The Gothic stories of Edgar Allen Poe

The American author Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849) was a master of the literary genre known as the Gothic story. Gothic stories are romantic tales of terror and the supernatural, which rely a great deal on scene and setting to convey a sense of horror to the reader. The Gothic story came into being in the year 1764, with the publishing of The Castle of Otranto, A Gothic Story, by the British author Horace Walpole, who "started the genre, supplied its name, and established its favorite trappings" (Kennedy 176). The crumbling castle or shadowy mansion, as well as the dark and stormy night, are typical elements of the Gothic tale. This paper will compare two short stories in the Gothic style by Edgar Allen Poe, namely "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "Ligeia," in terms of such elements as setting, characters and the idea of life after death. It will be seen that by utilizing Gothic elements in these two works, Poe creates a sense of the ghostly and supernatural within the mind of the reader.

The most characteristic elements of the Gothic story relate to setting. X. J. Kennedy has noted that "atmosphere is essential to a Gothic story: dusty halls, shadowy landscapes, whispering servants" (Kennedy 176). In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Poe begins the tale with atmospheric description to set the mood. Levin has noted that in this story in particular, Poe is "afforded his best opportunity for an atmospheric presentation, in which scenic detail is artfully confounded

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er "might be tempted to say that the fair maiden dies of fright engendered by the lurid decorations, were it not for the strong suggestion that the narrator himself does away with her by poisoning her wine" (Porte 74). Another element of the Gothic story which Poe utilizes to great effect is the creation of super-sensitive characters who clearly could not function in the normal world. Roderick Usher, for example, seems to have an undefined illness which prevents him from leading a normal life. He tells the narrator that he is suffering from "a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy" (Poe 59). His illness is characterized by "a morbid acuteness of the senses" (Poe 59). Everything he encounters is too strong for him, and furthermore, his sensitivity makes him live in constant fear of "even the most trivial incident" (Poe 59). Porte has noted that Usher's "emotional life is characterized by a preponderance of the darkest of all human states, absolute Angst," which "makes every incident and experience pregnant with unnameable terror for him" (Porte 61). The horror of the story is increased by the fact that Usher's twin sister, Lady Madeline, is dying of some unknown and undiagnosable

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