral/religious order was crumbling
 Criminals/con men/fools were unleashed instead of ghosts
and goblins
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
pg. 450-453
Ambitious To Excel
 Born Boston, Massachusetts in 1809
 One of 3 children
o Parents actors who toured the East
 Before age 3
o Father abandoned family
o Mother died of tuberculosis
 John & Frances Allan (foster parents)
o Well-to-do merchant and wife
o Theater fans
o Richmond, Virginia
 1815 moved to England (with Allan’s)
o Only lasted 5 years
 Mrs. Allan’s ill health and failure of London branch of business
forced return to Richmond
 Poe showed flair for languages
o Latin
o French
 Started writing poems and by 16 had enough to fill a book
Restless Spirit
 Pattern of his life
o Periods of personal difficulty
o Promise of fresh start
 1826 – University of Virginia
o Reckless spending led to heavy debts
 Forced to leave school
 Fled to Boston
o Attracted to city’s literary activity
o Tamerlane and Other Poems was published in 1827
 Anonymous first book
 Flat broke he enlisted in the army at 18
o Still read and experimented with poetry
 Frances Allan died in 1829
o John Allan arranged for Poe’s release from Army and secured him a place
as a cadet in US Military Academy at West Point
 Got expelled for deliberately misbehaving
 Life was too confining there for Poe
Man of Letters
 1831 published Poems shortly after leaving West Point
 Moved to Baltimore to live with Aunt Maria Clemm and her young daughter
Virginia
 1833 MS. Found in a Bottle won $50 in a literary contest
 1834 John Allan died leaving nothing to Poe
 Poe moved to Richmond to work for a periodical The Southern Literary
Messenger
o Popularity of his book reviews led to increase in magazine circulation
 May 1836 - editor of magazine
o Poe married his cousin Virginia
 Less that 8 months resigned editorship and moved to NYC because of dispute
with magazine publisher
 In NYC published short novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
o Moved to Philadelphia to find work
 Poe’s years in Philly were most productive
o But not w/o conflict
 1839 editor of Burton and Gentleman’s Magazine
o Contributed stories and reviews
o End of 1839 he published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
 His first collection of short stories
 Fired in mid-1840 from Burton’s
 1841 (failed to start his own magazine) accepted job as editor of Graham’s
Magazine
o Wrote ground-breaking detective story The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Trouble Dilute Success
 Fame increased and brought recognition as a poet he long desired
o 1843 Gold Bug $100 prize
o 1845 The Raven enormous success
 1847 Virginia died (had poor health since 1842)
 After death Poe struggled w/ despair and his own deterioration health
 1849 engaged to Elmira Royster Shelton
o Widow
o Boyhood sweetheart
 Moved to Baltimore
o Health declined quickly
 1849 (late) collapsed on street and died a few days later
Poe’s Reputation
 Critics either loved him or hated him
 Biography was published shortly after his death by one-time friend
o Included harsh attacks on Poe’s personal life
o Established the view that he was gifted by a socially unacceptable writer
 Would taint his reputation in America for many years
 Charles Baudelaire (French poet)
o Recognized and championed Poe’s achievement
o Favorable view began to influence thinking in US
 Today Poe is recognized as:
o Master of poetry
o Superb writer of short stories
o Profound explorer of the torments of the human soul