Fall of the House of Usher

The purpose of this research is to discuss the formalistic approach to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" ("FHU"). The object of formalistic criticism is to discover and explain the form of Poe's short story from an examination of the text. The text will be used to discover the shape and effect of the story, as well as to discuss how they are achieved.

In A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature the underlying rationale to the formalistic approach is discussed (Guerin 72). The background of formalistic theory can be found in classical art and aesthetics which showed a preoccupation with form. The theory of unity of Aristotle's Poetics has particular application "FHU."

Poe's theories of art--an extension of Coleridge's theory that parts "mutually support and explain each other; all in their proportion harmonizing with, and supporting the purpose and known influences of metrical arrangement"--are based on the premise that short stories and poems, in other words, short works of art, are the most excellent forms of literature because they can maintain and transmit a single, unitary effect more successfully than longer works (Guerin 73).

What is considered the true systematic and methodological formalistic approach to literary criticism appeared in the 1930s with the rise of the New Criticism. "The New Critics sought precision and structural tightness in the literary work; they favored a style and tone that, tended toward irony; they insisted on t

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does the readers. Thus, the desired effect is achieved. The narrator serves as a good example of this method. At the beginning of the tale the narrator suffers "a sense of insufferable gloom" but he is still able to stand aside from his feeling and perceive the causes of his state of mind. "But as the happenings unfold, his uneasiness changes to fear, his fear grows, a.-id his detachment decreases, until at the end he "flees aghast" (Poe 769). "FHU" indicates two interrelated strands of narrative, "one dealing with the emotions of the affected character and another dealing with the incidents which have the effects (Poe 769). Poe's definition of what the craft of a short story writer should entail is based on formal discipline with unity and brevity the key words. "FHU" is "brief, unified and tending to a single effect" (Snell 52). "FHU" begins "with a problem and concludes with a revelation that is itself a kind of trick. In 'Usher', it is the intensification of the senses . . . revelation is prepared for and released with the utmost care for emphasis" (Canby 277). There is a certain artifice of style as well as skill in this type of plotting. In "FHU" every element--time, place, character, plot--is subordinated

Category: Literature - F