Edgar Allan Poes Vision

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EDG R LL N POE S VISIONLisa orenstein


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EDG R LL N POE S VISION

b7Lise Borens tem

Athesis submitted to the Facultiof GraduateStudies and Research n partial ful.filment of therequirements for the degree of Master of r t ~

Engl1sh DepartmentMO ill Universit yMon r e a l f ~

f Lise BorensteinAugust 1967

968


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EDG R LL N POE. S V S ON


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ONTENTS

L enfant ter r i le of American Letters

pote nerfs

Voyage to the End of a Dream 7

The Centre which Cannet Hold 53

Bibliography 86


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EDG R LL N POE'S VISION

The s tudy seeks to p ~ c e ~ o e beyond the par t i sanviews of his f rench and American c r i t i c s by showing himto be a t r an s i t i o n a l f i g u re , the f i r s t s e l f - c r i t i c a lcraf tsman of the post-Romantic per iod to make consc ioususe of the symbolic , i r r t i o n ~ i n f ra s t ruc tu re o f publ i csymbolism. Poe ' s v ~ u e i s seen to l i e in hi s at tempt tof ind viable poet ic symbols fo r hi the r to unexplored a re asof exper ience . A se l ec t ive survey of Poe 's t a l e s andpoems revea l s him as the f i r s t poet t o g i v e express ion tothe Unconscious. The voyage , as e x e m p ~ i f i e d in . l .Narra t ive of Arthur Gordon Pym, i s analyzed as one of thecen t ra l motifs o f Poe ' s cohes ive vis ion . f i n a l l y , Poels

hor ror t a l e i s shown to be an ear ly exerc i se of thePsychology of f ea r , as t was even tua l ly f u ~ l y exp lo i tedby Dostoievski , Kafka, and o t h e r s .

Lisa Borens te inMaster of ArtsEngl ish Department


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L ENFANT TERRIBLE OF AMERICAN LETTERS

In his c a n c ~ u s i a n ta an a r t i c ~ e e n i i t l e d Our Cousin,Mr. Poa, A ~ ~ e n Tate mndicates the nuances behind theAmerican c r i t i c a ~ a t t i t ude toward Edgar A l ~ a n Poe. ConcerningPoels recept ion by the American p u b ~ i c he says :Nobody then--my grea t -grandfa ther , my mother , th ree genera t ionsbe l ieve him. t i s t ime we did . confess tha t his voice i sso near tha t r eco i l a ~ i t t ~ e ~ e s t he, Montresor , ~ e a d mein to the c e l ~ a r address me as For tuna to , and w a ~ l me up a l ive .1 should j o in his m e l a n c h o ~ y t roupe o f the undead, whose voicesare s u r e ~ y as law.and harsh as the gra t ing t ee th of s to rks .He i s so c lose to me t ha t am sometimes tempted to en te r themis ts o f pre-American genealogy to f ind a u t whether he maynot ac tua l ly be my c o u s i n . ~This passage sugges ts the cur ious schizophrenia which i s a tthe base of the American c r i t i c a ~ e v a ~ u a t i o n of Poe and hiswork. U n a b ~ e to r e c o n c i ~ e t he i r own f ee l ings about Poe withthe overwhelming accla im major European wr i t e r s and c r i t i c s havgranted him ever s ince Charles Baudela i re wrote , Je veuxf a i r e tous l e s matins ma pr i r e ~ Dieu l mon p ~ r e ~Marie t te e t Poe comme ses in te rce s seu rs , "2 c r i t i c s on t h i ss ide o f the Atlan t ic have always approached Poe as somethingo f a s tumbling block. They seem to f ind no place fo r Poe inthe grea t American t r ad i t i on of Hawthorne, Emerson, Melvi l le ,and Whitman. They r eco i l from the vu lga r i ty of h i s melodramat ic e f f ec t s , from what T.S. El io t has termed his l ' s l ipshodwri t ing , yet they a re s t r ange l y fasc ina ted by the inf luencehe has had on European ~ e t t e r s . Baudela i re apa r t , no l e s s e rnames th an Mallarm, Huysmans, Valry, and Dosto ievski havehai l ed Poels grea tness , and the judgments of these men cannotmerely be th rus t as ide with the excuse t ha t t he i r unders tandingof the Engl ish language and Engl ish verse techniques i sde f ic ien t . Hence Poe emerges as a kind of enfant t e r r i b l e

lAl len Ta te , Our Cousin, Mr. Poe, o f Let te rs nModern World (Ohio, 1964), p . 145.2 C h a r ~ e s Baude2aire, Oeuvres posthumes (Par i s , 1908) , p ~ 3


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on the American l i t e r a r y hor izon. He cannot be dismissed asa ch i ld ren ' s wr i t e r , yet there i s grea t d i f f i c u l t y in j u s t i f y ing h is repu ta t ion and in f luence . Hence, the Americanc r i t i c a l a t t i t u d e toward Poe i s perhaps bes t descr ibed as acons tan t f luc tua t ion between a t t r a c t i o n and r epu l s ion - - touse the terminology of Eueka. This becomes increas ing lyev iden t i we glance br ie f ly a t the comments PoetsAmerican c r i t i c s .

T.S. El io t pays Poe the dubious compliment of grant inghim a remarkable i n t e l l e c t , but the i n t e l l e c t of a highlyg i f t ed young pers on before puber ty . e speaks of Poe 's

pre-adolescent menta l i ty , eccen t r i c i t y and l ack ofcoherence. In the next brea th , however, Mr. E l i o t , who hasmastered t he lesson of the f rench , dec la res tha t from ad is tance Poe presen ts a mass o f unique shape and impress ives i z e to which the eye con t inua l ly r e tu rns . 3

Ivor Winters a t t a cks Poe fo r re ly ing on the mechanicaland s t a r t l i ng ; for using a r t as a kind of s t imulant ,ingeniously concocted , which may i one i s lucky r a i s e one toa moment of d iv ine delus ion . e f ee l s tha t Poe i s no morea mystic than a m ora l i s t ; he i s an exc i ted sen t im en ta l i s twho t r i e s to endow a l l with a s t rangeness , a mystery he doesnot understand_ n4 Yet, Mr. Winters devotes t h i r t y pages toa scath ing denunc ia t ion of a wri t e r who, he be l ieves , possessesnot one worthwhile po in t .

Floyd 5 t ova l l ' s case i s much more f avorab le toward Poeand h is achievement . His i n t e l l e c t was keen and f e r t i l e ini dea s , h is imaginat ion was r i ch and ac t ive , and his sense o f

3 5 E l i o t , From Poe to Valry , 12 Cr i t i c i ze Cr i t i c(London, 1965 , pp. 27-42.

4Yvor i n t e r s ~ Edgar Allan Poe. A C r i s i s in the Historyo f American Obscurant ism, ln Defense Bi Reason New York, 1947)pp. 234-261.


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l i t e r a r y form was almost f a u l t l e s s , " says Mr. St o v a l l .Never theless , he f ee l s a need to place Pee, to ca tegor ize himin a f i t t i n g s l o t . His pos i t ion , though in the t h i rd ranko f w r i t e r s , i s honourable and secure . n5

Att rac t ion and repu ls ion , fasc ina t ion and r e c o i l .American c r i t i c s seem e i t h e r to r eac t favorably toward Poeand fee l a kind of g u i l t t o r t h e i r t a s t e , o r they r eac tnegat ive ly toward him ~ d fee l g u i l t fo r t h e i r d i s l i k e .n e i t h e r s i d e , j u s t i f i c a t i o n appears to be an eas en t i a l s t ep

in voic ing one ' s opin ion about Poe.Henee Poe i s the o b jec t of a r a r e c r i t i c a l predicament .

His popular i ty , h i s fo r tune as a wri te r has mounted s t ead i lys ince his death. Yet , from the s t r i c t l y c r i t i c a l poin t ofview, hi s repu ta t ion remains divided in much the same way ast was wh en Baudela i re ehampioned Poe ' s work in the f ace of

l a rge ly negat ive American opin ion . Since t h i s phenomenonseems to be p ecu l i a r ta American c r i t i c i s m of Poe and noother American w r i t e r and s ince no one has ever r e a l l y s toodup to t h i s cur ious sch izophren ia , an at tempt t a t race t ta tsposs ib le roo t s may proove an i n i t i a l s tep towards an under-s tand ing of Poe and his work.

One of the poss ib le sources fo r the l a rg e l y nega t ivec r i t i c a l reac t ion to Poe in America l i e s in the Americanc r i t i c s ' re fus a l to look upon him as a cosmological p o e t - -a term which Valry uses in speaking of Poe. The mark of thecosmological poet , espec ia l ly the cosmological poet who i sprophe t ic o f new modes of thought- -one t h inks immediately o fBlake h e re - - i s t h a t he i s aware of more than he can e f fec t ive lysymbolize. That i s , a poet such as Blake o r Poe i s aware ofa vas te r r e a l i t y , a profounder imaginat ive realm, than hissymbolic equipment w i l l a l low him to express . Consequent ly ,his craf tsmanship of ten appears ta be bad; his verse s l i g h t l yu n sa t i s fac to ry ; h is prose c ry p t i c . And the c r i t i c s rush tojugment denouncing such d i s t o r t ed terminology as the phrase

5f loyd Stova l l , " In t roduc t ion" The Poems g Edgar Allan(Vi rg in ia , 1965) , p . x x x i i .


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"most immemorial" which appears in "Ulalume." "Most immemorial"may be faul ty English usage, yet t i s the only effect iveterminology avai lable to Poe when he attempts to convey a timeout of mind and out of memory--what Poulet ca l l s a time inthe "unknown past , a "prenatal epocb"6_-in an era which i sunfamiliar with depth psychology. To approach Poe in th i snegative way, to go no further than an appraisal of hisavowedly imperfect craftsmanship, i s to miss the ent i re creat iveth rus t of his work and vis ion--a crea t ive thrust which, i f weare to believe the french, inspired almost an ent i re centuryof french l i t e ra ture .

"Al Aaraaf" which Poe includes among "the crude compositionsof my ear l i es t meyhood" reveals one aspsct of th i s creat ivethrus t , together with examples of the distorted syntax andterminology for which he i s cr i t i c i zed . Superf ic ia l ly thepoem reads l ike Tennyson borrowing from Shel ley, yet , uponcloser scrutiny, something to ta l ly di fferent emerges.

Oh nothing ear th ly save the ray(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty's eye,As in those gardens where the daySprings from the gems of Circassy--Oh nothing ear th ly save the t h r i l lOf melody in woodland r i l l ;Or (music of the passion-hearted)Joyls voice so peacefully departedThat, l ike the murmur in the shel1 7I ts e c h ~ dwelleth and wil l dwel l --

Suffused with the rhetoric of the o m a n t i c ~ w h i c h Poe handleshere with obtrusive clumsiness, "Al Aaraaf" i s not essent ia l lyakin, ei ther in tone or m a t t e r ~ to Shel ley 's musings upon a"dome of many-splendoured glass"--al though there seems ta bean i n i t i a l resemblance in the use of images. Poe's "nothingear thly" i s not the Romantic's vision of an otherness whichi s eternal ly present n the world and which everyone couldsee i f only the blinding ve i l \Nere l ted from tlhi- ;. eyes.

6Georges Poulet , Studies n Human New York, 1959), p. 37Edgar Allan Pue, ilAl Aaraaf:' Complete Tales M.9. PoemsEL Edgar Allan New Y o ~ k 1938), pp. 992-993. All subsequentreferences to Poe's t a les and poems will be to this edi t ion.


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Rather, what Poe describes i s s imilar to the dream vision ofthe midnight of the day which Baudelaire d e p ~ c t s in "R@vepar is ien." Beauty's ray i s reflected from flowers, but it i snot in t r ins ica l ly part of them, as the Romantics would have itPoe 's vis ion i s an ar t i f i c i a l one where the day/Springs fromthe gems, while the poet i s conscious of having created bothand knows tha t nei ther are t ruly part of external rea l i ty .The resemblance to Daudelaire i s c lear ,

C' ta ien t des p i ~ r r e s inouiesEt des f lo t s m g i q u e s ~ c ' ta ien tn'immenses glaces l o ~ e s BPar tout ce qu'e l les re f l t a i en tThe centra l concern here, however, is not with Poe's

relat ionship to e i the r the Romantics or to Baudelaire, butwith his prosody and what appears as clumsy syntaxe Theparentheses of l ines two and seven seem,on f i r s t r e d i n ~merely to dislocate the smooth flow of the l ines . Yet, tha tthey are not falacious impositions becomes apparent with closerstudy. Poe del iberately inser ts them so that , standing out onthe page, they wil l echo the tor tured thought processes whichhave gone in to themaking of the poem In parentheses,

Thrown back from f lowers, takes on a perceptual value, whichgives a concrete spa t i a l quali ty to the thought of ' r e f lec t ion . 'Poe 's verbal music does' not flow smoothly because he i sattempting to lay out the thought on the page. His clumsinessar ises from the fac t tha t he i s a man t rying to think out, onthe page, a thought which i s not as yet fu l ly c lear to him.Yet the roots of what wil l eventually become Mallarm's ideaof print ing out on the page the thought, i t s e l f , are c lear .

All hurriedly she knelt upon a bedOf flowers: of l i l i e s such as rear 'd the headOn the f e i r Capo Deucato, and sprang50 eagerly around about to hangUpon the f lying foots teps of----deep pride-Of her who lov 'd a mortal--and so died.The 5ephal ica , budding with young bees, 9Uprear'd i t s purple stem around her knees.BCharles Baudelaire, "R@ve paris ien ," f leurs . : . ::1.(Paris , 1965), p. 119, 11. 29-32.~ l Aaraaff pp. 993-994, 11. 42-49.


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The profuseness of the flower imagery here crea tes suchan onslaught on the ~ e a d e r s senses, tha t he loses hold ofthe continuity of the poem, and of his own grasp on rea l i ty .e i s th rus t in to a psychic and discontinuous world of which

Nesace i s only the symbole Poe, is del iberately s t r iving to iinduce a feel ing of ver t igo in his reader and to bring himin to an unconscious realm. This he does by bombarding himwith r ich images, by purposely using a succession of prepos-i t i ona l phrases and seemingly clumsy constructions , which dis-locate the syntax and effec t a s imi lar dis location on thereader ' s perceptual powers. Poe a c t u a l l ~ lays out the feel ingof ver t igo on the page, with the fa l l ing , yet abrupt rhythmsof upon a bed/Of f lowers; of l i l i e s , On the fa i r , aroundabout, Upon the f lying footsteps of broken by the in terrupt ionof deep pride, the thought of which i s only completedaf te r the second ' o f ' phrase, in and so died. Superficial lyth is appears to be only clumsy and crypt ic verse . Yet, whatPoe i s attempting ev en in th i s ear ly and avowedly imperfectwork, i s tha t very thing which wil l f ind i t s logical completionin a wort l ike Mallarm's Coup de ds of which Valry says:

I l me sembla de voir la f igure d'une pense, pour la p r e m i ~ r efo is place dans notre ejpace e Ic i , vri tablement, l ' tenduepar la i t , songeait , enfanta i t des formes temporelles. L'a t tente ,le doute, la concentrat ion ta ient choses vis ib le s . nlO

This i s what Poe i s s t r iving for as early as Al Aaraafand to point out in his work instances of distorted usages i sto approach him purely negatively. I t i s to lmok a t the t ru lyexperimental writer with the unseeing eyes of a past ands tabi l ized t rad i t iong so tha t a11 divergence from t radi t ionappears nct as a s t r iving for sow.ething to ta l ly novel, but asa fa i lure ta achieve the perfect ion of thse who heve comebefore. The technical diff icul ty which Poe presents toc r i t i c s provides one source for his emergence as the enfantt e r r ib le of American l e t t e r s .

10paul Valry, Le coup de d ~ s , Oeuvres (Paris , 1957),volume l p. 623.


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Poe s v is ion- - tha t i s , t he themat ic core o f his work-funct ions as another stumbling block fo r h i s American c r i t i c s .The crmx of t h i s di1emma l i e s in the American c r i t i c s at temptto place Poe in the t r ad i t i o n a l l i n e of American l i t e r a t u r e ,and t h e i r consequent i n a b i l i t y to do so . The burden ofprouiding a l i nk betweeh Poe s work and the grea t Americant r ad i t ion u s u a l ~ y f a l l s on his Narra t ive B Arthur G o r d o n ~ .Harry Levin, whose s tudy of t pe i s c e r t a i n l y one o f the mostpenet ra t ing to come out of America, wou1d have it t ha t : the ceharac te r i s t i c point of view in American f i c t i o n maywe11 be t ha t o f a boy, an adolescen t i n i t i a t e d i n to manhood bythe impact of his adventures , such as the heroes o f Melvi l leand Mark Twain, of Stephen Crane s E S Badge, g Courage,Will iam fau lkne r s , "Bear ," and the s t o r i e s o f Ernes t Hemingway.And i t may not be s,i . iffieient1y apprec ia ted t h a t a11 of thesehave t h e i r archetypa1 predecessor in Po e s s i n g l e work o fbook- length , Narra t ive 2 Arthur Gordon Pym. ll

But i the i n i t i a t i o n o f a youth i n to manhood i s thecharac te r i s t i c viewpoint of American f i c t i o n , Levin does notdemonstrate how Pym apprec iably changes from the s t a r t o fthe nar ra t ive to the point when he disappears i n to the whitemis t a t its end. Pym's adventures seem to have no matur ingef fec t on him, perhaps because Poe i s not so much in te res tedin the journey from adolescence i n to manhood--a pure ly nove l i s t i ctheme--as he i s in problema of a d i f fe ren t nature .

Edward H. Davidson makes a s imi l a r a t tempt to place Poein the g rea t American t r ad i t i o n when he wri tes , "One o f thethemes o f Pym which l i nk it with a v a r i e t y of w r i t i n ~ i nAmerican l i t e r a t u r s i s u ~ h as Moby ~ ~ Sawyer, o r evenHenry James 's American, i s the development of a s imple youthin to a mature man. H 2 Davidson makes an i n t e r e s t i n g study ofPym by t rac ing the theme of decept ion and a t t e m ~ i n g to showhow the consciousness of e "young and s imple-minded boy" evolvesin to t ha t of "a fu l ly developed man." In his concluding chap ter ,however, Davidson seems to co n t r ad i c t himsel f when he poin tsout how f a r removed Poe i s from the grea t ~ e r i c a n wri t e : s of

l lHarry Levin, Power ~ Blackness New York, 195B),pp.1012Edward H. Davidson, ~ A C r i t i c a l Study (Cambridge, Mass1957) , p .166.


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the nineteenth century.Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melvil le, Twain,

James, to name only a few--had, thei r a r t i s t i c and in te l lectualbir th and being in the fu l l es t American experience. Poe doesnot o n f o r ~ to any general or basic American design orcharacter ; he represents the danger of the l i t e ra ry spokesmanwho was a l l his l i f e convinced tha t nothing existed in thenative world about him,but tha t only by the most ardueust ransplanta t ion of the European cul ture can the ew Worldeffec t any a r t i s t i c competence and dis t inc t ion. Thus Poerepresents the hypertrophy of an imagination which had only i t simported culture to feed upoh. 13This ~ t e m p t to place Poe and define him through geog

raphieal boundaries m ~ be a symptom of the American anxietyto create a Weltanschauung without appreciat ing the fac t tha tcer ta in a r t i s t i c problems are not subject to nat ional l imi ts .Davidson broaches the di f f icu l ty but does so negat ively. Poe,in his best work, was obviously not concerned with the world,around him, yet he was concerned with wbat l a t e r became anin ternat ional problem for the a r t i s t - - the problem of findingeffec t ive symbolic equations for man's and especia l ly thear t i s t s inner and creat ive experience.

Aollowing logical ly from his statement tha t Poe fed onlyon an imported cul ture ," D3vidson concludes tha t Poe i s thearchetype of the Romantic mind, 14 thereby pointing outanother reeson why Poe remains unbaptised by American c r i ic a lopinion. Cri t i cs on th is side of the Atlant ic seem te beunable to make a dis t inc t ion between the Romantic and theSymboliste ar t i s te Allen Tate in his essay on Hart Craneprovides a ready example.15 Romanticism, they seem to fee l ,i s a s ta te of being, while Symbolisme i s a s ta te of craf t , sotha t the Roman t i c a r t i s t extends, with no sh i f t of consciousness,in to the Symbolistf . Hence, Poe i s viewed as looking acrossthe ocean to the Romantics and merely extending the Romanticoutlook, without achieving the heights of a Shelley or aWordsworth.

Looking back over an expanse of a hundre years ofl3Davidson, p. 256.14 Ibid p. 257.15Allen TSlte, Hart Crane:' l l 1. l g.f. Lettera pp. 283-298.


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l i t e r a tu r e however, it becomes read i ly evident t h a t Poe i s at r an s i t i o n a l f i g u re between Romanticism and an a r t of a t o t a l lyd i f f e r e n t natu re . Granted t h a t he did his homework on Byronand Cole r idge , yet as Edith Si twe l l says, Poe i s now der idedonly by s tup id persona . e i s the only American poet beforeWhitman whose work was not bad and im i ta t ive of Engl ish poetry . 16Jus t as Romanticism developed from the poe t ry o f the AugustanAge and yet was wholly d i f f e r e n t from it so the a r t which Poehera lds f inds its roo ts in Romanticism, while the f r u i t it bearshas little d i r e c t resemblance to i t s o r i g i n ~ .

A comparison between the poetry of the Romantics and t h e i rpoe t i ca l s tance with t h a t of the Symbolistes--Rim.baud, M a l l a r ~ Val ry - - i s demonstra t ive o f t h i s point . I f we accept t h a t the

romant ic a g o n y ~ i s the suf fe r ing of se l f -awareness , then asimple formula fo r the Romantic might be: am, fee l , s u f f e r .A bas ic equat ion for t h i s formula would balance the '1 am' withthe i d e a l i s t i c vis ion of the Romantic; the '1 fee l ' with his a r t ;and the '1 s u f f e r ' with the world of ex te rn a l r e a l i t y .

What the Romantic essen t i a l ly suf fe rs from i s his awarenessof the c l a sh between his i n tu i t i v e f lashes of idea l i sm andvis ion , and the s tubborn r e a l i t y which re fuses to l e t i t s e l fbe fashioned by th i s vis ion . In other words, '1 s u f f e r because

am a l i ena ted from a world which i8 not ahat wisb it to beand which ye t conta ins the poss ib i l i t y of being t ha t very th ing

wish . ' The Romantic poet i s to r tu red because hi s s en s i t i v i t yi s o l a t e s him from the world of r e a l i t y , yet he envis ions theposs ib i l i ty o f changing t ha t world.

His poet ry records the dream vis ions with which hisa r t i s t i c i n tu i t i o n presen t s him. When he i s ~ p t i m i s t i c hecons ide rs these dream vis ions as reve la t ions bear ing t r u th .When he i s pess imis t ic o r in a s t a t e of depression, he looksupon t hese vis ions as being merely dreams. She l l , y composes

Mont Blanc o r Stanzas Writ ten in Dejec t ion . His s e l f awareness extends only as f a r as making the mater ia l of his l i f e ,the mate r ia l of his poem. The Romantic a r t i s t may be essen t i a l lya demiurge (as Davidson s a y s ~ crea t ing the world i n to being,

l6Edi th Si twe l l , Preface t American Geniu (London, 1951)


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but his vision i s always thrus t outwards, fa r his essent ia lide*lism leads him ta hope for human reform and for aneventual end to the sp l i t between the a r t i s t and society.Indeed, Shelley 's vision of the poet as the unacknowledgedlegis la tor of the world reveals the Romantics' high optimismabout poetry and i t s role .

Poe's case, and th is i s what the Symbolistes recognizedin him, i s vas t ly dif ferent . The agony of self-awareness hasbecome what I h ~ S y m o l i s t e s term vsriously as the delir iumof lucidi ty . Poe suffers from e cleavage between imaginationand bel ief . Like Blake in There i s no Naturel R e l i g i o n ~he can imagine tha t otherness, tha t s ix th sense:111. From a perception o f o n l y 3 senses or 3 elementsnone could deduce a fourth or f i f th Conclusion. t were not for the Poetic or Prophetiecharacter the Philosophie & Experimental would soon be a tthe ra t io of a l l things, & stand s t i l l , unage to do otherthan repeat the same dul l round over again.Vet Poe's luc idi ty will not allow him to accept as a real i tytha t which his poet ic and imaginative powers have shown hi The world has become a solipcism. Jhere i s no more schizophrenia between a r t and rea l i ty , for they are one and thesame to an a r t i s t who has no socia l conscience or socia lideal ism. Poe shows no attempt to t ry and change the externalworld. He i s indif ferent te t and his poetry and ta les belongto a world which i s t e ta l ly a world of the imagination. Vetthe d e l i r i u ~ of luc idi ty wi l l not allow him to believe even inth i s world, and his s tor ies betray th is sp l i t in man'sinnermost depths. Usher and the narretor are parts ef one andthe same being--the poet who i s locked in a dream of his owncrea t ion , and yet real izes tha t t i s merely a dream. Poe andhis heroes l ive in a world devoid of even the possib i l i ty ofrevelat ion, for they are s i tua ted in a sphere of exhaustedin te rpre ta t ion. Like the s ta te described by Rimbaud in hisphrase Je me cro is en enfer , donc j ' y suis and supplementedby Je un aut re , Poe and his characters are caught in the

l6Wil l iamBlake, There i s No Natural Religion:' The CompletePoetrv f .f. William Blake, Modern Library edi t ion, (New York, 1941),pp. 619 .l A r t h ~ r Rimbaud, Saison Enfer, Oeuvres (Paris , 1960),p. 220. Lettre Georges z a m b a r d ~ p. 334.


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d ia l ec t i c of the double, the imaginer and the would-be b e l i ev e r ,the man and the luc id ana lys t , the c rea t o r and the t h inke r .

For Poe, t he vis ion o r the dream i s no longer the image ofa v as t e r moral r e a l i t y which soc ie ty can even tua l ly a t t a i n .His l u c id i t y w i l l nct allow him to accept the vis ion as anyth ing more than an en t i r e ly personal and perbaps even an a n t i -s o c i a l exper ience , which ~ a n n o t be snared and cannot ev en befu l ly t rus ted .

Dreams in t h e i r viv id co lor ing of l i f eAs in t h a t f l e e t i n g , shadowyy, mis ty s t r i f eOf semblance with r e a l i t y which bringsTo the de l i r ious eye , more lovely th ingsOf Paradse and Love--and a l l my own - -~ h n young Hope in his sunn ies t hour hath known. 1B

The poem "Dreams" from which t h i s passage i s taken, shows Poeassuming Many o f the s tock phrases , the vocabulary of Romanti c i sm, and aven at tempt ing to torment his own ex is tence i n t o aRomantic biography. "OH t h a t my young l i f e were a l a s t i n gdream " and such phrases as A chaos of deep pass ion" appear tabe t h o ~ o u g h l y Romantic exclamations . In i t s o v e ra l l impact ,however, and es p ec i a l l y in the passage quoted, the shaping poweremerges as one qui te ~ a d i c a l l y di f fe ren t from the Romantic.Although Poe's s tance i s an au tob iograph ica l one, it i s veryf a r from Wordsworth's viewpoint in Tintern Abbey." Poe m a ~ e sit very c l ea r t ha t the dream i s not the l i f e of r e a l i t y , norwi l l r e a l i t y ever be akin t a it no matter how much the poetwould l i k e ta bel ieve t h i s . Dreams May b e v i v i d ~ but they area f t e r a l l only a co lor ing o f l i f e , and Poe pi les on ad jec t ivea f t e r ad jec t ive to make t h i s poin t s t r ik ing ly c lea r . Dreamsare merely a "semblance" o f r e a l i t y , f l ee t ing , shadowy, misty ,and the s t r i f e , the chaos , they present can only be viewed bythe de l i r ious eye , the eye which i s wil1ing t a probe i n tounconscious depths . Moreover, unl ike the Romantics ' dreams,these p a r t i cu l a r vis ions cannat be shared. They are a l l myown" and do not look outward to soc ie ty , fo r as the l a s t l ineof the poem r ev ea l s , these dreams have no connec t ion with

lB Poe, ~ D r e a m s , p. 1020-1021.


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external rea l i ty and are fa r dif fe rent from what youngHope in his sunniest hour hath known. n This closing l inecould almost be taken as a direc t comment on the R o m a n t i c s ~approach to vision.

Poels viewpoint i s not tha t of the opt imist ic young poetgazing out on the world and hoping ta reform it witn the helpof a personal vision in which he believe Rather his poet icalstandpoint i s closer to tha t of the wise old wicked man whorecognizes tha t his dreams, no matter what the i r beauty or horror,are products of a del i r ious eye and are only a semblance ofrea l i ty . His bel ie f in the creat ions of his imaginat ion i s onlymomentary and then,immediately, the c r i t i c a l lucid double stepsin and the 1 who has created the dream becomes another , a H e ~The del i r ious eye/I who wisbes to bel ieve tha t his dream i s a

r e ~ e l a t i o n i s rplaced by the lucid diagnost ician who cannot .This i s where Poels sens ib i l i ty merges in to tha t of the Symbolistepoet. e appears as the herald of a new s c h i z p h ~ a n i c age whereexis tence must be tormented in to meaning in the face of adouble, a super-ego become skept ic . The dream vision can nolonger be projected outward in to the world and i f any revelat ioni s to emerge from it it wil l not be a Romantic one, but onewhich i s almost gratui tous and exis ts only in poetry i t s e l f .I t i s from th i s point on ~ h a t the mark of the Symboliste poetbecomes the image of an i so la ted asocial being, .bm s i t s smuttering incantatory phrases ober a blar.k page, for it i s fromthe sounds, the look of words, the s tuf f of poetry i t s e l f tha tthe angel ic voiceswi l l speak.

Not only is Poels sens ib i l i ty akin to that of the SymbolistesIn his poe t ic and short s tory techmiques he also begins atrend which finds i t s culmination in a poem l ike L'Aprs-midid'un faune. This novel feature i s the t r ans i t ion from whatcan be cal led public symbolism to private symbolism.A public symbol could be defined as one which has establ ishedcul tura l relevance. Milton, for e x a m p ~ e can manipulatethe garden of Eden in any way which he pleases, without fearingtha t the public wil l f ind him obscure. e can count on a l l


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or most of his allusions being eas i ly absorbed by the preparedhard core of his own cul ture . His poet ic voice i s not la rge lypoet ic or personal.

In a civi l izat ion, however, which has los t i t s hold oncul tura l foundations, the a r t i s t must find new equations forexperience. Poe looks forward to th i s kind of c iv i l i za t ion ashe agonizes over f inding the exact private symbol which wil lallow him to unlock the innermost springs n a l l hear ts andwil l permit him to render ra ther than show. This i s theSymboliste dilemma of finding the symbolic equivalents whichwil l allow one to communicate a personally in tui ted rea l i ty .The private symbol ac tua l ly f inds i t s o ~ i i n s in the Romanticmovement when one begins to have poetry wherein not everythingthe poet says i s cul tura l ly t ransparent . This poses theproblem of an in te rpre ta t ive stumbling block as far as thepublic i s concerned, and Shelley shows his awareness of th i swhen he writes to his publisher concerning Epipsychidion --nIt is to be published only for the esoter ic few, end again inthe Advertisement to tha t poem The present poem i ssuff ic ient ly in te l l ig ib le to a cer ta in class of readers withouta matter-of-fact his tory of the circumstances to which tre i ts , and to a cer ta in other class t must ever remainincomprehensible, from a defect of a common organ of perceptionfor the ideas of which t t r e a t s . nl9 However, Shelley s t i l lgives the reader suf f i c i en t hints and even explicat ions whichallow his symbols to be readi ly understood. The very t i t l e

Epipsychidion suggests that the f igures he wil l be dealingwith are psychic manifestat ions, and he provides such revelatoryphrases as th i s soul out of my soul .

With Poe th is t rend toward private symbolism becomes moreacute and there i s l i t t l e in his poems which so direc t ly revealsthe signif icance of his symbols. A poem l ike Eulal ie re l i eson associat ive st r ings, verbal and pattern play, and esote r icanalogies , to convey the idea that Poe, l ike Shel ley, i s dealinghere with a psychic f igure . This heavy dependence on tools which

19percy Bysshe Shelley, Selected Poems, Essays and LettersNew York, 1944), pp. 361-366.


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are purely poet ica l and the use of highly esoter ic symbolsleads to a poem such as L ' A p r ~ s - m i d i d'un faune of which ti s impossible to make a prose paraphrase, for t i s composedof the matter of poetry i t s e l f .

Yet Poe was not faced by a cul ture prepared to acceptth is type of poetry. Unlike the twentieth century, the nineteenthwas not recept ive to the manipulation of private symbols andwas uneducated in the symbolic and anagogie phases. Therefore,Poe capi ta l ized as Davidson points out , on the paraphenaliaavai lable to him in the popular i ~ t annals and periodicalsof the day,,20_-the corpse, the tomb, the mourning survivor. 20Poe's tombs and corpses, however, are not those of NightThoughts, nor of the gothic w ~ i t e r s . They have fa r widerimplicat ions as they fathom in to man's unconscious depths onlyto discover the pitch Dlackness c f to ta l disintegrat ion.

furthermore, as Northrope f rye remarks, when Poe wishesto use pr ivate symbolism, he does not , l ike Hawthorne, or fortha t matter Shelley, make excuses for I r : Poe i s clearlya more rad ica l abs trac t ionis t than Hawthorne, which i s onereason wh; his influence on our century i s more immediate.,,21This abi l i ty to make radical abst rac t ions to consciouslyuse priva te symbols in an age where there i s no assurance thatprivate symbols are communicable, i s what removes Poe fromthe posit ion of a Romantic writer and brings him in to the r e ~of the Symbolistes. I t i s t e l l ing tha t he wrote in hisreview of Hawthorne's "Twice- ,.g, g Tales: For the fu l l es tsa t i s fac t ion the s tory must be read with an ar t akin te thatof i t s creator. , ,22_-thereby revealing his fear tha t his privatesymbolism might not be readi ly c o m m u n i c a ~ & e .

Another element in Poe's make-up which l ikens him to theSymboliste writers and makes him the revolutionary t rans i t iona l20Davidson, p. 105.21Northrop frye, Anatomv of Crit icism,(Princeton, 1957), p. 122Edgar Allan Poe, lb. Complete Works, Raven edition,(,New Yor1902), vol. 7, pp. 329-352.


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f igure tha t he was, l i e s in the self -consciousness he eppliedto the act of creat ion . His poetic stance i s the I -here la t ionship , the a r t i s t watching himself crea te , and makingthe mater ia l of hie creat ion , the act of creat ion i t s e l f . Thec i rc le of narciss icism i s complete--a t l eas t as fa r as theidea l i zed se l f -po r t r a i t i s concerned. The a r t i s t begins withhimself , consciously obsarves himself in the unconscious processof creat ion and then expresses,with ul l se l f -c r i t i c i sm, thecreat ive process. I t i s t h i s consciousness of se l f , cre@tingvis ion , which separates Poe from the Romantics, for l iv ing ina world deprived of revela t ion , he recognized tha t c rea t iv i tyhad become merely a question of juggling effec ts . Hence, ra therthan defences of poetry--a product of a Romantic age--Poecomposes expl ica t ions of a deductive system f ~ making it Hei s the s e l f - c r i t i c a l craftsman, as opposed to the self -awaredemiurge. The Romantic a r t i s t shas given way to an a r t i s t ofa d i f fe ren t kind.

Although many American cr i t i cs have questioned the ra t ionaleof Baudelaire 's idola t rous devotion to Poe, within th i s context ,the french poet ' s a t t rac t ion to the American's mind bscomesc lea r . Baudelai re 's s i tua t ion was ident ica l to Poe ' s . Thechi ld of a Romantic age, he went to school to Victor Hugo, onlyto f ind t ha t his mode of perception was vas t ly di fferent fromthe masters . A sh i f t of consciousness had taken place. Valryca l l s th i s sh i f t in his Situat ion de Baudelaire , thein t roduc t ion of a c lass ica l mind in to Romanticism. In otherwords, Romanticism has developad a formal i s t ic conscieoce.

C'es t en quoi Baudelaire , quoique romantique d 'or ig ine , e tOme romantique par sas gots, peut quelquefois fa i re f igure

d'un class ique. class igue l ' c r iva in gui porte YUr i igue . . l soi-mOrne, gui l associe i n t i m ~ travaux. 23A se l f -c r i t i c a l i ty has been introduce to the Romantic mind, as e l f - c r i t i c a l i t y which was to become the one point common toa l l the poets of the coming age. Le class ique implique donc

23 paul Valry, Situat ion de Baudelaire , Oeuvres l , (Paris ,1957), p. 604.


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des actes volontaires e t rf lchis qui modifient une productionnature l le , conformment une conception c la i re e t ra t ionel lede l'homme e t de l l a r t . 24I t i s not so much the nature of the ar t i s t i c product whichlinms Poe to Baudelaire, but a s imilar i ty in ar t i s t i c stance.There i s a log ica l development from one poet to the other . Poebrought self -consciousness back in to the ar t i s t i c process,allowing for the re- introduction of "irony" in to l i t e r a tu re ,and permitt ing the a r t i s t to achieve tha t distance of a "godparing his f ingernai ls" which has become so important in thetwentmeth century. The kind of i rony we are accustomed to inth i s age can only begiri with the poet ' s own rea l iza t ion or in tu i t ion tha t his own mater ia ls are corrupt . With the awarenesstha t every symbol i s two-edged, poetry becornes aware of i t sdark s ide as well as i t s l igh t , and the poet rea l izes tha t hismater ia ls are ta inted. This provides the death knell toRomanticism, for when the two s ides ~ f the s i tua t ion are recognized, there can be no more idea l i s t ic optimisme The poet sonly possible convalescence for his dark knowledge i s to t rea this t a in ted material with a kind of i ronic detachment. T ep ~ e t s recognit ion tha t the mater ia ls of his ar t are corruptbegins with Poe and the l a te nineteenth century decadents, andthe curative cornes only in the l a te worka of T.S. El io t .

Aware of the dual nature of symbols, Poe was, l ikej audela i re , ful ly self -conscious and se l f -c r i t i c a l where hiscrt was concerned. t J ~ m a i s le problme de l a l i t t ra tu ren ava i t t jusqu ' Edgar Poe, examin dans ses prmisses, rdui t un problme de psychologie, abord au moyen d'une,analysela logique e t la mcanique des effe ts ta ient dlibfment

/ 25 .employes. Wi th Poe, the artist ' '6 product becomes tt1e"'productof a craftsman who has mastered the ar t of rhetoric in i t st radi t ional sense. ihe effec t to be produced on the audiencei s calculated. The moving power of cer ta in sounds and symbols

24Valry, Ibid, p. 604.25Valry, Ibid, p. 606.


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lB

L POETE DES NERFS

In the f i r s t par t of th i s study an attempt was made tol a y a foundation, to find a perspect ive, which would allow forthe fu l l es t possible appreciation of Poe and his craf t . I t seemstha t th i s perspective must be a retrospective one, for onlywith the tools avai lable to us in the present can we grasp thefu l l signif icance of Poe's a r t i s t ry . Now tha t Mallarm hasevoked " le dl i re de la page blanche," we can begin tacomprehend Poe's a ~ f o n y in ~ l araaf" of laying out the thoughton the page. Now tha t the self -conscious craftsman, Daedalus,fashioning his maze, has become the image of the a r t i s t , Poe'ss t r iv ing to manipulate the unconscious responses of his readercornes into clearee focus. Final ly . t i s only now tha t we haveat ta ined the necessary sophis t ica t ion to r id ourselves of theRomantic h a n g o v e r ~ tha t we are capable of considering thear t i fac t as an ent i ty in i t s e l f , wholly divorced from thebiography of i t s crea tor . This l a s t q ~ a l i f i c a t i o n permitsus to examine Poe for what he rea l ly i s - -no t a subject forpsychoanalysis, a vict im of pathology, but the orig inal p o ~ t edes nerfs.In his int roduct ion to Histoires Extraordinaires, Baudelairesays of Poe:

e n 'es t pas par ses miracles matr ie ls , qui pourtant ontfa i t sa renomme, qu ' i l lu i sera .donn de conqurir l admira t indes gens qui pensent, c ' e s t par ce gnie tout spcia l , parce temprament unique qui lu i a permis de peindre e t d'expliquer ,'une m e n i ~ r e impeccable, sa i s i s sante , t e r r ib le , 'exce t ionl ' o rdre moral. - -Diderot , pour prendre un ex mple entrecent, es t un auteur sanguin; Poe es t l ' c r iva in es nerfs , e tmeme de quelque chose de plus , - -e t l e meilleur que je connaisse

Aucun homme, je le r p ~ t e , n'a racont avec plus de magiel es exceetions de la vie humaine e t de la nature , - - les ardeursde cur ious i t de la convalescence, - - l e s f ins de sa isons c h a ~ g e sde splendeurs nervantes, les temps chaud, humides e t b r u m e u ~ o ~le vent du sud amoll i t e t dtend l es nerfs comme les c o r d e ~ alUninstrument, les yeux se remplissent de larmes qui ne viennentpas du coeur , - - l 'ha l luc ina t ion i a i s s ~ n t d'abord place au doute,bienta t convaincue e t raisonneuse o un l iv re , - - l ' absurdes 'ns ta l lan t dans l ' i n t e l l igence e t la gouvernant avec unepouvantable log ique , - - l ' hy t r ie usurpant la place de la volont,la contradict ion tabl ie entre l es nerfs e t l ' e s p r i t , e t l'hommedsaccord au point d'exprimer la douleur par le r i r e . I l


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sees as the substance of the bateau image. In essence,he i s describing that d r ~ g l e m e n t de .ie.. : . .lM . l .. l." whichRimbaud mentions in a l e t t e r ta Paul Demeney5 and which i sthe substance of sa many of Poe's t a les as his heroes t rave lthe turbulent . eas of the unconscious.

Poe belcngs with the poates des nerfs in a further sense.Like these wri ters he suffers from a dedication ta a luc id i tywhich fardes him ta recognize tha t his vis ions his dreams, f indthe i r beginnings in the quagmire, the manure heap of the humansoul@ .i t s e l f material ly l imi ted bece....Jse t can o'nly be reachedby a manipulation of sense equat ions. There i s no normal manin Poe's theatre of characters , or ra ther a l l are normal men,for l 'homme moyen s e n s u e l ~ e w h e n placed in par t icular circumstances,always suffers from the order ly derangement of the senses.Launched on his bateau ~ the hero of J::he "MS" ins i s t s tha the i s a reasonable man of science: "Upon the whole, no personcould be less l i ab le than myself ta be led away from the severeprecincts of t ruth by the ignes fa tu i of supers t i t ion. , ,6Poe i s a t great pains ta show tha t his hero i s t ruly a to ta l lyra t ional being, and yet th is reasonable hero sa i l s to thedeepest imaginings of darkness possible to man, and he f ina l lydisappea rs in to the .whir lpool of annihi lat ion. Similar ly, therecould be no more reasonable man than the narra tor of The f a l lof the House of Usher yet he t e s t i f i e s in a l l s incer i ty tha th1 has seen a woman entombed a l ive and an ent i re house swallowedup in theblackness of a t a rn .

Like Rimbaud, Dostoievski , Huysmans an Kafka, Poe i s anexpert in the f ie ld of morbid psychology, where a par t icularpsychic derangement serves as an epiphany of mankind. DesEssein tes , Huysmans decadent hero, direc t descendent of Usher,and spokesman for a l l hypernervous sens ib i l i t i es keeps onlyone book in his favori te c h a m b e r ~ Narrative of ArthurGordon Pym. The reasons Huysmans gives for his excessive

5Arthur Rimbaud, Oeuvres (Paris,1960), p.346.6poe , p. 118.


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admiration of Poe sum ap cer ta in aspects of Poe as potenerfs .

Plus que tout autre , ce lui- lh peut-@tre rpondait pard' int imes af f in i t s aux postulat ions mditat ives de desEsseintes .Si Baudelaire avai t dchiffr dans les hiroglyphes del'Ame le retour d'Ages des sentiments e t des ides, lu i avai t .dans la voie de la psychologie morbide, plus par t icul irementscru t le domaine de la tvolont.En l i t t ra tu re , t avai t , le premier, sous ce t i t r eemblmatique: "Le dmdn de la Perversi t", pi ces impulsionsi r r s i s t i b l e s que la volont subi t sans les conna1tre e t quela pathologie crbrale explique maintenant d'une faon peuprs sCre; le premier aussi , i ~ avai t sinon signal, du moinsd i v u l ~ l inf luenc e dpressive de la peur qui agi t sur lavolont, de m me que l es anesthsiques qui paralysent lasens ib i l i t e t que le curare qui anant i t les lments nerveuxmoteurs; . c ~ t a i t sur ce point , sur ce t te l tharg ie de lavolont, q u i l avai t fa i t converger ses tudes, analysant leseffe ts de ce poison moral, indiquant les sympt8mes de sa marche,l e s t roubles commenant avec l anx i t , se continuant parl angoisse , cla tan t enfin dans la te r reur qui s tupf ie lesvol i t ions , sans que l in te l l igence , bien q u b ~ a n l e , f lchisse Convulses par d hrd i ta i res nvroses, affoles pardes chores morales, ses cratures ne vivaient Rue par l e snerfs . 7

Poe sudelirium of lucidityij leads himto a study ofab normal psychology--a s ta te wherein man's deepest unconsciousmotives and sensat ions take on the guise of logic and real ism.A prime example of his use of the techniques and psychologicalinsights which were to lay the foundations for such l a t e r~w ~ e r s as ~ a f k a and Dostoievski, i s "The Tell-Tale Heart ."The t a l e begins with the customary mention of the hero 'snervousness, which i s balanced by a supreme logic and cerebralcalm.True --nervous--very d r e a d f u ~ l y nervous 1 had been and am;but why wil l you say tha t 1 am mad? The disease had sharpenedmy senses--not destroyed--not dulled them. Above a l l was thesense of hearing acute . 1 neard a l l things in the heaven andin the earth . 1 heard many things in hel l . Hownthen,am 1 mad?

7J Huysmans, Rebours (Paris , ) , p. 252-254.


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in the narra tor ' s mind and becomes analgous to his overlyacuta sense of hearing. One of the elements within the narratori s distorted and along with t one of the features of hisenvironment. The disbalance i s complete. Symbolically, theeye becomes a mirror for the narra tor , and t i s Hevil onlybecause t re f lec ts his own chaotic and degenerate depths. The health he boasts of reveals i t s e l f as fa lse , as he se ts out,l ike W i l l i a ~ Wilson, to destroy his own ref lec t ion in hisvict im's eye. He recognizes the groan the oldman makes, asone akin to bis own: I t was the low s t i f l ed sound tha t a r i ~ e sfrom the bottom of the soul when overcharged with a ~ e 1 knewthe sound welle Many a night , j u s t a t midnight, when a l l theworld s ~ e p t t has welled up from my own bosom, deepening withi t s dreadful echo, the te r rors tha t dis t rac ted me. nlO

When he f ina l ly charges in to make the ki l l , the twoelements which have grown out of proport ion increase in in tens i ty .The sound of the old man's hear t , which i s perhaps a symbolhere for a kind of diabol ical ~ n d unceasing energy, mingleswith the s ight of the evi l eye, unt i l f ina l ly the b oody deedi s done. nd here Poe begins his explorat ion of the psychologyof gui l t and the gratui tous act-- two themes which have occupiedmajor l i t e ra ture since his day;

The motiveless murder i s complete, yet the ear which couldhear a l l things in heaven, ear th and he l l manifests i t s derangedpower. The sound of the beating hear t r ings in the murderer 'sear with such in tens i ty tha t t drives him to self-confessioh.lt i s in teres t ing to note why Poe uses the ear nd the hear there in preference over other possible human organs, for t revealshis conscious knowledge of the dark s ide , the i ronic s ide , of

/ symbols. The ear i s usually t h U g ~ r f as the instrument throughwhich man perceives the music of the spheres, the harmony ofthe universe--in a poe t i c contexte Similar ly the t radi t ionalRomantic and Victorian use of the hear t i s as an emblem ofhuman goodness. Here, however, the ear i s the power throughwhich man percieves the diabol ical tons of his own heart --a hear t

10Poe, 304.


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whose pass ion i s d es t ru c t i v e . nd conscience , the super-ego,the heaven the h y p e r t r ~ p h i e d ear was capable of hear ingba t t l s with the sound of he l l , the depths of man's i n s t i n c tu e land des t ruc t ive power, un t i l the na r ra to r , l i s t en ing on ea r th ,leads himself to his own doom, caught in a web of his ownimaginings . The gratui tous ac t has found i t s l og ica lconclus ion in se l f - ann ih i la t ion . Raskolnikov f u l f i l l s tmec i r c l e of murder , g u i l t and confession in an a-Chr i s t i an world.

Dostoievski pra ised Poe fo r two q u a l i t i e s , his P S y C h O l o g ~ lsub t l e ty and his fan ta s t i c rea l i sm l l i n a preface to TheTel l -Tale Heart and two other t a l e s . t i s r ead i l y evidenthow Poe 's psychologica l sub t l e ty i s s imi l a r to Dosto ievsk i l son a di f fe ren t s ca l e and how an a f f i n i t y ex i s t a between the mindsof the two men. s fo r Poe's f an t a s t i c rea l i sm, h e ~ k h o v andAndreev seem to have jo ined Dos to ievsk i in ready applaas fo rPoe 's technique . In the same preface Dostoievski wrote tha tPoe's imaginat ion cons i s t s in t he pow&r of d e t a i l s .Poe 's technique o f bui ld ing suspense through the use ofr e a l i s t i c d e t a i l in a t o t a l l y f a n t a s t i c a l s i tua t ion i s a wel l known c l i ch among c r i t i c s . Few, if any, howefer , have seenit necessary to at tempt an exp lana t ion , a t the very l e a s t aspecu la t ion , of the reason why Poe uses minute poin ts of d e t a i lin the cons t ruc t ion of his t a l e s . Poe was well-aware tha t hewas working with the stuffi of man's unconscious, tha t i s , the

i n n e ~ depths which he conceals from c i v i l i z a t i o n . He wasmanipulat ing the s t u f f of vis ion , the s t u ~ f tha t dreams are madeof , yet unl ike the Romantics he seemed to f ind it necessary toc lo th e these vi s ions , perhaps to obscure them, in a mass ofr e a l i s t i c d e t a i l . Never the less , Poe was not a t tempting t a f ' ~present r e a l i t y and draam in one brea th - -a Zola cum Blake e f fo r t .The reason fo r h i s use of r e a l i s t i c d e t a i l may l i e in the samearea as an 6xplanat ion of Kafka 's technique . Between these twopotes ne r f s , there i s much common ground.

Bath su f fe red from a dedicat ion to l u c id i t y which madethem consciously aware of the f ac t tha t t h e i r vis ions foundl lV lad imir Astrov, Dostoievski on Edgar Allan Poe,

American Li te ra tu re , XIV, pp. 70-74.


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the i r base in the frog-spawn of the human soul , ra ther thanin the area of transcendental revelat ion. Both were explorersin to some nether region of the soul or psyche, but the cornerstone of the i r vision did not l i e in the misty realms of thebeyond. for Kafka and Poe, a l l men are subject to i r ra t iona ldreams and ra t ional act ions. Every being holds Sn himselfsomething of the madman something of the crypt , somethingof the unconscious. Hence, both the visions of Poe and Kafkaare f i rmly grounded in an exis tent ia l predicament and theyare students of what i e t ~ s c h e ca l l s back-sta i rs psychology.

h en Kafka se ts out with the utmost log ica l p r e c ~ s i o n tocreate the chaot ic world of the unconscious and of dream, hesucceeds, by the accumulation of natura l i s t i c de ta i l ingiving th is otherwise s t r i c t ly unseeable world, the aura ofwaking rea l i ty . Poeis casa i s much the same. His so-cal led

h o r r o ~ t a les whether they be t s l e s of l iving inhumation, orta les analysing the psychology of a murderous madman are anattempt to break the wall between dream and r ea l i t y betweendeath and l i f e be.ween unconscious existence and consciousl i fe . His symbols m y be ra ther gothic, but he rea l izes tha tthe only way to so to speak, hook the reader , to manipulatehim in to a posi t ion where he wil l accept the so l id rea l i ty ofdream, of the unconscious and of death--Baudelaire 's inconnu-i s to present the s t r i c t ly anseeable in terms of the immediatelyrecognizable. Once the reader , through th is use of natura l i s t i cde ta i l fee ls himself secure in a s t i l l recognizable world, thebateau i s well on i t s way to the depths of the humanpsychic whirlpool. I t i s only when the voyage i s complete tha the rea l izes how precarious was his balance and ho. th in thedividing l ine between dream and rea l i ty acta l ly i s .I t should be pointed out tha t although th i s technique ofusing rea l i s t ic deta i l in a world of dream psychology seemsra ther t ransparent to us and has become something of a poe t i c a lmuseum piece, in Poels time t was a s t r iking innovation. Theproof of th i s i s tha t t has laUDched so much l i t e ra ture


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par t icular to the l a te nineteenth and twentieth centur ies .A ready ex ample of th i s techmique a t work can be seen in

the Jane Guy episode of Narrative 2 Arthur Gordon Pym.e f ~ r e embarking on the most hal lucinat ive part of his

ar t i s t i c voyage, Poe builds a sol id foundation of rea l i s t icdeta i l . He describes the s t ruc ture of the Jane Guy the natureof the land Pym sees, the species of birds encountered, unt i lthe reader fee ls he i s once more firmly grounded in rea l i ty .Hence, he accepts the to ta l blackness of the inhabitants ofthe l a s t i s land Pym v is i t s thei r fear of white, the l iv inginhumation of Pym and Petera, and f ina l ly the journey in to thecatarac t of whiteness which closes the narra t ive . I t i s onlywhen the voyage i s over tha t he rea l izes the suggest iveaess of20e 's teosoiqus use of symbols and the i r wide ramificat ions.Reality merges in to the heart of darkness and man's experienceof the unconscious, unt i l he disappears into an apocalypse ofmystical knowledge which can only le ad to the end of a l lpossible expression. The success of Poe's technique, whichi s essent ia l ly a discontinuous one, depends on t he reade r fofollowing up the symbolic undertone of the narrat ive in thesame mater ia l is t ic s p i r i t in which he grasped the dayl ightdeta i l s .


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VOYAGE TO THE END OF A DREAMPoets vision has i t s core in the a r t i s t t s experience

of the act of creat ion . The world he explores in themajority of his t a les and suggests in his poems, presentsa tension between dream, the unconscious bir thplace ofimaginative powers, and waking rea l i ty the sphere oflucid se l f -c r i t i c a l craftsmanship. In the realm of dream,the unconscious existence of man cornes te the fore, andobsessions, uncontrollable desi res inexpl icable horrors ,vaporous memories, and fantas t ica l imaginings are givenf ree play. Time in th is sphere i s far removed from the wakingtime ~ f the clock or the time of duration. Rather, Poelsdream world exis t s in a time out of time, which has no placein the recognizable past , present , or future. Incapableof f inding a place in the p e s ~ n t + 3 t e s ~ a ~ e a m e a e o n o l ~ ~ siDcapab&eyof finding a place in the recognizable past , inchronology or history. Being of no t ime, they seem tobelong to an epoch tha t transcends t ime. nl The i r ra t iona lrealm of dream, which plays a cent ra l ro le in Poels vis ion,i s akin to the crea tor l s achieved work in tha t it ranges i t s e l fl ike the work of a r t in a t imeless sphere. Yet Poe'sdream world i s also the world of death, for out of t ime,death i s the fur thes t extension of the unccnscious sphere,and l ike it th i s f.inal sta te cannot be fu l ly apprehendedby waking reason. Hence, on one s ide of the pendulum ofPoe's vision, we find dream, the unconscious, memory ar tand death symbolically equated.

Opposed to th is t imeless world of dream, death, theunconscious, and ar t in Poels dia lec t ic i s the wakingsphere of daily l i fe consciousness, ra t ional act ions andt h o u g h t s ~ and l a s t ly science. This second realm is arigorous appeal to the waking in te l l igence . Poels characters ,

Georges Poulet, t u d i e ~ Human Time New York, 1959),p. 3 3 ~ .


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however are inevitably caught in the tension between thesetwo kinds of rea l i ty for the i r existence i s composed ofa par t icular genre of hal lucinat ive dreams and a wakingconsciousness constantly haunted by deductive systems andthe memories of these dreams. Continually before them i sthe fear tha t a t one point they wil l no longer awaken fromthe dream and wil l thence be permanently caught in thee terna l ly unknowable in the processes of degeneration anddying.

But Poets work does not present merely a simple tensionbetween dream and waking between the unconscious andconsciousbess between death and l i f e . Rather his work

d a m n ~ t ~ t e s an overwhelming des i r e to a t t a in f ree movementbetween these two aspects of existence. The ra t ional manin fu l l possession of his conseiousness wishes to enter themisty realms of the unconscious and of i r ra t iona l dreamswithout being deprived of his luc id i ty of his waking logic .Poels s tance i s tha t of an explorer who desires topenetrate and examine the deepest reacnas of the imaginat ionthe world of dream and the unconscious and a t the same t imeremain in fu l l control of his waking reason. I t i s in th issense tha t his vision finds i t s core in the a r t i s t i c processof crea t ion for t i s only the ar t i s t who can t ravel f ~ e e l ybetween the usually conf l ic t ing realms of consciousness andunconsciousness of death and l i f e and yet a t a l l t imeshave control of his ra t ional powers. Into the world ofimaginat ion of dream and the great memory stored the ar t i s tbrings the power of se l f -c r i t ic isme e i s a t a l l times infu l l possession of hia waking ident i ty yet he journeys tothe end of a dream to the u n c o ~ s c i o u s depths of man to thedepths of se l f . e can play with consciousness somethingwhich only the a r t i s t i c prticess al lows.

Poels vision i s a prophecy of an a r t which was to becomethe trademark of a l a t e r era when the a r t i s t and sc ien t i s t


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jo ined to produce the crea t ive , yet se l f -c r i t i c a l craftsman-a Dupin, creative and resolvent , voyaging in to the land ofin tu i t ion and unconscious motivation, while maintaining theluc id i ty of waking resson. I t must be remembered, however,tha t Dupin, with his l igh t -hear ted , gamesome approach, i s enidea l iza t ion. Poe, the man suffers from th i s so-called

game of explorat ion, for a t the core of his exi s t en t i e ls i tuat ion, a t the roots of his sp i r i tua l biography, there i salways the nagging fear tha t one day he wil l t rave l a l i t t l etao fa r in to the unconscious world, and l ike Usher, reach thepOint of no return. This fear , then, i s Posts exia ten t i a lbase, ~ anxiety which gives his vis ion i t a peculiar effec t ivepower.

The ta les embody Poets vision and explore the variousramif icat ions of the dual i ty between dream and waking, togetherwith the poss ibi l i ty of t rave l l ing f ree ly bstween the twos ta tes . In The f a l l of the House of Usher several aspectsof the problem are examined.

Usher begins with the entry of one par t icular kind ofPoe character , the ra t ional homme moyen sensuel , who servesas narra tor and reasonable touchstone to an i r ra t iona l action.In his symbolic implicat ion, he i s the conscious mindt rave l l ing into the realms of unconscious dream, and herepresents one side of rea l i ty . The scene ia a t rad i t iona lone for Poe-- a dul l . dark and soundless day in the autumn ofthe year. Suggestive of the atmosphere of the ta le , thedarknes6 and s i lence are also prerequisi tes for man's entryin to the nighttime and s i l en t world of dream, while autumni s the Besson of t ransformation from l i f e in to death, fromthe waking l ight of reason, in to the dark and turbulent sphereof the unconscious. for the reasonable narratoT., the scene i sdevpid of any poet ic sentiment with which the mind usual lyreceives even the s te rnes t natural images of the desolate ort e r r ib l e . He can compare his feel ing to no ear th ly sensat ionmore properly than to the after-dream of the reve l le r upon oPiumthe b i t t e r lapse in to every-day l i fe - - the hideous dropping off


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vis ion of the unconscious i s a pecu l ia r ly mate r i a l one,based on ex i s t en t i a l phenomena. Dark, degenera te , andclaust rophobid, t i s t he Sar t r i an world o f he1l on ea r th ,which permits of no ex i t to those who have bacome entangledin ts depths . But t h i s i s not to be the f a t e of thenar ra to r of U s h e r ~ lt i s ra the r the des t iny of his double ,Usher, himsel f .

The decept ive crack which the nar ra to r observes in thef ron t of the house and which extends from ts roof i n to thewaters of the t a rn , bears impor tan t symbolic over tones.Barely v is ib le , t represen ts the schizophrenia o f man, whoi s s p l i t i n t o his unconscious and consc ious pa r t s - - thesepara t ion of waking r ea l i t y and dream. W ~ t h i n t h i s p a r t i c u l a rcon tex t , t sugges t s the two aspec t s o f human make-up, whichthe nar ra to r and Usher represen t , as consc iousness makes i t ssojourn in to the h ea r t of darkness . The crack i s only bare lyvi s ib l e now, because the s p l i t between Usher and the nar ra to rhas not as yet d e v e ~ o p e d in to ts fu l l poten t i a l . hen t does,des t ruc t idn w i l l ensue.

Before the consc ious observer can make con tac t with hisdark s i d e , he must pass through a l abyr in th iao maze c f darkand i n t r i c a t e passsgasV reminiscent o f William WilsOD'Sevening search to f ind h is double . Poe seems to be fu l ly awareof the s ig n i f i can ce of the l abyr in th as an image o f msa 'sjourney in to unconscious depths , a t the hear t of which he wi l lf ind the savage and f e a r fu l minotaur . But the des t ruc t ivepowers of the minotaur a re yet to be revea led . f i r s t thenar ra to r must come i n to r e l a t i o n s h i p with Usher , the epmtomeof the neuras then ic and decadent mind which i s quick lysuccumbing to the overwhelming force of dream.

Usher;s world i s the world of the p o ~ t e s maudi ts , whoi n h ab i t a damned unive rse , which they sense must ul t imate lydest roy them. l . . . : .. . per i sh in t h i s deplorable fo l ly , t t exclaimsUsher, recognizing his impending doom. From one poin t o f view,


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Usher contains in himself the chizophrenic dual i ty whichi s Poets theme. Re i s the decadent a r t i s t , entrapped by hisown ~ e l i r i u m of l uc id i ty : and as such, he represents Poetsfsar of what could be the outcome of his own journey intodream. His ar t consis ts of fantas t ica l abstract ions andhyster ica l improvisations, which he creates from the mater ialof the unconscious, i t s e l f , and which, log ica l ly enough, thereasonable narrator cannot comprehend. The only one of hispictures which i s shadowed forth in recognizable symbols i sone represent ing a long, white vaul t , fa r below the earth, andcontaining no exi t -- the Sar t r ian he11, deep in the abyss ofthe unconscious, whose radiant and ar t i f i c i a l whiteness i s thecolor of destruct ion.

Usherts twin s i s t e r , the Lady Madeline, i s a materialemanation of the abyss within him, which wil l ultimatelydestroy him. H i s ~ e l i r i u m of luc id i ty : represented in whatthe narrator ca l l s his intense mental col lectedness andconcentrat ion, and which he a t ta ins only in moments c f the

highest a r t i f i c i a l sxcitement, i s the qual i ty which allowshim to be fu l ly aware of his impending doom. nd Usher'sdestruct ion must corne for he has allowed himself to becometoo entangled in the unconscious world of dream. He has los thimself completely in tha t labyrinth from which there i s noescape, for he has attempted the impossible. This impossiblei s materia l ly embodied g the l iving inhumation of hisemanation, Madeline. Striving for l i f e in death, for fu l lcontrol of consciousness in the unconscious world, Usher hasproceeded too fa r in to the world of dream ever to re turn.He confronts his beast in the labyrinth; he meets his destruct ionas the dead dragon returns to l i f e , and Madeline ress i ses fromthe tomb. Annihilat ion can only follow, for Usher has J : ; n ; 2 ; s \ G l ~ . cpursued his dream to the fa r thes t depths of the abysse Whathe f inds a t the end of his journey i s tha t the voyage haski l led his soul , hms psyche, imaged for th in Madeline. Jus tas in The Oval Portra i t the painter ki l l s his wife, his


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youthful soul , by t rying to a r res t l i f e on the canvas, soUsher at tempts a s imi la r impossibi l i ty by burying his soula l ive , only to find tha t from th is point , there i s no returnimaginable. The House of Usher, now cracked to the fu l l ,and a t one with i t s Naster , must fa l l .

Yet, there i s a strange d i ~ m y a t work here. Althoughthe narra tor , who i s in many ways Usher 's double, has m a d ~th is journey into unconscious depths along with Usher, he emergesfrom them unharmed an unchangad. Poe's vision i s complete.The narra tor , armed with fu l l consciousness, has made as imi la r voyage in to the labyrinth, yet D a e d a l ~ s s st r ing, theingenui ty of the detached craftsman, has always been with him.e has Qsver given up his grasp on conscious rea l i t ie s . e

has entered the labyrinth, but only as an observer, so tha this escape i s assured .Having conquered his beast in the formof the t a le within a t a l e , having explored the fur thes t reachesof dream, he can st ll emerge with his consciousness in tac t .e wakes from the dream, only to find tha t his ident i ty i s

unchanged y tha t he i s in fu l l control of conscious powers andhas been so a l l along. In him one sees the prime reason whyso many of Poe's centra l aharacters suffer no development, nochange.

The Fal l of the House of Usher i s a key ta le for anunderstanding of Poe's vision, because t contains two of hiscentra l themes, in the i r symbolic manifestat ion. When thenarra tor of the t a l e s ta tes , I f ever mortal painted an idea,tha t mortal was Roderick Usher, he i s suggest ing what oehimself attempted to do in his ar t . Poe's work reveals a mans t r iv ing to find the concrete materiol tools which wil l allowhim ta give expression to a wholly new idea. Like the narra torwho cannot quite comprehend what Usher's ar t signi f ies , yet i sstrongly moved by i t s effect , oe was no ful ly aware of theworking of the symbolizing process, which he in tui ted as beingone of the most effec t ive of ar t i s t i c techniques. Yet,t ransi tmonalyfigure tha t he was, he succeeded in exploringan ent i re new area of human consciousness with his unperfected


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tools .The ideas he paints are those symbolical ly suggested

in Usher. On the one hand, there i s the case of thenarra tor who achieves the ul t imate goal of the self -consciousa r t i s t and exemplifies the poss ibi l i ty of at ta ining freemovement between conscious and unconscious realms, between l i f eand death, between the frames of mind which produce ra t ionalscience and imaginat ive ar t . He i s an i n i t i a l manifestationof .the mind which conceived Eureka and glor i f ied the power. ofin tu i t idn the power of lucidly climbing the ladder withinvis ible s teps with the f ina l aim of creat ing a to ta l lycoherent and ra t ional cosmology.. On the other hand,l iaere l sthe s tory of Usher, and a l l i t s implicat ions. s h e ~ i s therepresentat ionofof Poe's fear tha t to follow the dream, theunconscious to i t s logica l conclusion i s to inv i te destruct ion.From th i s point there i s no awakening, no poss ibi l i ty ofmaintaining individual iden t i ty for a l l individua l i ty i s los tin whirlpol of destruct ive ins ight . The dia lec t ic i s a twork--a dia lec t ic whose resolut ion Poe could look upon in hisf ina l achievement with a re la t ive calm.

In the Original Unity of the f i r s t Thing l i es theSecondary Cause of a l l Things, with the Germ of thei r InevitableAnnihilat ion_ n

To grasp the fu l l signif icance of th i s proclamation, whichi s the very core ~ f EUEska t is helpful to look to theoccult meaning of numbers as represented in the Tarot-- thebedrock of symbolic values . Ta suggest the orig inal uni ty ofthe f i r s t th ing, and tha t f ina l destruct ive uni ty ta which a l lthings re turn Poe continual ly uses the term oneness. In theTarot, the number one represents:Beginning, in i t i a t ive original i ty uni t y, singleness,i solat ion and the l ike . In the Qabalah t i s cal led the Crownto show tha t l represents the determining, ru l ing di rec t iveand vol i t iona l aspect of consciousness. The Crown i s knownalso as the Primal Will. The same Hebrew philosophy ca l l s th i snumber, the Hidden Inte l l igence, to show tha t this primarymode of consciousness i s concealed behind a l l vei ls of name andforme This i s the consciousness of the t rue Self or 1 AM

5poe Eureka (Boston, 1884), p.2.


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the onlooker, seeing creation through coant less eyes,manifesting i t s e l f through innumerable personal i t ies . Agelesswisdom teaches tha t a l l things are manifestat ions or projections in time and space of the powers of the 1 AM. In shor tthe 1 M or number l i s the essence, substance, energy andconsciousness expressed in al 'l forms. Everything in theuniverse i s the self-expression of the 1 AM. This i s the f i r s tprinciple , the primary exis tence, the Fi rs t Mover. In andthrough human persogal i ty it manifests as the waking

~ c o n s c i o u s n e s s .Thus, the orig inal uni ty, the i n i t i a l oneness of

which Poe speaks, emerges as his vision of not only themind of God, but the mind of the a r t i s t who can manifesthimself through innumerable personal i t ies and maintain fu l lself-consciousness a t a l l t imes. Freud makes an observationconcerning the modern e r t i s t which c la r i f ies th i s idea:

The psychological novel in general probably owes i t specul ia r i t ies to the tendency of modern wri ters to sp l i t upthei r ego by self-observation in to many component egos, andin th i s way to personify the conf l ic t ing t rends in the i r ownmental l i f e in many haroes. 7 From the ar t i s t i c mind, theorig inal oneness which actssecondary cause--the sp l i t .2 the Tarot defines as:

as Prime Mover, ar ises theThe s ignif icance of the number

Duplication, re f lec t ion recept iv i ty dependence,a l te rna t icn entagonism, and the l ike . Qabalists ce l l itWisdom, the ref lec t ion of the perfect self-consciousness of the1 AM. Wisdom i s the mirror wherein the 1 M sees i t s e l f .The number 2 i s also named l l luminating In te l l igence . I t i stha t which i l luminates the personal mind. lt i s the aspectof universal consciousness which manifests through humanpersonal i ty as grasp of the inner principles of the nature ofthe one ,Conscious Energy.B

Hence, the number 2, the secondary cause, appears as thepr incip le of ref lec t ion and dispari ty . I t i s tha t principlewhich leads to antagonism end disunity. In the l/He re la t ionshipthe secondary cause i s the He which mirrors the 1 and gives6paul Foster Case, T e Tarot (New York, 1947), p. B.7Sigmund Freud, Relation of the Poet to Day-Dreaming,Character and Culture (NeW York, 1963), p. 41.BCase, pp.B-9


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bi r th to the idea of the double. The obvious symbol inPoels ta les of th i s schizophrenic sp l i t in man,himself, i sthe feminine psychic figure--Madeline, Ligeia, Morella, andBerenice. Poe's women are always weak characters because theyare merely shadowy emanations, man's own mirror image. Theyre f lec t interna l psychic dispar i ty in the male hero, butmore importantly, they a lso point the way to the annihi la t ionof the world order , which res ts unacknowledged within man'sdark incomprehensible s ide . Poe's women, then are par t i a l - Adam's r ib torn from the dark s ide of the male, ra t ional world.fbey are mirrors of the dark knowledge which man contai ne inhimself , and when the paDt5 meet, when the hero faces thesecre t of his own abyss, when Usher faces Madeline, dest ruct ioni s the inevi table resu l t .

for Poe th i s inescapable annihi la t ion i s a re turn touni ty, but the unity, th i s t ime, i s tne t the original oneness.BatheEtmria a mixture of th i s oneness and what the Tarot meansby the number zero. nIt i s tha t which was, i s and shal l beforever; but t i s nothing we can name. n9 Man cannotfu l ly understand th i s in fevi tab le annihi la t ion which i s are turn to sorne unfathomable kind of unity. Monos and Unaupresents one possible in tu i ted explanation of what camesa f te r th i s inevi table f ina l i t y as the 1 AM ta lks to hisu r eflect ion,U yet t i s only one attempt to t ry to understandtha t f ina l nothingness in which, are included l l imaginableand unimaginable poss ibi l i t ies_ u10 Most of P o e ~ t a l es l ike

U s h e r ~ show his characters whir l ing in a catarac t of des t ruc t ivins ight- -an ins ight which i s inexpressible in human terms.In the orig inal uni ty of a l l th ings- - the sel f-consciousa r t i s t i c mind--l ies the secondary cause of dual i ty and separat ioIn Poe's theat re of characters the secondary cause, thepsychic s p l i t to which his heroes unconsciously s u c c u m ~ i shidden: t manifests i t s e l f in obsessional symbolic form, asfor example, the cata tonic s t a t e an eye, a hear t a ca t a

9Case, p. 1.lOIbid.


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Ina t tempt ing to express th i s dark force, Poe confronts thefac t of l imited human terminology, and his symbolic solut ions,his struggle with l imi ta t ions and fom make him an ear ly kindof Symboliste and modern poetry. His i s the thoroughlymodern problem of finding f lexible symbolic equations forhitherto unexplored facets cf human experience.

A fu l l understanding of the two re la ted themes present inihe Fal l of the House of Usher leads to ~ o m ~ r e h e n s i v e

view of Poe's work, f o ~ these t ideas appear time and againwith poet ical consistency. Poe explores a l l the possiblecorridors of the labyrinth of the unconscious and a t the endof a l l of them, one finds for tuna to 's walls which lead onlyto claustrophobie death. Each of his ta les could be said tobe a sounding of the soul , an explorat ion of the various dead-end corr idors of th i s ~ a b y r i n t h so tha t seen in a c r i t i c s ll i gh t Poels work do es appear as a y s y s t e m ~ i c n a n d consis tentat tempt to know he i s doing, and exactly where he i s .He constant ly expresses the des i r e to t rave l f ree ly betweenthe realms of l i f e and death, dream and waking,consciousnessand unconsciousness, and th i s des i r e i s balanced by the fear

t h a ~ a t one end of the voyage in the labyrinth of theunconscious, there i s only annihi lat ion. His grotesques ofhuman dismembsBment, which are in many ways more horr i f iethan his arabesques, provide, beneath the i r sa t i r i c a l sufface,an i n i t i a l example.

A Predicament, Loss of Breath, and The Man tha tWas Used Up have a common core in the technique Poe employsin them to express his basic theme. In the f i r s t of thset a les a young lady, appropriately named Signora Psyche Zenobia,climbs to the top of a Gothic cathedral y means of a windings t a i r becaue she i s si.zed by an uncontrol lable desire toascend the giddy pinnacle . Although the t a l e unfolds ina ludicrous context, Poe i s st ll manipulating his symbols withgreat care . The ascent to the pinnecle, Zenobia f inds, as do


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l l mystics searching for enlightened consciousne59, i sarduous. Not only are the s ta i r s di f f icu l t to climb, but toa t t a in the point of vision-- the aperture -- a t the top ofthe pinnacle, she must re ly on the help of her servant Pompeya gnomish f igure represent ing a magic intermediary akin toBlake's spect re who, because he i s essent ia l ly a neutralforce, can ce used o t abused.

Having at tained th is point of fu l l consciousnesa in nolesser place th an the aeat of heaven on ear th Zenobia findstha t the aper ture she i s looking through i s rea l ly the dia lface of huge clock a t the top of the cathedral , and thescythe of t ime--a bruta l ly c lear symbol--has imprisoned herhead in th is posi t ion. The clock-t ime of waking rea l i tyin te r rupts her moment of reverie and she f inds tha t f i r s t hereyes, then, her head, are thrown in to the abyss of the gut terdown below. She expariences a kind of absurd re l ie f thattime has beheaded her . Whet Pos i s d e s c ~ i i n g i s the ludicrousaspect , an i ron ica l s ide of the sensation of ver t igo . e seemsto be experimenting here , with a technique which becomes thedis t inguishing feature of tha l i t e ra ture which follows af te rhim--especial ly in the work of Kafka and Dostoievski .Zenobia's case i s an example of the r idiculous which keepaalmost even pace with the t ragic s ide of experience, in thesame way that Ivan K ~ r a m a z o v i s constant ly haunted by hisr idiculous s ide in Smerdyakov. The comic consciousness entersin to a t ragic s i tua t ion and produces that qual i ty of absurdity,so prevalent in contemporary f i c t ion .

Dismembered in th i s absurd way, Zenobia i s however, notdead, and Poe uses her to give the theme of the orderlyderangement of the senses actual mater ia l value.

1 wil l candidly confess tha t my feel ings were now of themost s ingular--nay of the most mysterious, the most perplexingand incomprehensible character . y senses were here and therea t one and the same moment. With my head 1 imagined, a t onet ime, tha t 1 the head, was the rea l S i g ~ r a Psyche Z e n o b i a ~a t another 1 f e l t convinced tha t myself, the body was theproper ident i ty . To clear my ideas on the topic 1 fe l t in mypocket for my snuff-box, but , upon gett ing it and endeavouringto apply a pinch of i t s grateful contents in the ordinary manner


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1 became i m m e d i a t e ~ y aware of my p e c u ~ i a r def ic iency , andthrew the box a t once down to my head. I t took a pinch withgrea t s a t i s f ac t i o n , and s m i ~ e d m an a c k n o w ~ e d g . e n t i n re tu rn .S h o r t ~ y af te rward t made m a speech, which 1 c o u ~ d hear but

i n d i s t i n c t ~ y without ea rs . 1 gathered enough, however, to knowtha t t was a s t o n i s ~ e d a t my wishing to remain a ~ i v e undersuch c i rcumstances .Dead, yet not dead, unconscious yet conscious, the Signora

e x e m p ~ i f i e s one cons i s t en t t h r e ~ o f Poels vis ion . Shejourneys to the height of waking consciousness o n ~ y to h e r ~

h e r s e ~ f and her c e r e b r a ~ par t , i n to the abyss o f h a ~ ~ u c i n a t i o n .And not beforeshe has c o m p ~ e t e d the voyage which gran t s her

~ i f e in death , and consc iousness , in what c o u ~ d o n ~ y be a~ i t e r a ~ ~ y u n c o n s c i o u s w o r ~ d does Poe a ~ ~ o w her to be dest royed,to b rea th , 1 have done.

The theme oe dismembering an i n d i v i d u a ~ to the point wherehe must , r e a ~ i s t i c a ~ ~ y be dead and i s yet w h o ~ ~ y a ~ i v e and

r a t i o n a ~ occurs again in Loss of Brea th . The hero of t h i st a ~ e ~ i t e r a ~ ~ y ~ o s e s his brea th and yet re fuses to die .S i g n i f i c a n t ~ y the only apparent e f f ec t t h i s ~ o s s o f brea th hason him, i s tha t he cannot express h i m s e l f ~ - h e cannot speakin his customary manner. In a se r ies o f h a ~ l u c i n a t i v e a d v e ~ t u r e sthe hero i s proclaimed dead by his coach-mates as he looks on,unable to speak, and i s s o ~ d fo r an autopsy. Discovering somes igns of animation in the corpse, once he has cu t o f f futsBars , the doctor c a l l s fo r an apothecary who a t t r i b u t e s theh e ro ' s kicking and plunging to the use of a G a ~ v a n i c ba t t e r j .Having f in i shed with Mr. Lackobreath fo r one day, the surgeons to re s him in his a t t i c , where t h i s inv inc ib le being has hisface marred by hungry ca t s . He escapes only to be hung--amat ter which a f fec t s him l i t t ~ e s ince he a l ready has no brea th - and f i n a l l y he ends in a publ ic charnal house. The s ign i f i canceof l i v i n g inhumation, even in t h i s grotesque and r id icu lousse t t i n g , and the herots per fec t waking ~ u c i d i t y in what i sr e a ~ l y a death s t a t e , again revea ls Poe ' s preoccupat ion withthe des i r e te ramain in f u l l possess ion of both consciousnessand i d en t i t y in a hal luc ina t ive dream world. There i s acons is tency , a se l f - r e f l e c t i o n , i n the comic t a l e s , which gives

l lPoe , p. 352.


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th i s "unfunny" material a cr i t i ca l value--a sor t of savagerage in which Poe gets caught up in his own grotesquerie. I ti s possible that Poels sardonic dis tance i s due to a se l f disgust with his own i n f l e x ~ b l e materia ls , which are f i l l edwith the melodrama of "public symbolism" forced upon him bytemporal circumstance--a "public symbolism" which i s notsensi t ive enough for the expression of his vision.

The case of Brevet Brigadier-General John A.B.C. Smithin The Man that Was Used Up i s f i l l ed with a similar savagegrotesquerie. A hero of "the l a te Bugaboo and KickapooCampaign," Smith, as the narra tor f ina l ly discovers , i s merelya torso, an "odd-looking bundle." The i e s t of h i m v o i c e ~ eyB:palate , hair , teeth, arms, and l egs- - i s composed of theapparatus of modern technical ingenuity , which, once screwd on,make the complete being. In a schizophrenie world of dipar i tyPoels dismembered heroes and heroines are emblematic not onlyof society as he sees it but also suggest the authorls in te rea tin exploring the boundaries of human understadding. ow fa rcan man go before destruct ion overtakes him? What are thel imi ts that human ra t ional i ty and self-consciousness eana t ta in with i . p u m ~ t y 1 Can_the demarcation l ine between l i f eand death, between dream and rea l i ty consciousness andunconsciousness, be done away with1 Creation with Poe,becomes an exploration into sorne unknown realm in the face ofa destructive power, which may s t r ike a t any moment, andman remains an indefinable q u ~ t i o n mark whose l imi ts areobscured.

rabesque counterparts to Poels grotesques ofdismemberment are his ta les of mesmerism. Behind Poelsin te res t in mesmerism--a hypnotic fea t which allows man tohave control over another 's mind--l ies the more importantdilemme of the l imits of consciousness. In "MesmericRevelat ion," the narrator hypnotizes a man, Just on the pointof deeth, and while the pat ient i s in th is "sleep-waking"condi t ion, he asks him a ser ies of quest ions pertaining to thenature of the universe and the process of dying. The dialoguebetwean the two men reveals the symbolic value mesmerism


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has for Poe.More than a mere sc i en t i f i c experiment p o p u ~ a r a t the t ime,

mesmerism becomes, with Poe, another ex tens ion of his cons is tentv is ion . Jus t as the cur rent paraphanal ia o f the f i c t i on of theday-- the tomb, the dying woman--take on deeper symbolics igni f icance with Poe, so he endows t h ~ phenomenon of mesmerismwith a suggest ive e f f ec t a l l its own. The mesmeris t , in

f u ~ l possession of his waking reason, encounters h i s sub jec t ,who i s in an unconscious s t a t e and a t the br ink o f death .Through his sub jec t , the c o m ~ aware mesmerist e x p ~ o r e s unknownreg ions without endangering his own san i ty . Like the s e l f c r i t i c a ~ , a ~ ~ y - c o n s c i o u s a r t i s t , he voyages to the end ofa dream, o n ~ y to r e tu rn , unchanged, from the depths .

Mesmeric Revelation presen ts a c o s m o l o g i c a ~ vis ion whichbears t he germs of Eureka. nd indeed , thein tu i t ion whichPoe speaks of in t h i s f i na l prose p o e ~ , grea t ly r e s e m b ~ e s ther e ~ a t i o n s h i p se t up between the mesmerist and his sub jec t .In tu i t ion , fo r Poe, i s a l adder with i n v i s i b ~ e s t eps . nI t i sbut the convic t ion ar i s ing from those i nduc t ions o r deductionsof which the processes are so shadowy as to escape ourconsciousness , elude our reason, or defy our capac i ty o fn ~expreSS10n.

The conscious mind, t h a t i s , the mesmeris t , gazing in tothe depths , cannot qu i t e comprehend the unconscious processeswhich ~ e a d to hi s s ub je c t ' s , h i s unde r - s ide ' s , discoveryconcerning t he nature of the un ive rse . Poe understands t ha tif he could fu l l y comprehend t hese unconscious processes , he

w o u ~ d attai t f u l l k n o w ~ e d g e ~ yet f u ~ l knowledge i s t o t a lsu f f e r ing and ul t ima te ann ih i l a t i on . s Andr M a ~ r a u x pointsout in h is Temtat ion g ~ ~ t o t a l awareness. i s death .N e v e r t h e ~ e s s , Poe wishes to t r ave l as c lose to the br ink asposs ib le and re-emerge untouched. His pos i t ion i s t ha t of thes e l f - c r i t i c a l a r t i s t , who, l i k e the mesmeris t , des i res to remaihdetached from the mate r i a l which makes up the sub jec t of hisexp lora tory a r t - - t he mater ia l of the unconsciouso

~ 2 Poe, Eureka, p .25 .


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The Case of Valdemar presen t s a se t -up s i mi l a rto t h a t of Mesmeric Reve la t ion , al though here Poe i s workingin a more fu l ly exp lo i ted dramatic contexte Furthermore ,only the mesmeric process , the journey i n t o the unknown, i n t odeath , i s rendered here , without the other t a l e l s t r aces c f acosmologica l vis ion . The mesmeris t and M Valdemar, hiss y . b o l i c a l double , r ep resen t the poss ib i l i t y o f t r a v e l l i n gf r ee l y between l i f e and death , consc iousness and unc

Edgar Allan Poes Vision

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