2. The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1765)

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe was an interesting writer but considered strange because many thought he was an alcoholist, while his

real problem was poverty because he wasn't in the Literary Market.

Poe wanted to make money, but there was no copyright so he worked as an editor (redattore), to know what

kind of things he could publish to become famous.

He was also a journalist (there's still a debate if some of the articles published were written by him or not: he

wrote many articles but he signed them with a different name – not his own – many of them are anknown).

He published the review of the first translation of "I Promessi Sposi". th

In Europe he became very popular thanks to the translation of Baudelaire (the most famous 19 french poet):

Baudelaire read his wrote and translated it, he considered him as an alter-ego – Baudelaire had a strong

identification with him because he felt that he could have written those stories.

The Fall of the House of Usher is a gothic novel.

The Gothic Novel

The most important text is The Castle of Otranto (Horace Walpole). It was written in England when the

entires classic models collapsed. People become to be interested in death, in the afterlife and other strange,

gothic things (it's all a reaction against the classisim).

− Sublime (SUBLIM): Latin word which means SOMETHING BEYOND THE LIMIT, a place that

can't be understood (E. Burke wrote its Manifesto).

(Metaphisic: what is beyond our capacity to interpretate – qualcosa oltre il limite, aldilà della

comprensione umana).

The sublim and the gothic novel demonstrate that there were things that the humans couldn't

understood (against the Illuminism and the Rationalism that thought everything could be

explained). The Metaphisic heads to the Anti Rational Movement (Gothic*– Sublime: they

contain things the human mind can't understand).

* It's linked to the French Revolution: During this period Aristocracy came to an end, in this way

aristocrates had lost they privileges. Gothic takes inspiration from this because tha main characters

are aristocrates who turn into ghosts or vampires (they are no longer alive and they suck blood as

they did before by exploiting people's work).

Poe – deadly genre, a terminal genre.

It's ambiguous. He wants to get rid of the gothic novel because they were typical of the Europe, he wanted to

create something different, a new type of literature (to create a National Literature). BUT, at the same time –

while he was attacking it, he understood that American readers weren't sophisticated and they wanted to read

the same things that there were in Europe.

In order to survive to this dicotomy he tryed to survive creating a gothic novel that makes fun of Gothic

novel. When we read Poe's novel we read a meta-gothic novel (meta-language, such as criticism, used to

critisize – he created a Meta-Gothic-Games). He writes stories that talk about the gothic novels, but at the

same time they are commentaries (sono sia testi gotici che commenti veri e propri – such as The Fall of the

House oh Usher).

There is a basic distinction between internal and external narrator

Internal Narrator External Narrator

It's also a carachter of the story. It could be a third person narrator or someone who's

It could be omniscent, partly omniscent or an just telling the story.

unreliable narrator (inaffidabile – such as a mad

person, someone who's drunk, with a distorted

perception of the reality)

Usher is an internal narrator partially unrealiable (he manipulate the perception).

3 Aristocrates: Usher, Madeleine, The Narrator.

Usher tries to make the romantique way aristocrate people live to survive in himself, even if he's sick and his

sister is going to die. They are the only rappresentants of the family, no one's left (happened after the Frech

Revolution).

The narrator is also a Reader, becouse when he entered the house of usher he realize he's in a gothic novel

(there's something misterious that's happening – Entering the Castle = Entering the Gothic Genre – Poe

wants to show that the romantic art is too old, it's a metaphore to explaine how the readers enter this genre,

which is at its end).

Usher è l'anticipazione dei personaggi del Decadentismo: i DANDY.

Nell'universo di Usher c'è un intruso, ovvero il Narratore che all'inizio del racconto si sta avvicinando al

castello poichè Usher ha richiesto il suo aiuto. THE TEXT

Setting Gotico, dentro ad un castello.

C'è un intruso: Il Narratore. Usher è un suo vecchio amico d'infanzia che gli chiede aiuto, e il Narratore non

se la sente di dirgli di no. (Il Narratore è il lettore americano che si lascia risucchiare dal mondo gotico). Il

narratore assiste all'annuncio della morte della sorella di Usher (era molto malata) e lo assiste nelle settimane

seguenti dove da segni di squilibrio mentale (Il romanzo gotico è come Usher: morente). Il Narratore è al

capezzale dell'amico.

Alla fine del racconto la sorella ritorna con un vestito bianco insanguinato (non si capisce se è un fantasma,

un cadavere o se è ancora viva – si sentono i suoi passi). Usher non regge a questa visione e muore. Poco

dopo si sente un forte rumore, come di un terremoto: il castello inizia a tremare, il Narratore scappa fuori e

quando esce il castello crolla (METAFORA del crollo/fine del Gotico).

- "Son coeur est un luth suspendu; sitòt qu'on le touche il resonne" [De Berangèr]

It's a description of Usher's heart (è una persona molto impressionabile, tutto ciò che lo tocca provoca in lui

un forte impatto – he's an hypersensitive person and everytime something touches him, he's affected by it –

it's a typical romantic-gothic actor).

How is the narrator going to react to Usher? Will him be attracted/manipulated?

- "During the whole of a dull, dark and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung...."

The letter D is very present in the first part of the text (alliteration – D stands for Death)

The idea of darkness and soundless (the abscensce of sounds is the absence of life) the idea of solitude.

Melancholy is the mood of the depression, a typical filing of the romantic poet.

C'è sempre qualcosa di soprannaturale nei paesaggi desolati (manca quella sensazione quasi quasi piacevole,

perchè poetica, di una natura desolata e terribile – desolate nature = sublime).

- "I know not how it was..."

He's letting the world know he's not reliable.

Se guardiamo queste prime frasi cosa c'è che manca?

Perchè non riesce più a suscitare quella sensazione di piacere che in genere suscitano i paesaggi desolati?

Perchè il tempo è cambiato (the narrator realizes that this kinf of literature doesn't make any sense any more

– la letteratura gotica è insopportabile perchè appartiene ad un mondo romantico che non esiste più –

desolate nature and sublime are a way to describe what is difficult to be described because there's no

feedback, as the world doesn't exist anymore).

- "An utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-

dream of the reveller upon opium"

Il narratore non riesce a paragonare questa casa se non paragonandola alla depressione dell'anima di una

persona dopo che è finito l'effetto dell'oppio/droga (saddness + depression: la letteratura romantica è una

letteratura falsa e finta che produce immagini molto belle ma irreali, che portano quindi alla depressione del

lettore, in una realtà totalmente desolata – proprio come succede ad un drogato dopo che è finito l'effetto

della droga). Se il Sublime era una categoria che aveva il suo valore al suo tempo (nel 700), nella letteratura

post settecentesca non trova senso, è forzato.

The basic distinction made in the story is the distinction made by Coleridge

between Fancy and Immagination:

Fancy Immagination

It's COMBINATION (con elementi pre-esistenti, non

è originale – I have to use elements which are

already there, I don't have to create something new). It's CREATION (the human capacity to create

Like Fantasy, this word is used by Coleridge as something new, such as Picasso). Poe wants the

opponent of immagination. Immagination for the American Literature.

Poe gioca con le parole:

1. Pondered: Pond (un lago): pondered vuol dire "mentre riflettevo" ma anche "mi riflettevo nel

lago".Gioca con la parola Pond.

Quando guarda nello stagno vede che l'elemento gotico è più accellerato.

2. Usher: The name of the main character (US – SHE – HER).

Usciere – to Usher somebody = far passare qualcuno.

Usher is affected by the society, with a mental disorder which oppressed him (bodly illness + mental deseas).

Riservatezza abituale ed eccessiva (tipico degli aristocratici).

The house seems like a ghost as it comes to life and it refflects in the pond so that it seems even more gothic.

Important Words

− Manner = Modo, Stile – Style (Fancy; Immagination): Style that uses Usher for the romantic novel.

− Singular = Strange (not be understood) or Sublime (divine).

− Excessive (Exhaulted) – Habitual.

− Speculate: the house speculate the people and the people speculate the House.

− Horror(generated by something we see, disgusting) VS Terror (being afraid of the unknown)

− All the Gothic words!

− Leaden-Hued = like Death (Leaden = Piombo, metallo poco nobile, idea di pesantezza + Hued =

tinta/sfumatura).

− Wildly importunate Nature --> Natura della lettera (manuscript) = follemente fuori contesto

− Nervous agitation.

− Mental disorder – Body disease.

Significato di alcune frasi/parole:

− EXCESSIVE and HABITUAL (referred to Usher's reserve – Usher's description = Riservatezza).

Normally Aristocrates are shy and they keep distance (excessive).

Belong to an entire social class (habitual).

− Ancient Family = Aristocracy.

− Time out of time = fin da sempre/fin dalla notte dei tempi.

− Exhaulted/excessive.

− Unobtrusive = senza limiti.

− Of Late = ultimamente – As Well = contemporaneamente.

− Beauties of Musical Science = forte interesse verso la musica nel senso di riconoscerne gli aspetti

più tecnici ed intricati (music by it self doesn't have meaning so they can get lost in this kind of

dream art, music produces a state of dream).

− Intricacy = Fancy VS Beauty = Immagination.

− Perception = the way they perceive is esthetically romantic.

− Stem = albero genealogico.

− Had put forth... enduri