Anti-Transcendentalism

•Poe

•Hawthorne

•Melville

Anti-Transcendentalism’s similarities to Transcendentalists

• Valued intuition and emotion over logic

• Saw signs and symbols of a Divine Soul in human events

• Thought spirituality is tied to nature

Anti-Transcendentalism• Explored the darker side of humanity

• Valued Nature but saw it as indifferent to human suffering not as benevolent or harmless force

• Focused on darker ideas of Puritan thought

– Original sin

– Innate depravity (twistedness) of human beings

– Predestination

• Stripped away the masks of social respectability to explore darkness and terror

• Acknowledged the existence of evil in nature and humanity

Edgar A. Poe• Troubled life

– Son of traveling actors (artistic inclinations)• Dad left & mom died of tuberculosis

– Taken in by John Allan & family (never adopted)

– Married young cousin (Virginia Clemm)

– Died under mysterious circumstances

• Introduced readers to a whole new genre of writing – horror & mystery

• Given credit for the invention of the detective story

• Explores the darker side of human nature –particularly “altered” mental states

Gothic Genre• The story is set in bleak (hopeless) and remote

places

• The plot involves macabre (creepy/yuck) or violent incidents

• Characters are in psychological and/or physical torment

• A supernatural or otherworldly element is often present

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Atmosphere

– the “emotional” setting of a story

• Personification – the giving of human characteristics to nonhuman

objects

• Foreshadowing – revealing future events through hints or clues within a

story

• Theme – the main idea that a writer wants the reader to

understand – what is the writer’s point– Most times a statement about human nature– Sometimes a moral, but not always

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Setting

– Unspecified place or time

– Uses atmosphere to create emotional response (Mood)

• Mysterious and gloomy setting creates creepy feeling

– Details include bleak walls, eyelike windows (personification), rank weeds, white decayed tree trunks

– Tries to rearrange elements by looking at reflection in the lake, which makes it worse

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Roderick Usher

– Childhood friend w/ “nervous agitation” – he’s mental

– Identifies the narrator as his ONLY friend

– Narrator cannot deny his request

• Narrator

– Remembers Roderick as very reserved with a “peculiar sensibility of temperment”

• he’s very artsy (unique and separated from society)

– Seems compassionate to the suffering of his friend

– Is not immune to the “creep out” factor of the house itself

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• House of Usher

– Refers to the family and the house

– Has become something of a superstition

– House looks terrible, but stands strong in spite of decay

– Crack extends from roof to the lake

• symbolizes that the house has problems

– Very dark décor (armor, dark floors, tapestries)

– Looks very changed from our narrator’s childhood memories

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Meets the physician on the stairway before he

ever even sees Roderick (foreshadowing)

• Roderick’s surroundings reflect his state –dark, sorrowful, unbelievable gloom

– He is hardly recognizable to the narrator

• Cadaverous, pallid, liquid eye, web-like hair

– “excessive agitation” – super nervous about everything!

• Seemingly manic (extreme and opposite emotions)

• “acuteness of the senses” – all 5 senses are too sensitive

• Fears that he will be scared to death

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Roderick hasn’t left the house (he thinks the

house won’t let him leave)

• Lady Madeline – his sister, last living relative, and only companion for years

– She creeps through the scene and disappears

– Mystery illness – causes “deathlike” seizures

– Becomes bedridden the very night the narrator arrives and he catches last glimpse of her while living (foreshadowing)

• Narrator makes efforts to relieve the suffering of his friend by reading, painting, etc…

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Usher’s creations are fantastical and strange

• The lady Madeline was “no more”– Wants to preserve her corpse IN THE HOUSE for 2 weeks to

protect her body from her doctors

• Placed body in vault– Small, damp, and totally dark

– Directly below the narrator’s room

– Lined with metal – really heavy door

– Described as “region of horror”

• Madeline’s body– Rod’s twin

– Youthful beauty not harmed

– “faint blush” and “lingering smile” due to illness

• They seal the body up in the coffin and then the vault

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Usher’s “mental disorder” changes because of

his awful grief

– Does nothing but wander

– Has become paler (if that was possible)

– Speaks in terror (like he knows something and is completely terrified)

– Looks off into space as if listening intently

• Usher’s crazy is almost contagious

– Narrator is feeling super creepy again (tries to explain it away)

– “hears” low and strange sounds in the storm

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Usher shows up at narrator’s door looking

worse (thinner, paler, and crazier) - hysterical– Narrator is so creeped out, he’s glad to see him

(even though he’s crazy)

• Storm has unusual effect (increases creepiness of mood)– Mysterious glowing vapor has enveloped the

house

• Narrator moves Usher and decides to read a book– Usher is listening intently to the story (or at least

that’s what the narrator thinks)

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Mad Trist is a frame story (story within a story)

– Mirrors events which are happening in the outer story

• Ethelred cracked and ripped the door open (Narrator thinks he hears a similar sound. He thinks it’s the storm)

• Dragon shrieks when Ethelred smashes it (again an echo in the house of the same sound)– Usher has moved his position and his posture has changed

(he’s muttering, head dropped, swaying side to side)

• Shield crashed to the ground (echo of clanging heard through the house)– Narrator rushes to Usher

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• Usher reveals that he has heard “it” for many

days– They buried his sister ALIVE!!!!!!

• He has heard her scratching and clawing her way out of the tomb for days

– Now she is outside the door!

• The door opens to reveal the blood stained Madeline– She falls upon Usher and he dies of fright

• The narrator gets out of the house ASAP

• The House of Usher splits along the crack and disappears into the lake.

“The Fall of the House of Usher”• The family and the house died together just as

they lived.

“The Raven”• Symbolism

– Raven symbolizes intense grief over death of Lenore

• Setting– Midnight – the witching hour

– Narrator reading “forgotten lore” – legends & myths

– Nearly napping – almost asleep (dreamlike state)

– Hears strange tapping

– December – winter (symbolizes death)

– Fire dying in hearth – creepy shadows

• Seeking relief from sorrow over Lenore– Grief over her death

“The Raven”• Narrator sort of freaks himself out

– Curtains rustling

– Tells himself it is a visitor – calls aloud to “visitor”

– Opens door and nothing but darkness

– He whispers to Lenore and gets a freaky echo

• Hears tapping again from window & opens it

• Raven steps in and perches on statue of Athena (goddess of wisdom)– Symbolizes grief sitting on your wisdom (thoughts)

• Narrator is glad to see him and asks his name– Raven responds “Nevermore” – maybe it’s his name

or maybe he is telling the narrator he will never find out the bird’s name

“The Raven”• The narrator fears the raven will abandon him like

“other” (Lenore)– Birds responds “Nevermore” as if telling the narrator

he will never leave him

• Tries to explain the bird’s speech and only word being nevermore– Maybe he learned it from a previous owner

• He sits in front of bird – Is reminded that she will never sit there again

• Narrator hopes the bird has been sent by angels to relieve his suffering & grief– Bird says Nevermore – there is no hope for relief from

suffering

“The Raven”• Is there relief? – raven answers Nevermore

• Asks if he will see her in Eden (heaven)

– Nevermore (he will never see her again)

• Tries to throw the bird out

– Nevermore (bird isn’t leaving)

• Raven still is sitting on the bust of Athena

• Narrator’s soul lives the shadow of the raven

– Raven symbolizes the grief over Lenore’s death

• The grief shadows his soul and will never leave him

“The Pit and the Pendulum”• Set during the Inquisition

– The Catholic church began to search for people who had made “false conversions” or committed acts of heresy against the church

– Torture and violence were common place

• First person narration

– Allows us into narrator’s mind to experience his thoughts and emotions

– Also allows us to follow him in and out of consciousness

“The Pit and the Pendulum”• Symbolism

– The pit is the primary symbol of evil

– Imagery of Hell is very common• Impenetrable darkness

• The pit

• The rats

• Someone always watching

• The pictures of torture scenes painted on the walls

• The heated walls

• Fear factors– Buried alive, darkness, falling, rats, drowning,

dead bodies, being sliced slowly, someone watching, burned alive…

“The Minister’s Black Veil”• Rev Hooper puts on a black veil which hides

his eyes.

– His sermon on the first day he wears the veil is that of secret sin

– His congregation responds with fear and distrust

• No one invites him to Sunday dinner

• Demonstrates the lack of human sympathy when someone or something changes

• Rev Hooper does nothing differently – he tends to his flock as always

– Weddings, funerals, etc…

– Becomes a very effective preacher

“The Minister’s Black Veil”• Elizabeth – Rev Hooper’s fiancé

– She isn’t afraid of it, but she needs to understand it

– Hooper refuses to explain it other than to say it is a type and a symbol, and she breaks the engagement

– She never marries and is with him on his deathbed

• Hooper’s death– He says he sees “a black veil” on everyone’s face

• Suggests that everyone hides the secrets of his/soul

– Promises to never remove it – dies and is buried with it

“The Minister’s Black Veil”• Veil symbolizes secret sin (the darkness and

secrets of the human soul)

• mood/atmosphere of the story

– Mysterious and gloomy, sad and a little scary

• Points out that the human soul is much darker than Transcendentalists want to believe.

Moby Dick• Moby Dick is a sperm whale and the ultimate

symbol of nature– Represents all that is powerful and uncontrollable

in nature

– Indifferent to the human suffering and destruction he causes

– Unstoppable, just like nature

• “Call me Ishmael” – very famous line– Narrator who is observing and telling story from

1st person point of view

– He is observant and reflective not just telling us what he sees, but he also discusses what things mean

Moby Dick• “Gold coin speech”

– Fires men up for the hunt for Moby Dick• Nails coin to mast to remind men of their goal/reward

– Demonstrates Starbuck as a voice of reason and a rational thinker• Starbuck points out that MD’s value isn’t that great (very

practical)• He thinks MD is just a whale without the capacity for the

idea of vengeance or persecution (picking on someone)• Criticizes Ahab and calls his actions blasphemous (against

God and nature)• Recognizes Ahab’s madness and the hopelessness of

overcoming it.

• Ceremony– The harpooners drink from their harpoon sockets

• Much like Christian communion

Moby Dick• Ahab

– Driven by insane by desire for revenge against nature

– His intelligence in revealed in his clear plan for revenge

– Pride is his fatal flaw• He will destroy himself in order to get vengeance on Moby

Dick

– For Ahab, MD represents all that is evil and destructive in the world

• Themes– Nature is unstoppable and destructive

– Pride can blind us to the destructiveness of our own desires

– Humans/Society cannot win when we take on nature