NehaRathod(2015-17) : November 2016

Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of

English

                         Assignments

                   Name:- Rathod Neha R.
                   Class:- M.A. Sem-3
                   Roll No:- 28
                   Email Id:- neharathod108@gmail.com
                   Year:- 2015-2016
                    Paper No:- 10
                   Topic:- Write a critical note on the

characteristics of poe’s short story

Write a critical note on the

characteristics of poe’s short story

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Edgar A. Poe was most dominant figure of the Romantic Literature. He is mostly known for his regular genre or fiction like mysterious stories or detective stories. He was born in Boston and was an orphaned child. Thereby he was living with John and Frances. In the very beginning of his childhood he has lost his parents and has got influence of it in his life as a orphan boy.

Edgar Allan Poe most probably known for his contribution in Cosmology and Cryptography. Cryptography is a kind of writing or style where writer is using some numbers and symbols. But it stands for some kind of messages which is bounded to give openly or directly. Poe was most famous in American society because his writings were spread all over in America and Boston. Thus in Poe’s stories we can find out such a kind of thinking process which can be connected to the idea of discrimination of a particular group of people who are not acceptable in the society in which we are living, it called as a well respected society.

E. A. Poe has written five major short stories and each and every story contains the different meaning. All of these stories are dependable on Psychological facts and logical; thinking process.

1. The fall of the House of Usher.

2. The Purloined Letter.

3. The Gold Bug.

4. The Tell Tale Heart.

5. The Cask of Amontillado.

In these stories we could not find out female characters into the power position. So the question of gender here comes, when man is writing a story and female is writing a story.

characteristics of poe’s short story

The Gothic Romantic Movement combined elements of horror and romance – much like our thriller and horror films today. By the time Poe came along, people weren’t writing as many horror stories – the genre had fallen out of favor somewhat, but Poe was one of the main writers who reinterpreted and refreshed the genre. The Romantics focused on awe, trepidation, and terror and the Gothics focused on the mysterious, such as hidden passageways, ghosts, screams, and magic. So when the two are combined, such as Poe did, you end up with a whole lot of creepy.

Edgar Allan Poe, an important writer and a poet, during the Victorian Gothic period is credited with producing many tales of mystery, and terror. Poe’s first collection of short stories “Tales of Grotesque and Arabesque” was published in 1839.Poe’s imaginative writings within several different modes of discourse show how Poe both followed yet departed from a variety of literary approaches and genres. In ‘Poe and Gothic Tradition’, Benjamin Franklin Fisher begins by placing Poe among Anglo-American Gothic novelists and then provides close readings of several of Poe’s Gothic tales to show how he manipulated and challenged the conventions of gothic fiction and horror. Also best known for his tales of mystery and macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of short story and is considered the inventor of detective fiction genre.

Poe's statement not only furnishes a negative basis for telling what a short story is not, but it

Also offers a positive foundation upon which we can establish a definition of the short story which declares that a short story is a brief tale which can be told or read at one sitting.

This definition requires two things of the story: (1) that it shall be short and (2) that it shall possess coherence sufficient to hold the reader's or listeners unflagging interest from beginning to end.

Length:

Short Stories typically range from 1600 to 20000 words. It is decided by authors and critics. Majority believe in 1600 to 20000 words. Even Poe suggested that a short story should take 30 minutes to two hours to read. We are able to read it in one sitting. Due to invention of television and radio for entertainment, these are based on long time. But the thing is that the idea of one sitting rule is still a good one. That’s why Chetan Bhagat still has popularity in people. Poe’s all short story are in these range.

Subject:

Short Stories focus on a single subject or theme. Poe also believes that single subject or theme is better to make story effective. If story have multiple subjects then it is complex for reader to understand easily.

For example –

Poe’s every short story deals with subjects like love and hate; the rivalry between self and alter ego; the personification of memory after death.

Love and Hate:

Poe highly influence by Freud Psychology. Freud believes that these two emotions are universal emotions. These two emotions are interwoven. It cannot be separated. Poe described the psychological complexity of these two emotions in many stories such as:

The Tell-Tale Heart

The Cask of Amontillado

William Wilson

These two emotions lead towards the gothic terror. For example – In ‘‘The Tell –tale Heart’’, narrator love old man and also hate him because of his artificial eye. So, eye became the villain of their friendship. Narrator’s love changed into hate when he seemed Old man’s eye. There was also one reason which is interpreted by critics that there was master – salve relationship between both of them. It is also one reason which was leads narrator to kill his master.

In ‘‘The Cask of Amontillado’’, narrator is Montresor and Fortunato is his friend. They love each other. But Montresor’s love changed into hate because of his friend’s madness. And he killed his friend. Here we also find out master – salve mentality. Fortunato is the master of Montresor. And because of his position, he frequently insulted his friend. We came to know this thing through the dialogue of Montresor that

‘‘I have thousands injury and insult’’.

In short they all are mentally disturbed and this disturbance leads them towards gothic terror

Self vs. Alter Ego:

Freud gave the three levels of individual viz,

Ego

Super Ego

Poe’s every characters have internal conflict which is leads towards them into unexpected decision. They are not able to control their mind. Ego is not able to control their id. That’s why they driven from two opposite personality. Even they also don’t know about the two personalities. But when ego is suppressed by super ego and id, second personality automatically came. That time they cannot judge that what is right or wrong. The same problem we find out with young man in ‘‘The Tell-Tale Heart’’ and Montresor in ‘‘The Cask of Amontillado’’. Both characters killed them whom they love much. Super ego felt them about their guilt. And their guilt conscious leads toward there where they felt what they done wrong. At the end they confesses and redemption about wrong thing that they done.

Limited number of Characters:

Because of the limitations of the genre, short stories typically focus on just one or a couple characters. Due to the short period of time writer cannot gave justice to individual. Characters cannot develop in actual way. That’s why if they kept one or two it is better for their stories.

The Power of the Dead over the Living:

Poe’s every characters conscious about their guilt through the memory. These memories of the dead one force them in the physical world. For example – A young man who felt the throbbing of Old man’s heart though his was dead. Because of these the living cannot feel free. They always surrounded with these voice. So, we can say that the power of the dead over the living.

Strive for unity of effect:

Poe believed the aim of the short story was to create a mood, an effect on readers mind. Stories are strong enough to catch the reader’s attention at the beginning to the end. Poe is very careful about these things. He creates an effect of horror or terror. Readers are in tension about the next step. Poe is famous even today because of this reason that he was able to create the effect on reader’s mind. He creates the effect at the beginning.

For example-

The Tell-Tale Heart

TRUE! –nervous – very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses – not destroyed – not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily – how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

So, the words like nervous, dread, mad, disease, destroyed, dull, all the words indicates something wrong going on.

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