Anti-Transcendentalism is most notably associated with the literature written during the nineteenth Century. It is often referred to as Horror or Gothic novels these days. Two of the pieces showcasing Anti-Transcendentalism are Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”. “The Fall of the House of Usher " and “ Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” show the elements of Anti-Trans identalism by the elements of disturbing setting, madness and the destructive nature of the humans.
Both Poe’s “The Fall of the Usher” and Hawthorne’s “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” include the element of disturbing setting. In “ The Fall of The House of Usher,” the narrator portrays the house as a very old house that was creepy and huge:“ I looked upon the scene before me-upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain- upon the bleak walls-upon a few rank sedges- and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees- with an utter depression” (Poe). This quote highlights the gothic nature as seen from “windows are shaped like eyes” this connection made the line look very threatening, which was the main motive of Poe. This disturbing setting helps readers to place the theme and image in their mind. This also foreshadows how something unexpected will happen later in the story. Disturbing setting is significant in Anti-transcendentalism because the setting itself delivers as much suspense as does the plot or the character. An example of this element in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment” occurs when the narrator statess, “ It was a dim, old fashioned chamber, festooned with cobwebs, and besprinkled with antique dust. Around the walls stood several oaken bookcases, the lower shelves of which were...
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...hen they turned young, they started fighting over Widow Wycherly again. They repeated the same old mistakes. Hawthorne’s main moral behind this story was that people tend to not learn from their past mistakes and instead self destruct themselves.
“ The Fall of House of Usher” and “ Dr. Heidegger's Experiment” reflected the same and/or different elements of the Anti-Transcendentalism. Anti- Transcendentalism stories are filled with creepy setting, madness and self destructiveness, as shown in these stories. These stories made the reader realize that fear will kill you, your past sins will follow you and even you are your enemy and you will self destruct. These stories do not give reader any hope, but instead give fear. Poe and Hawthorne focused on vision, the power of nature, instinct and individual emotion, which are the main elements of Anti- Transcendentalism.
During the American Renaissance, writers were put into one of two categories. The categories were the Dark Romantics and the Transcendentalists. Some Dark Romantics include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. The Dark Romantics stories included creepy symbols, horrific themes, and psychological effects of guilt and sin. The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving gives a few examples as to why life is meaningless to some people.Humans are not all good, there are some cruel people in this world. The Pit and the Pendulum tells you exactly why.
Gothic texts are typically characterized by a horrifying and haunting mood, in a world of isolation and despair. Most stories also include some type of supernatural events and/or superstitious aspects. Specifically, vampires, villains, heroes and heroines, and mysterious architecture are standard in a gothic text. Depending upon the author, a gothic text can also take on violent and grotesque attributes. As an overall outlook, “gothic literature is an outlet for the ancient fears of humanity in an age of reason” (Sacred-Texts). Following closely to this type of literature, Edgar Allan Poe uses a gloomy setting, isolation, and supernatural occurrences throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
...tremity of his withdrawal from society, he succombed to the forces of nature and cast a negative light on the idea of transcendentalism. The protagonists exhibit their transcendentality in conflicting yet converging ways including the specific occurrences which cause this diverging from society, the positive and negative effects which happen to them as a result, and the picture that is portrayed by the finale of each tale.
According to anti-transcendentalists, using only self-reliance over an inner conscience will result in consequences from obstructive sin. Anti-transcendentalism was based off the existence of heaven and hell, and the actions carried out that got to either destination. Dark Romanticism was prevalent and exposed human frailty to sin and destruction. Several works were written revealing the truth of the flaws and unethical ways of society. Anti-transcendentalism gave a realistic view to everyone of the world and all of its undoing’s.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Poe establishes a new type of literature, he emphasizes sides of Empiricism as well as the idea of Transcendence.
Anti-transcendentalist writing focused on the limitations and the potential destructiveness of the human sprit, rather than on its possibilities. For example, in Moby Dick Melville writes about a man’s obsession to kill a whale. Ahab wants to get his revenge because he had lost his leg to the whale in a previous encounter. Ahab’s obsession makes him not think about the safety of his crews lives and his own. And in the end Ahab ultimately loses his life due to his desire to kill the whale.
In "The Fall of the house of Usher," Edgar Allen Poe creates suspense and fear in the reader. He also tries to convince the reader not to let fear overcome him. Poe tries to evoke suspence in the reader's mind by using several diffenent scenes. These elements include setting, characters, plot, and theme. Poe uses setting primarily in this work to create atmosphere. The crack in the house and the dead trees imply that the house and its surroundings are not sturdy or promising. These elements indicate that a positive outcome is not expected. The thunder, strange light, and mist create a spooky feeling for the reader. The use of character provides action and suspense in the story through the characters' dialogue and actions. Roderick, who is hypochondriac, is very depressed. He has a fearful apperance and his senses are acute. This adds curiosity and anxiety. The narrator was fairly normal until he began to imagine things and become afraid himself. Because of this, the audience gets a sense that evil is lurking. Madeline is in a cataleptic state. She appears to be very weak and pail. Finally, when she dies, she is buried in a vault inside of the mansion. In this story, the plot consists of rising events, conflict, climax, and resolution. The rising events include the parts in the story when the narrator first arrives at the house, meets Roderick, and hears about Roderick's and Madeline's problems. Madeline's death and burial are part of the conflict. At this point, Roderick and the narrator begin to hear sounds throughout the house. The sounds are an omen that an evil action is about to occur. The climax is reached when Madeline comes back from the dead and she and her twin brother both die. Finally, the resolution comes when the narrator escapes from the house and turns around to watch it fall to the ground. The theme that Edgar Allen Poe is trying to convey is do not let fear take over your life because it could eventually destory you.
Imagery in "The Fall of the House of Usher" The description of the landscape in any story is important as it creates a vivid imagery of the scene and helps to develop the mood. Edgar Allan Poe is a master at using imagery to improve the effects of his stories. He tends to use the landscapes to symbolize some important aspect of the story. Also, he makes use of the landscape to produce a supernatural effect and to induce horror. In particular, Poe makes great use of these tools in "The Fall of the House of Usher." This story depends on the portrayal of the house itself to create a certain atmosphere and to relate to the Usher family. In "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe uses the landscape to develop an atmosphere of horror and to create corollary to the Usher family. Poe uses the life-like characteristics of the house as a device for giving the house a supernatural presence. The house is described as having somewhat supernatural characteristics. The windows appear to be "vacant" and "eye-like" (1462). The strange nature of the house is further explained as around the mansion, "…there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity." (1462). This demonstrates that the house and its surroundings have an unusual and bizarre existence. Upon entering the house, the narrator views some objects, such as the tapestries on the walls and the trophies, fill him with a sense of superstition. He describes the trophies as "phantasmagoric" (1462). He further explains that the house and the contents were the cause of his feelings.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
In conclusion Poe excellent use of characterization and imagery to depict fear and darkness, truly make The Fall of the House of Usher a story of the battles the we must face our fears in order to free our mind.
Both Poe, in his short stories “The Fall of the house of Usher”, and Bierce, in his short story “One of the Missing”, expose their characters to fear. Ambrose Bierce uses the notions of freedom and stillness to make his character, Jerome Searing, evolve from a fearless individual to somebody completely terrorise and obsessed. On the other hand, Edgar Allan Poe exposes is character Roderick Usher to a dark, gloomy and isolate setting, which make Usher evolve from a person on a balance between sanity and madness to a person completely crazy and mad.
Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, the Transcendentalism movement became a seminal force in literature. Originating in the New England region of America, transcendentalism emphasized the spiritual over the corporeal, and the power of individual intuition over organized doctrine as a means of attaining true spirituality. But one of the most notable writers of this period, Edgar Allan Poe, made no secret of his disdain for the tenets of transcendentalism. He mocked transcendentalist ideals by clearly expressing anti-transcendentalist themes in one of his most well known works, “The Fall of the House of Usher”. Although this work openly exhibits Poe's contempt for transcendentalism as a literary movement, it was nonetheless influenced by – and perhaps even based on – transcendentalist beliefs.
Edgar Allan Poe is forever identified with his eerie poem “The Raven” with his many gothic horror stories, and as the father of the detective story (Werlock1). Poe’s stories are known in America and Europe. Most of Poe’s stories are Gothic, which he describes them as “arabesque” a term that he felt best described as flowery (Wilson52). Poe proclaimed his writing a reaction to typical literature of the day, which he called “the heresy of the Didactic” for its tendency to preach (Wilson52). Some of Poe’s stories are also comedies. “The Fall of the House of Usher” was a nevertheless typical of Poe’s short stories in that it presents narrator thrust into a psychologically intense situation in which otherworldly forces conspire to drive at least one of the characters insane (Wilson53).Edgar Allan Poe had a difficult life after dropping out of college. He became a short story writer, one of his stories being “The Fall of the House of Usher”. “The Fall of the House of Usher” uses literary elements of symbols and settings to further the theme of evil.
In “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Poe’s use of dark, descriptive words allow him to establish an eerie mood. Poe’s unique style of writing along with his foreshadowing vocabulary is significant in creating a suspenseful gothic story. At the beginning of the short story, Poe describes the House of Usher to be “dull”, “oppressive”, and “dreary” (1265). His choice of words strongly emphasizes a mood of darkness and suspense as he builds on the horrific aspects of this daunting tale. At first glimpse, the house itself is surrounded by the feeling of “insufferable gloom”, (1265) “[t]here was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought [...]” (1265). The atmosphere that Poe describes in the statement above establishes a spine-chilling mood. Poe uses words such as “insufferable gloom”
Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly one of American Literature's legendary and prolific writers, and it is normal to say that his works touched on many aspects of the human psyche and personality. While he was no psychologist, he wrote about things that could evoke the reasons behind every person's character, whether flawed or not. Some would say his works are of the horror genre, succeeding in frightening his audience into trying to finish reading the book in one sitting, but making them think beyond the story and analyze it through imagery. The "Fall of the House of Usher" is one such tale that uses such frightening imagery that one can only sigh in relief that it is just a work of fiction. However, based on the biography of Poe, events that surrounded his life while he was working on his tales were enough to show the emotions he undoubtedly was experiencing during that time.