Hauntings

“The Fall of the House of Usher” – Edgar Allen Poe

There are so many themes going on in this story. The whole time while reading it I couldn’t decide if these events were metaphors or actually happening. Of course because this was written a while ago somethings are hard to understand. For example, why wasn’t the speaker allowed to see Madeline anymore during his stay? Also, why did Roderick say that he put her in the tomb too early? As far as inference goes there was just too much left up to chance for me that I’m not sure if what I was assuming was correct. That being said, I do absolutely love this story as I do most of Poe’s work. There was definitely a recurring element of sanity being questioned in this story. At first when Roderick said he was going to parish in this state of mind to when he when he was full blow crazy rocking back and forth in the chair. I thought it was a really nice literary trick how Poe had mimicked what happened in the poems to actually happen in the reality of his story. I think that was when the speaker first got his though “Oh God I need to get out of here”. Then you have to question whether he really saw Madeline at the end or not. Was she real? A ghost? Had he gone mad? Did the house do this to him? This is not the first time that Poe left his readers to consider the possibilities. Also, this story is the perfect cookie-cutter, format, base-line, or whatever you want to call it, for THE haunted house. Although it took almost three pages, Poe hit it spot on. The massive overgrowth around the exterior, the dark echoing corridors, eerie shadows, and the overall feeling of gloom and despair. That would make anyone go crazy.

“Afterward” – Edith Wharton

Afterward definitely corresponds to the “American Gothic” definition. This really entered the world of “suspense” when it came to ghosts. In most ghost horror stories you know the ghost, you see the ghost, and you can tell when it is near. However, in “Afterward”, you didn’t know when the ghost was coming or how it would present itself. It is much more suspenseful, it’s the kind of story that makes you read sentences twice and think “wait what just happened?” Also, you can’t really say there is a “haunted house”, the home does not conform to the expectations of a haunted house other than the fact that we think there is a ghost. The house is relatively normal and average. The real horror in this story comes from the not knowing, and the thought that no matter what happens, there’s nothing you can do to prevent it from happening and it will most likely happen again.

Intro to Horror: Poe

I absolutely LOVE Edgar Allen Poe. I do not think that there is one thing he has written that I don’t enjoy. He is the perfect mix between eerie and suspenseful, just enough madness to convey the idea of horror. Some of his stories are so incredibly unique and disturbing that they make you wonder if he was really crazy or not. He was hands-down one of the most impactful writers of his time and poems such as “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” amongst others are still considered classics to this day.

The amount of symbolism used in “The Raven” is crazy. In just a little over 50 lines, Poe manages to make the speaker appear/become insane, he turns a raven into a devilish figure (but the speaker may this he’s a profit), and he gives us Lenore. At first in the story you already get the hint that the speaker is insane. He hears the knocking and then the whispers but looks out his door to see that no one is there, and then the raven talks which makes us wonder, is that real? The imagery and description in this story makes it very easy for us as readers to make our setting. The whole thing just seems dark, an old den/study with a crackling fireplace, hardly any light because of the darkness outside, when he opens up the door the hallway is so black you can’t even see down it. Poe paints us a very eerie picture. It becomes clear with his increasing madness that Lenore was a past lover, he is mourning his loss in losing her. He becomes more and more obsessed with the idea of her when he gets the idea that she may be trying to contact him or that her spirit may be near. The whole story does a great job of making you become concerned with the speakers sanity as well as feeling grief for him. Poe was very good at introducing and exploring the realm of intensity/insanity and depression with continually keeping his readers captivated.

While reading “Annabel Lee” I cannot help but imagine it being told by an old man on a rocking chair looking back on a time where he experienced true love. I think that the rhythm of the poem makes me feel this way. It rocks back and forth between telling their story and then him going back to reiterating his love for her over and over again. The tone in this poem makes you feel upset and sad for the speaker because this love is clearly something that was taken away from him and he wasn't able to fulfill his love. It seems like he is very depressed and not over Annabel but also has the attitude “Well, it is what it is”. He also had this kind of guard up like he was telling you their story but he would never really get into it or get into the details because that was their love story and no one but them would ever experience something so true. The way that Poe writes along with the rhythm he uses is incredibly beautiful, it is like a song, his words just sort of dance in your head. It would be hard for anyone to not fully appreciate the talent of Poe’s work.

"I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love I and my Annabel Lee;" - "Annabel Lee", Edgar Allen Poe

UPDATE: This past week in class Steven Dos Santos the author of “The Culling” came in to visit us. I haven’t yet written about this book but I will soon because I absolutely loved it. The Culling is an amazing mixture between a perfect dystopian society as well as a demented type of horror. Steven went a little further into the book writing process and some of the challenged he faced. It is amazing to think all of the historical influences that inspired this piece of work (The Nazi Regime, The Industrial Revolution, The story “Sophie’s Choice”). Although these are prevalent influences the story stands alone as its own original piece of work. I think it is one of the more modern YA science fiction stories that I really enjoyed as well as believing that it stayed true to the genre itself.

Fantasy

Recently I watched the movie “Ever After”, produced in 1998. For those of you who don’t know, this is yet another “Cinderella Story” adaptation. At first I was irritated because I thought that I’d hate this story and that it would be just another remake of all of the same stories already done. I must admit that I was happily surprised. Although this was another “Cinderella Story”, it was much different than the others.

There are a lot of fairy-tales that when they were first written, have very dark elements. A lot of people refer to these as “Grimm’s Fairytales” which is true but they were not the only ones to interpret threatening stories. I think that a certain element is lost when fairy-tales are made into pleasant stories with a “happily ever after” aspect. I can understand why people would want to sanitize stories for their children, but these alternative cute and fluffy fairy-tales are very unrealistic. One of the bigger ideas behind writing fairy-tales was to teach children lessons and morals in an entertaining way. These original stories show you what can happen if you make bad decisions or trust the wrong people. I think that is really important for children to understand. We should encourage this rather than encourage stories that diminish women’s worth, and tell you that you can’t do anything on your own.

Just because fairy-tales are cute doesn't mean that they always teach us the best lessons, Beauty and the Beast encourages the idea that we can change people from who they really are, also that you can find your wife by holding her and her father captive. Sleeping Beauty reassures us that if you are ever in a compromising situation, a prince will come and save you. When we break down these stories there are very unpleasant and unrealistic values that we are instilling into kid’s heads. I really don’t think that these tales should be considered as valid examples for today’s youth.