LITERARY MOVEMENT OF THE SOUTHERN GOTHIC
Until the middle of the XVIII century, the Gothic trend in literature was only known as a completely generated genre in European countries, especially in Britain, where the Gothic literature reached its perfection. The Gothic genre was brought to American literature and was exquisitely framed by Edgar Allan Poe, who remained devoted to this genre in all his works. Edgar Allan Poe said: “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of the reality”, and this principle was applicable not only to his literary works, but to the literary movement of the Sothern Gothic in general. Southern Gothic in American literature is already a generated genre within its own frames, reasoned by purely American history and cultural foundation. It still exists in literature and is represented by a number of writers, among which are Washington Irving, Flannery O’Connor, H.P. Lovecraft and of course, Edgar Allan Poe. In the current research the main aim is to discover the main characteristic features of the literary movement of the Southern Gothic and to trace them in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
Francis Russell Hart defined the gothic novel as “fiction evocative of a sublime and picturesque landscape…depicting a world in ruins” [1, 27]. The short story under analysis is a pure example of the Southern Gothic traditions. The word ‘ruins’ from the quotation above may be the first explicatory point, meaning that destruction in the Southern Gothic novels is represented not only from the inside, but also from the outside. Outer destruction is a consequence of inner destruction of the characters. Usually the interior is introduced by dark gloomy places, such as castles, seemingly abandoned houses that are supposedly haunted, basements, attics, sullen landscapes and other symbolic environments, that carry the atmosphere of mysteriousness [2, 55]. As the narrator approaches the house his friend Roderick Usher, he already starts feeling this inexplicable terror of this place: “I looked upon the scene before me - upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain - upon the bleak walls - upon the vacant eye-like windows - upon a few rank sedges - and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees - with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation…” [3, 5]. As he approaches closer and closer, the whole impression of the house comes to that the unknown sickness, which plunges the mind into horror, owns the place. This house becomes a kind of a claustrophobic prison for the narrator, as he escapes from it only after the whole house collapses at the end of the story.
And before proceeding with the portraying role of the interior, it is necessary to emphasize the connection between the inner state of the house with the inner state of its owner. Well-educated, intelligent and bookish owner of the house, Roderick Usher Roderick Usher and his sister Madeline are the heirs of this dark and gloomy estate. Roderick seems very strange when we first meet him. Everything in his behavior resembles dark corridors of his house and its oppressive atmosphere. But soon we understand, that his behavior also reflects his sister’s severe illness, two symbolical connections of mind and body. This interdependence causes a chain reaction when one of the elements suffers a breakdown. Madeline’s physical death coincides with the collapse of both Roderick’s sanity and the Ushers’ mansion. Every room in this house, a dungeon, where they’ve put Roderick’s sister, which supposedly died, fills the reader with a sense of mystery, horror and nervousness. Speaking about outer environment, the weather also is necessary to be mentioned. Narrator describes it as a gloomy and dismal one, and it remains such until the climax of the short story. Approaching the culmination, the gloomy state of the weather turns into frightful, almost insane storm, which creates the atmosphere of total terror, wrapping the mind of both the narrator and Roderick: “It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violent alterations in the direction of the wind…” [3, 24]. So the interior of this novel as a representative of the Sothern Gothic literature opens an external conflict. The house inside and outside may seem realistic or rational (the house has been an ancestral estate of Ushers, and consequently is rather old) and weather is a force that we cannot control, and depending on the climate, it may be very changeable or stable. But in gothic pieces of literature, the functions of these two aspects turn into something irrational, which makes this short story a typical representative of the Southern Gothic.
The problem of rational and irrational is considered to be one of the key ones in the American Gothic literature and lies in the mentality of the nation. Christopher Walsh in his essay “Dark Legacy: Gothic raptures in Southern Literature” emphasizes this kind of problem: “So how can a nation … which stresses rationality, progress, optimism and a belief in the future be said to have a Gothic literary tradition?”, which conclusively proclaims the power of everything irrational [4, 33]. And the brightest example of ‘rational vs. irrational’ relationships lies in the depiction of characters. Speaking about main heroes of this short story, under rational one we understand the narrator. He is a person, capable of objective thinking, has a quite clear mind comparing to other representatives of the Usher house: Roderick and his sister Lady Madeline. But even his clear thinking is taken over by the sickness of this house from the very beginning of the short story. And his panic reaches its peak during the climax of the short story, and even depicted as gradation. The total insanity takes his mind, and also the mind of his friend Roderick Usher, whose mental sickness reaches its peak when his buried alive sister enters the room, throws herself on him and they both die. This totally irrational situation forces the narrator to leave the house immediately. And as soon as he runs out of the house, he notices that the crack in the wall has become huge. This is another link between the outer interior and the inner state of the characters, as it depicts the duality between rational and irrational. And as the narrator moves away from the house, it collapses and the still waters of a pound around it gulp down this house completely, and it serves as a denouement of the story.
Speaking about the presentational sequence in general, “The Fall of the House of Usher” has a quite accurate structure. The characteristic feature of the Southern Gothic literature lies in every part of the story being clearly pointed out and framed. The short story under analysis starts with the exposition, which immediately turns into complication, as the narrator starts to feel something weird about the house he approaches. The beginning of the complication is outlined by such epithets as ‘dull, dark, soundless day’, ‘sorrowful impression’, ‘this mansion of gloom’ and many more. The vast descriptions of the environment create the atmosphere of gloom and are closely related to the inner state of the characters. The culmination is presented in the way of gradation, which turns into climax step by step. The narrator is plunged into the state of insanity, possessed by his friend Roderick Usher and his sister Lady Madeline, but tries to preserve the rests of his clear mind. The climax comes quite clearly at night, when a sudden feeling of terror takes the narrator and his friend, reaches its peak when Roderick’s entombed sister enters the room. During the climax, every single aspect of this short story is under tense state, which gets relieved only after the house collapses, which is the denouement of the story. So we may say that the manner of introducing the events in this short story accurately represents the chief traditions of the Southern Gothic literature.
Coming to the conclusion, the results of the analysis of the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” has shown that this piece of literature is a pure representative of the Southern Gothic literary movement. The aspects under analysis (the interior, the problem of rational and irrational in depiction of the characters and the manner of introducing the events) correspond to the main principles of the Southern Gothic and once again confirm that Edgar Allan Poe is a brilliant representative of the literary movement of the Southern Gothic.
Література
1. Olsen E. Introduction to Southern Gothic Literature [текст] / E. Olsen. – New York: Word Arts, 2012. – P. 27-28.
2. Phillips A. Grotesque of the Gothic: From Poe to the Present / A. Phillips. – Athens, Georgia, USA: University of Georgia, 2007. – P. 55-57.
3. Poe E.A. The Fall of the House of Usher / E.A. Poe. – North Charleston, USA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. – 36 p.
4. Walsh C. “Dark Legacy”: Gothic Ruptures in Southern Literature / C. Walsh. – Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA: Salem Press, 2008. – P. 33–34.
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