Welcome Readers,
The American author Edgar Allan Poe is considered as the originator of the modern short story and according to him, a tale should be a satire to achieve ‘a creation unique of single effect,’ and that every word and every action should contribute to the working out of this ‘one pre-established design.’ The reading of a short story can be completed within half an hour to two hours. Poe in his essay “The Philosophy of Composition” (1846) provides a clear understanding of a genre called a short story.
In short stories, Poe had a mastery over presenting the psychology and the darker side of human nature - the ugly face of human beings. Poe has written many stories and some of his stories are can be divided into two categories-
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Poe used to write the Ghostly stories, and he is often considered as the father of detective stories - the one who influenced Arthur Canon Doyle or Agatha Cristie, Poe through his stories portrayed a kind of rational which is required based on the intelligence that how the stories unfold. Poe was an impeccable writer, he uses each and every word very consciously and his writings can provide a mythic environment in some of the tales. His tales of terror have very dark and brooding ambience. At the beginning of his stories, he either, through the narration confesses the crime without any guilt and make the readers believe in the narrator's gruesome acts or as the narrator he narrates his psychological curves of thoughts and his development or turning of personality from a superego stage to the id stage.
THE BLACK CAT
This is a story of violence where the narrator who loves his black cat named Pluto, in the effect of alcohol and intoxication, first cuts his one eye out of the socket when Pluto unintentionally ignores him. Then he reaches to the extreme level of brutality that the kills Pluto, his beloved pet, Later he brings another cat and try to harm it too and upon such a violent behaviour his wife resists and the narrator exposes his atrocious behaviour and commits an inhuman act by walling up the body of his wife along with the cat which is alive. Hence, this story is full of violence.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
This deeply engrossing tale rules the focus of the readers which first amazes the narrator when he visits his boyhood friend- Roderick Usher's house - the "mansion of gloom". Through mournful walls and dark surroundings, the narrator informs about the eerie atmosphere and the gradual succumbing of Roderick to madness. His doppelganger twin, Madeline is according to Roderick have been buried alive by the narrator and him, who comes alive and falls on Roderick of as a cause of his death. Hence, this story is all about striking mystery, obscurity and gruesome oppressiveness.
THE TELL-TALE HEART
Poe's artistic story excite terrible frightfulness in the minds of readers. The murderer first convinces the reader that he has committed a crime which none can believe. He observes the old man (his master) for seven consecutive nights for the sole reason that the old man's vulture eye, a pale blue eye irritates him. The eighth night, the narrator murders the old man to get rid of the vulture eye. He buries the body under the wooden floor. All seems to be alright when the cops arrive, the situation seems to be okay no sooner than the narrator reveals that he has buried the old man under the floor and his heart is bursting out loud causing terrible frustration to the narrator.
THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO
This is an avenging story of Montresor. In this story also, Poe conveys the narrator's feelings and tells the story from the perspective of a murderer. It presents a terrifying atmosphere of a planned out murder, where the narrator murdered his friend Fortunato for his frequent unspecified insult by who possesses his own justifications of the hideous crime.
THE PURLOINED LETTER
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THE GOLD BUG
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Here is my Facebook post on the Expert Lectures on Poe's Short Stories.
Self, What is self? Why are people, sometimes, afraid to face their own real self? Is the real self - scary? Or is it the loneliness which haunts the self?
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality organization which consists of three different elements- the Id, the ego and the superego. The Id demands desire fulfilment- primitive drives, the ego is the rationality principle- in contact with the external world, lastly, the superego – the ethical component of personality which works on moral standards. Here, the id is that aspect of personality which demands instant gratification of needs and is driven by the most basic and primitive instincts of the body which functions completely according to the pleasure-pain principle. These basic needs are often ignored easily by normal human beings in daily life. We are very much occupied with our work that we rarely realize that we have ignored. Perhaps, that is why we are unable to sympathize with some criminals who possess their own justifications of their crime and we, in our superego stage consciously consider it as unethical. Sometimes, the serial – killers and cold-blooded murders are not understood properly; it takes a deep insight to study why and for what reason they are doing the ‘offence’ or ‘committing the crime’ which in their opinion is just the mere satisfaction of their desire/ emotion!
Here is where literature functions as an x-ray image which provides the basic and underlying realities of society. As an x-ray image, literature shows the inside image of the workings of the mind, the battling of thoughts, fight between the three personality aspects, etc. American author Edgar Allan Poe who achieved the ‘unity of effect’ in writing a short story which presents the bizarre world of horrifying and breathtaking crimes through his short stories ‘The Black Cat’, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’.
It was a privilege to have Dr Jay Sir who guided us in the voyage to Edgar Allen Poe’s world -full of thrill and modern mystery, with his colourful critical lens and wonderfully productive analysis of the narrative structure. The online sessions were organized on ‘Poe’s Short stories’ from the 18th October to 20th October 2020.
These three days brought us some dark and brooding sets of Poe highlighting the ‘spirit of PERVERSENESS’ as well as the detective fictions of which Poe is obviously considered as the originator. Sir aroused curious suspense, similar to that of Poe while narrating and explaining the tales of Ratiocination- ‘The Purloined Letter’ and ‘The Gold Bug’. We were able to reach the aesthetic variety of Poe through Jay Sir’s catering.
From the psychological standpoint of Poe –
“perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart -- one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man”
(The Black Cat) to his intellect in devising puzzles-
“it may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.”
(The Gold Bug), We witnessed Poe’s portrayal of unconventional human nature. And his detective fiction written in an exquisitely concrete style, decoding the suspense with analytical and deductive abilities in a most resourceful manner.
Grateful to Dr Jay Mehta Sir providing a valuable and a fruitful discussion on Poe and his fictions and also a bunch of thanks to Dr Dilip Barad Sir for organizing this online lecture series. |
Thank You
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