Essay On The Fall Of The House Of Usher And The Raven By Edgar Allan Poe

Scholars mainly utilize symbols to convey and express people’s emotions in order to develop their stories or arguments. Edgar Allan strategically employs this style by utilizing physical images and spaces in portraying the feeling of various characters under different set ups. Opposing feelings may have little difference among individuals with strong personalities. For example, it is often hard to know when someone loves or hates something. The paper analyzes how Edgar Allan employs physical images and spaces of confinement in describing the psychological states of people in his scripts The Fall of the House of Usher and The Raven.
/> In The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar uses various symbols and images to show the emotional and psychological state of the characters. Initially, the author uses the whirlpool in “MS. Found in a Bottle” to symbolize a state of emotional and mental instability. The whirlpool shows that the narrator is insane. The whirlpool sails him from the peaceful South Seas to the waters in the South Pole. This is an imagery transfer of his emotions from a state of stability to insanity and mental instability. The first whirlpool destroys the boat and moves the narrator from the world of reality to the world of fancy. This shows that the narrator gets psychological imbalance because of the whirlpool. The second whirlpool leads to the death of the narrator, meaning that his psychological state in the world of fancy presents some aspects of emotionally instability.
Furthermore, the author uses the symbol of the eye in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to show the knowledge in Ligeia’s personality. It is interesting to note that the knowledge hurts the narrator yet he cannot deal with the knowledge without hurting Ligeia. The principle concept in this imagery is based on the idea that one cannot separate the eye from the person without killing or destroying that person. The narrator describes the old man as having looked at him with an evil eye while transferring evils to him. He wants to remove the evil from the old man, but that can only happen if he kills the old man. This highlights his psychological state and personality that he cannot deal with unless he hurts Ligeia and himself.
Putting on a costume used by the court jester in the Cask of Amontillado is symbolic. This scenario highlights the fortunate ones. In this context, the author uses the imaginary space to show that the narrator is fortunate in the tales. Montresor has a quest of committing revenge, to which the narrator becomes the victim. Montresor fools the narrator with murderous acts and he falls victim to it. The fortunate one is an irony, the narrator uses the symbol to show irony in the panic that narrator gets into due to the unfortunate acts of Montresor. The author also uses the images of animals to show that the thoughts and imaginations in the mind of the narrator were not positive. Animals lack rational element in their thinking. For example, animals often provoke others into dubious acts like murder and end up killing each other without rationally thinking of their actions. In relationship to this situation, Edger makes his characters in the poem assume the images of animals. Through this, the author shows the weakness of his characters. He identifies some of his characters as individuals of low capacity who were often controlled by bad emotions thus engaging in destructive actions without thinking of their consequences.
In the black cat, the murder of Pluto makes the narrator turn into psychological inconstancy and perverseness, which likens the murderer to an animal. The actions in the story do not resemble a human act. The role reversal shows that the narrator has an irrational psychology thus is capable of engaging on irrational actions. In “the Tell-Tale heart,” the mental state of the narrator is clear as he dehumanizes the victims by likening them to animals. He compares the old man to a vulture by stating that he had a vulture eye and wanted to kill the eye. This portrays the psychological state of the narrator as a person out to kill the old man inhumanly. The narrator sees the old man as an evil animal by likening the eye to an animal. In essence, the description of the vulture shows that the old man had an evil animal personality.
In The Raven, the author also uses a number of images and symbol to show the psychological state and feelings of human being. In December, the Raven follows the narrator to a place and sits to read the forgotten lore. The author uses this setup to describe symbolically the love that the narrator had lost. The loneliness in the room shows that the narrator had been left in solitude after losing a lover he really trusted. The raven makes a rapping knock at the door, a sound that excites the narrator. After a short time, a slightly louder rapping by the raven is heard on the window and when the narrator goes to open, the raven engages the narrator. The narrator is excited at the approaches and advances of the raven, which is also a symbol of the state of mind of the narrator. This shows that the narrator is lonely and he feels a state of frustration after losing her lover. He feels the company of the raven and loves the visit even though the raven does not talk much at the first point.
When the narrator asks the raven if they would reunite with the lover in heaven, the raven gives a negative response. The narrator gets angry at this response and calls it a liar. This is after the narrator had thought of the bird flying away just as other friends had flown away before the raven came. However, the raven still answers with nevermore. This image shows the attitude of the narrator towards friends. The narrator does not believe that friends can last. The narrator feels that friends only come to her life to give short company and then fly away after a while. However, the raven is imagery object that is used to try to change the views and thoughts of the narrator.
The raven is a symbol of frustration in the mind of the narrator. The raven replies with negative answers to all the suggestions given by the narrator. The narrator does not like the fact that the raven gives negative answers to all the thoughts about meeting Lenore. Firstly, when the narrator thinks about the life they had together and Lenore’s company, the raven answers with nevermore as if suggesting that such thoughts could no longer mean anything. The narrator talks to the raven and asks whether the narrator would meet Lenore and the raven gives the same answer. When the narrator gets angry and orders the raven to leave, the raven refuses. This makes narrator feel that the raven is sitting on her freedom. The act raven refusing to leave frustrates the narrator. This means although some friends may seem helpful, they often create distress to others.
Edgar uses images to portray the feelings and mental thoughts of the narrators and characters in his works. In The Raven, the situation created by the use of imagery show that the narrator misses her lover and the she wishes to meet him at some point. In The Fall of the House of Usher,” the author uses a range of ideas in portraying the mental feelings of the narrators. This includes the use of animals to show the irrational and often evil thoughts of the narrators and objects such as the whirlpool to highlight the shift of human rational state into absurd states.