The Theme Of Unity Of Effect In Edgar Allan Poe's Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe was extremely perturbed by other famous authors of his time. He believed that there was a radical error in the usual mode of constructing a story, and was convinced that all stories should revolve around a “Unity of Effect”. He stated that a “Unity of Effect” is the point of the greatest importance in a story, and without it, a story would fall apart. Edgar Allan Poe used this in all of his short stories, such as “A Descent Into The Maelström”, where the fight against the maelström was the Unity of Effect in the story. Other examples of clear Unity of Effects take place in “The Cask of Amontillado”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, and “The Premature Burial”. In “A Descent into the Maelström”, the Unity

of Effect results in the fisherman being severely compromised, the fisherman becomes compromised mentally, physically, and emotionally, as he quickly ages while also losing most of his loved ones. The tone in “A Descent into the Maelström” is dramatic, suspenseful, and surviving, most of which, come directly from the maelström and the irony that it creates. The maelström constructs the mood in the story by showing us the maliciousness that the fisherman had to endure. In “A Descent into the Maelström” Poe explores the atrocity of nature by conveying what he calls the unity of effect through the wickedness and maliciousness of the maelström as it ages and ravages the fisherman's life physically and mentally.
The happiness and peace caused by the irony for the fisherman in this story helps the fisherman realize and enjoy the maelström, while also giving him the courage to take a risk that saves his life. The first noticeable instance of irony is known as verbal irony, and it occurs when the fisherman talks to himself, saying, “I must have been delirious-for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below,” which helps us comprehend that even before death the fisherman can find beauty in the maliciousness of the maelström (34). “I attracted my brother’s attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do. I thought at length that he comprehended my design-but whether this was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the ring-bolt,” is an example of a powerful instance of dramatic irony, as there is no chance of survival staying on the ship, but the fisherman’s brother still refuses to jump off and have a slim chance of survival (35). In this instance of situational irony, “By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of the Moskoe-ström had been,” we are somewhat astonished that after the fisherman jumps off the boat, the ocean becomes calm again, resulting in his survival (36). This is due to the fact that throughout the story, the maelström had been ruthless and unforgiving, but during the falling action, the maelström allows the one brave soul to survive.
The maelström not only presents a large impediment in the journey back home, but also makes living impossible when encountered by the sheer power and maliciousness of the maleström, which is inflicted upon the innocent fishermen, resulting in mass casualty.

The conflicts in the story form the Unity of Effect, but they also teach us that we should never do things blindly without preparation. In the rising action, the fishermen notice unusual circumstances, but decide not to pay much attention to them. When the fisherman says, “We never out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for going and coming-one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return-and we seldom made a miscalculation upon this point,” he is assuring us that they did throw caution to the wind, and this resulted in the fight against the maelström (27). The fishermen were warned by nature one last time before being attacked by the maelström in “All at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. This was most unusual-something that had never happened to us before-and I began to feel a little uneasy, without knowing exactly why” (28). They knew that something was wrong, but when they noticed what was happening, it was much too late. In the quote, “It had run down at seven o’clock! We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Ström was in full fury,” the main fisherman realizes that they had stayed out for too long, and begins to panic as death becomes almost certain (30). The maelström is not only malicious, however, as it has great beauty despite its evilness. In the quote, “I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life, in view of so wonderful a manifestation of God’s power,” we observe that the fisherman had an epiphany during the battle against the maelström that changed his outlook on life

(31).
The setting of this story has a direct correlation to the conflict and the maliciousness inflicted upon the fisherman in the story, as it forms the maelström which results in the fisherman becoming mentally and emotionally deprived. Although the fisherman does not give us much information about the maelström, we can pick out things that help determine the location and setting of this story. When the fisherman informs us, “We are now close upon the Norwegian coast-in the sixty-eighth degree of latitude-in the great providence of Nordland-and in the dreary district of Lofoden,” we can start to picture exactly where the story took place, while also learning things about the place such as the abundance of fish and the landscape of the area (22). When the narrator tells us, “The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore, had something very unusual about it,” we become positive that the maelström does exist, and is not something that the fisherman could have just fabricated (22).
The story that the fisherman has to tell is widely believed as a lie, despite the amount of evidence that he has to offer to the locals. This is confirmed in, “A boat picked me up…those who drew me on board were my old mates and daily companions-but they knew me no more than they would have known a traveller from the spirit land. My hair which had been raven-black the day before, was as white as you see it now.” (36) This is a change from most of Poe’s stories, as the protagonist usually confesses and believed, or the protagonist keeps his actions to himself. One thing that sets this story apart is the conflict. No other protagonist created by Poe has to endure something more difficult than surviving the maelström. This overwhelmingly, dangerous event expectedly creates more severe complications. The maelström changed the fisherman for the good and for the bad, as becomes much more intelligent and knows beauty that no other living human knows, but at the same time he is a social outcast in his society. The end to this story leaves us with a treasure chest without a key, as we cannot quite understand what is going to happen to the fisherman after conversing with the narrator in this story.