Edgar_Allan_Poe's_Theme_of_Analyzing_the_Human_Mind

Poe “Evil thoughts became my sole inmates.”(Poe 539) This excerpt exemplifies Edgar Allan Poe’s theme of analyzing the human mind which is ever present in Poe’s works. This paper will explore the aforementioned analysis by examining three types of this theme which are guilt, revenge, and insanity. The Black Cat exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the human condition known as guilt. The main character in the Black Cat, whose name we are not given, is described as an animal lover and overall nice guy who turns into a miserable wretch throughout the tale. This psychological transformation is the product of the main character’s guilt. In one night of pure inebriation the main character notices his beloved cat, Pluto, is avoiding him. Upon seeing this, he attempts to seize Pluto, which responds by biting his hand. Once bitten, the main character reacts by grabbing Pluto by the throat and proceeds to carve its eye out. This is the beginning of the main character’s guilt which he expresses in this line, “When reason returned with the morning… I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse.”(Poe 536) This guilt creates a sense of grief which soon turns to annoyance within the main character because every day he sees the cat he sees the cause of his guilt. The sight of Pluto which is simultaneously the sight of his misdeed is causing such a swelling of annoyance to build within him that a new emotion arises. This new emotion is the dark emotion of perverseness, which inspires the main character to hang Pluto. The main character expresses his guilt while in the process of killing Pluto when he says, “(I) hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense.”(Poe 537) This quote reveals the disturbed thought process of the main character which involves the backwards logic of murdering Pluto because the cat had not deserved to have its eye cut out. The night of the hanging the main character’s house burns down and burnt into the only wall left standing is an outline of the hanged cat. The main character explains this away scientifically but nevertheless for months he is haunted by his guilt. His guilt bears down upon his mind so heavily that in order to replace his cat he starts looking for a cat that appears similar to Pluto. He finds such a cat that is almost identical to Pluto except for a large patch of white fur on this new cat’s breast. He brought this new cat to his home and, “soon found a dislike to (the cat) arising within me.”(Poe 538) His dislike he describes as being both disgust and annoyance. The very same annoyance he held for Pluto he is now feeling for new cat. The character admits his guilt is the ultimate driving force within him when he says, “these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred.”(Poe 538) His hatred is born out of bitterness because he is bitter that he has to carry the burden of guilt. In turn this hatred is directed towards the new cat because it reminds him of Pluto and the acts which created his guilt. Even though he hated the cat he was incapable of physically harming the cat because when he thought of such things he was haunted by the grief of his former atrocities. Now he is faced with the symbol of his guilt everyday, which tortuously made the guilt within him grow. This mounting guilt’s effects on the main character are described as, “Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed.”(Poe 539) One day when the main character is going down his basement steps the cat almost trips him and he responds by picking up an axe and swings the axe at the cat. The main character’s wife prevents him from killing the cat and in a rage he murders her. “The narrator's motive for murdering his wife seems to be subconscious and, therefore, the crime is not consciously premeditated. Nor is the narrator able to understand rationally or to persuade convincingly why he has done this terrible deed.”(Piacentino 1) This quote helps show how much damage the guilt has done to this man’s brain. The main character cannot even understand why he kills his wife but does it without remorse. Poe tracks the psychological profile of this man from an animal loving humanitarian who, exposed to severe amounts of guilt, turns into someone who has developed a, “hatred of all things and all of mankind.”(Poe 540) This is just one of example of Poe’s psychological analysis’. The Tell-Tale Heart also exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the human condition known as guilt. The main character, whose name we are not given, plans and carries out a carefully planned murder of an older man that he lives with. The main character, who is the narrator, makes mention that he, “loved the old man” (Poe 502) and that the only reason he wished to kill the old man was because the old man’s eye severely irritated him. The narrator establishes the old man’s innocence in the beginning of his tale. By establishing the old man’s innocence he reveals the murder of the old man to be unjust. The murder was committed during the night and because the man had screamed right before he was murdered the police visited the house the next morning. The narrator had meticulously disposed of the body so there was no evidence of the murder, however because he had murdered a man he himself considered innocent then the narrator was due a certain amount of guilt. Although the narrator avoided this guilt initially while he was showing the officers around the house his guilt caught up with him. The narrator pulled up chairs for himself and the officers, placing the chairs right on top of where he had hidden the old man’s body. This is where his guilt strikes him. The guilt has built up within him to the point where he imagines he is hearing a ringing in his ears. This ringing becomes more distinct over time until it sounds like a heartbeat. This heartbeat is purely imagined, it is nothing more than the expression of his guilt. This expression is agony, and in attempt to escape his agony he confesses his crime. Ultimately his guilt creates this heartbeat which causes him to confess. Poe analyzes this man’s mind as he commits the perfect crime and is subsequently a sufferer of the powerful human condition known as guilt. Hop-Frog exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the human condition known as revenge. Hop-Frog is both the name of the story and of the main character. Hop-Frog the character is a crippled midget who has been taken from his homeland and forced to serve the king. Trippetta is a beautiful midget who was taken from the same land as Hop-Frog and also has to serve the king. Hop-Frog and Trippetta are friends, which proves to be a problem when the king, who loves to joke around, tries to force Hop-Frog to drink some wine. Hop-Frog, being a crippled midget, has a very low tolerance for alcohol, which the king is aware of and is trying to exploit. Hop-Frog is forced to drink some wine and immediately starts to feel the effects of intoxication. The king starts to toy with Hop-Frog but is not satisfied with Hop-Frog’s level of inebriation and demands Hop-Frog drink even more wine. While Hop-Frog is coming up with excuses his friend Trippetta begs the king to spare Hop-Frog. The king reacts by violently pushing Trippetta and throwing the wine meant for Hop-Frog in her face. This is the moment that inspires Hop-Frog to get revenge upon his king. The reader knows this is the moment, because Hop-Frog cannot help himself from expressing his rage in some way. The way in which Hop-Frog expresses his fury is through grinding his teeth so violently that the sound fills the entire room. This is also how Poe explores revenge in that for one to be inspired to take revenge, one must be filled with an insufferable amount of anger. Hop-Frog is the victim of this much anger which is expressed in the grinding of his teeth. Poe also puts forth that if someone is filled with this much anger, than they can recover from at least their current state of intoxication. Poe does this by having Hop-Frog immediately sober up. Poe then insinuates that such rage could summon great power within an individual. This great power is summoned by Hop-Frog when, after his friend is terribly mistreated, Hop-Frog adeptly hides his emotion so he can put his plan of revenge into effect. Finally when Hop-Frog does take revenge, he does so without compassion or regret. Hop-Frog takes revenge by setting the king and the king’s court on fire. The way in which Poe has Hop-Frog take his revenge speaks to Poe’s exploration of the human mind. Such depravity as exhibited by Hop-Frog may only be attained through slavery or love. Both requirements are met here because Hop-Frog was a slave to the king, and was in love with Trippetta. This paper proposes Hop-Frog is an example of Poe’s exploration of the human condition known as revenge, which is supported by others who have researched this topic such as, “when Hop-Frog incinerates the king and his seven ministries dresses as apes, Poe anatomizes the psychology of revenge”(Kennedy 22) which is a quote by J. Gerald Kennedy from his book A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. The Cask of Amontillado exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the human condition known as revenge. Montresor is both the main character and the narrator of the story. Montresor is convinced he has been the victim of a “thousand injuries” at the hands of Fortunato, and he has dismissed these injuries. However Montresor claims that Fortunado has insulted him and that this cannot be dismissed. Montresor continues to vow revenge upon Fortunado, also mentioning that the revenge itself must be severe to make up for the insult. The story then launches into Montresor’s elaborate plot of revenge. Montresor’s plan is to trick Fortunado by getting Fortunado to go deep into Montresor’s wine cellar. Once Montresor gets Fortunado into a room of the expansive wine cellar Montresor chains Fortunado to the wall, and then Montresor bricks up the opening. Poe explores how the human mind deals with committing such a dastardly deed. This is explored when Montresor pauses from building his brick wall. Montresor pauses because Fortunado starts screaming. Here Poe is analyzing how the human mind deals with the sound of another humans pain. The way in which Montresor’s mind overcomes this natural instinct to not cause pain to another human being is interesting. Poe has Montresor scream with Fortunado, this is Montresor’s coping mechanism. Montresor is mimicking his victim, as if he is mocking Fortunado. Poe is exploring Montresor’s mind in that he enables Montresor to regress to childish behavior such as mocking. If Montresor is in a childish mindset then he can fool himself into believing he is not responsible for his actions because he is as ignorant as a child. This is the answer Montresor’s revenge filled brain has concocted. Poe delves into Montresor’s mind as it directs a cold hearted murder perpetrated in the name of revenge. The fall of the House of Usher exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the defective human mind. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, in the first person, who was a boyhood friend to Roderick Usher. The narrator has been asked by Roderick to come to his home in an attempt to revive Roderick from his illness. When the narrator arrives at the house of Usher he finds a very sick Roderick. Roderick is not the only sick Usher, he tells the narrator that his sister is close to death herself. Madeline Usher, Roderick’s sister, illness makes her waste away and she goes in and out of death like trances. Roderick is sick in that all of his senses are too sensitive and he worries about things constantly. The more time the narrator spent with Roderick the more his hope for Roderick’s recovery dwindled. Poe explores the insane mind as a mind that feeds upon itself, driving the person with the affliction deeper into madness. Roderick then asks the narrator if he will help him put his sister into the family tomb for she has passed away. The narrator agrees and they place her within the tomb which is under the house. After she is entombed the narrator notes that Roderick’s condition seems as if it has gotten worse. As Roderick is slipping deeper into insanity a sense of uneasiness starts to creep over the narrator. One night as the narrator tries in vain to sleep, Roderick bursts into his room with, “hysteria in his whole demeanor.” (Poe 314) Roderick’s next action was to thrust open the window exposing the room to the severe winds. Roderick demanded that the narrator look outside to see the peculiar glow which surrounded the house. The narrator shut the window and instructed Roderick not to look upon such things because they would negatively affect his mental condition. To distract Roderick the narrator reads him a story. While he is reading the story he can hear a loud banging emanating from somewhere within the house. The narrator continues to read until an even louder crash is produced from somewhere in the house. When he stops reading he notices Roderick is staring at the door and is muttering things to himself. What he is saying is that he could hear his sister banging to get out for days but only now has it gotten loud enough for others to hear it. Roderick admits that he knew she was alive when they entombed her and announces that she has broken out of her tomb and is currently outside the door. Then a gust of wind pushes open the door and Madeline Usher is standing in the doorway. Madeline falls onto Roderick and they both hit the ground dead. Once the narrator witnesses this he flees from the house only looking back when he sees a light come from the house. The narrator witnesses the house collapse into itself. Throughout the tale Poe makes just about everything Usher seem dark, twisted, and utterly insane. This story “presents a multilayered allegory of the disordered mind”(Kennedy 32) and therefore makes the entire narrative a testament to Poe’s analysis of the insane mind. Ligeia also exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the defective human mind. The unnamed first person narrator begins the story by describing the love of his life, Ligeia, in rich detail. The narrator tells us Ligeia eventually passed away and he was devastated. In his devastation he buys an abbey in England and fixes it up. After that the narrator gets married to a women named Rowena. After the first month of their marriage the narrator’s insanity begins to show when he says, “I loathed her with a hatred belonging more to demon than to man”(Poe 268) in reference to Rowena. In the second month of their marriage Rowena begins a cycle of getting sick followed by becoming even sicker. Finally Rowena passes away from her sickness and is wrapped for burial. That night the narrator stands vigil over Rowena’s corpse and even then, “with a bosom full of bitter thoughts of the one only and supremely beloved”(Poe 270) he is thinking about Ligeia. The narrator’s mind has become sick over the loss of Ligeia. As time goes by Rowena seems to breathe once, and her face seems to regain it’s color. Upon seeing this the narrator tries to resuscitate but her color quickly disappears and there is no more breathing. This process repeats itself numerous times throughout the night. Finally the body of Rowena rises out of the bed, covered completely in the burial wrap, and stands. The narrator rushes to touch her and as he does the wrap falls and Ligeia is revealed. “The poisoning of Rowena and the revivification of Ligeia are hallucinated by the narrator in the course of an opium-induced psychotic break,”(Psychother) this quote reveals what this story is, an examination of the deranged mind of the narrator. The Masque of the Red Death exemplifies Poe’s exploration of the defective human mind. The stories main character is Prince Prospero. The Prince lives in a time when the “red death”, which is a disease that kills those infected within an hour, is rampant throughout the country. In order to avoid the red death the Prince invites a thousand of his friends to his castle so he can close up the castle until the red death runs it’s course. After some time the prince throws a masquerade ball for his guests. For the ball the Prince has set up seven rooms that each have a different color theme. Six of the rooms are used by the masqueraders but the seventh is all black with red light shining, which reminds them of the red death, so most people stay away from that room. The ball itself goes on without incidence until midnight when a peculiar guest is noticed. This guest causes a stir within the other guests because this guest is wearing a costume that makes him look like a victim of the red death. Once the Prince sees this he is outraged and demands the peculiar guest be apprehended. None of the guests are brave enough to apprehend this sinister looking figure so the Prince himself attempts to confront the strange guest. When the prince gets to the figure, he falls dead. Once this happens the other guests rush to the figure and unmask it only to find no face underneath. The figure was the red death itself and subsequently all the guests die. This story is an exploration of the defective human mind in that, “Poe has real insight into that basically irrational strategy by which the mind attempts to preserve itself from its own forces of madness, disease, and disintegration by rigidly isolating itself and by assuming that the threat is external when in fact it is internal. This poetic mind, ostensibly given over to pleasure and beauty, is actually given over to what it fears most, to those sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within which, because of the unbreakably bolted doors, can neither escape nor originate in the outside world.” Essentially the entire story is an allegory, in which Prince Prospero is the mind itself, for an exploration of the deranged mind. Ultimately all of these narratives, The Black Cat, the Tell-Tale Heart, Hop-Frog, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, Ligeia, and The Masque of the Red Death, exemplify Edgar Allan Poe’s theme of analyzing the human mind whether it’s the guilt ridden cat murderer, the revenge filled wine aficionado, or the purely deranged Roderick Usher. Works Cited Kennedy, J. Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Piacentino, Ed. "Poe's "The Black Cat" as Psychobiography: Some Reflections on the Narratological Dynamics - Edgar Allan Poe - Critical Essay | Studies in Short Fiction | Find Articles at BNET." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. Columbia Broadcasting System, 01 Apr. 1998. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. . Poe, Edgar Allan. Fiction and Poetry: Complete and Unabridged. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. Print. Psychother, Am J. "Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia": an Object-relational Interpretation." PubMed.gov. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 01 July 1998. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. . Shulman, Robert. "Poe and the Powers of the Mind." (1970). JSTOR. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.