Anti-Transcendentalism
•Poe
•Hawthorne
•Melville
Anti-Transcendentalism’s
similarities to Transcendentalists
• Valued intuition and emotion over logic
• Saw signs and symbols of a Divine Soul in
human events
• Thought spirituality is tied to nature
Anti-Transcendentalism
• Explored the darker side of humanity
• Valued Nature but saw it as indifferent to human
suffering not as benevolent or harmless force
• Focused on darker ideas of Puritan thought
– Original sin
– Innate depravity (twistedness) of human beings
– Predestination
• Stripped away the masks of social respectability
to explore darkness and terror
• Acknowledged the existence of evil in nature and
humanity
Edgar A. Poe
• Troubled life
– Son of traveling actors (artistic inclinations)
• Dad left & mom died of tuberculosis
– Taken in by John Allan & family (never adopted)
– Married young cousin (Virginia Clemm)
– Died under mysterious circumstances
• Introduced readers to a whole new genre of
writing – horror & mystery
• Given credit for the invention of the detective
story
• Explores the darker side of human nature –
particularly “altered” mental states
Gothic Genre
• The story is set in bleak (hopeless) and remote
places
• The plot involves macabre (creepy/yuck) or
violent incidents
• Characters are in psychological and/or physical
torment
• A supernatural or otherworldly element is
often present
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Atmosphere
– the “emotional” setting of a story
• Personification
– the giving of human characteristics to nonhuman
objects
• Foreshadowing
– revealing future events through hints or clues within a
story
• Theme
– the main idea that a writer wants the reader to
understand
– what is the writer’s point
– Most times a statement about human nature
– Sometimes a moral, but not always
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Setting
– Unspecified place or time
– Uses atmosphere to create emotional response
(Mood)
• Mysterious and gloomy setting creates creepy feeling
– Details include bleak walls, eyelike windows
(personification), rank weeds, white decayed tree
trunks
– Tries to rearrange elements by looking at
reflection in the lake, which makes it worse
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Roderick Usher
– Childhood friend w/ “nervous agitation” – he’s
mental
– Identifies the narrator as his ONLY friend
– Narrator cannot deny his request
• Narrator
– Remembers Roderick as very reserved with a
“peculiar sensibility of temperment”
• he’s very artsy (unique and separated from society)
– Seems compassionate to the suffering of his friend
– Is not immune to the “creep out” factor of the
house itself
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• House of Usher
– Refers to the family and the house
– Has become something of a superstition
– House looks terrible, but stands strong in spite of
decay
– Crack extends from roof to the lake
• symbolizes that the house has problems
– Very dark décor (armor, dark floors, tapestries)
– Looks very changed from our narrator’s childhood
memories
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Meets the physician on the stairway before he
ever even sees Roderick (foreshadowing)
• Roderick’s surroundings reflect his state –
dark, sorrowful, unbelievable gloom
– He is hardly recognizable to the narrator
• Cadaverous, pallid, liquid eye, web-like hair
– “excessive agitation” – super nervous about
everything!
• Seemingly manic (extreme and opposite emotions)
• “acuteness of the senses” – all 5 senses are too
sensitive
• Fears that he will be scared to death
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Roderick hasn’t left the house (he thinks the
house won’t let him leave)
• Lady Madeline – his sister, last living relative,
and only companion for years
– She creeps through the scene and disappears
– Mystery illness – causes “deathlike” seizures
– Becomes bedridden the very night the narrator
arrives and he catches last glimpse of her while
living (foreshadowing)
• Narrator makes efforts to relieve the suffering
of his friend by reading, painting, etc…
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Usher’s creations are fantastical and strange
• The lady Madeline was “no more”
– Wants to preserve her corpse IN THE HOUSE for 2 weeks to
protect her body from her doctors
• Placed body in vault
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Small, damp, and totally dark
Directly below the narrator’s room
Lined with metal – really heavy door
Described as “region of horror”
• Madeline’s body
– Rod’s twin
– Youthful beauty not harmed
– “faint blush” and “lingering smile” due to illness
• They seal the body up in the coffin and then the vault
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Usher’s “mental disorder” changes because of
his awful grief
– Does nothing but wander
– Has become paler (if that was possible)
– Speaks in terror (like he knows something and is
completely terrified)
– Looks off into space as if listening intently
• Usher’s crazy is almost contagious
– Narrator is feeling super creepy again (tries to
explain it away)
– “hears” low and strange sounds in the storm
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Usher shows up at narrator’s door looking
worse (thinner, paler, and crazier) - hysterical
– Narrator is so creeped out, he’s glad to see him
(even though he’s crazy)
• Storm has unusual effect (increases creepiness
of mood)
– Mysterious glowing vapor has enveloped the
house
• Narrator moves Usher and decides to read a
book
– Usher is listening intently to the story (or at least
that’s what the narrator thinks)
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Mad Trist is a frame story (story within a story)
– Mirrors events which are happening in the outer
story
• Ethelred cracked and ripped the door open (Narrator
thinks he hears a similar sound. He thinks it’s the
storm)
• Dragon shrieks when Ethelred smashes it (again an
echo in the house of the same sound)
– Usher has moved his position and his posture has changed
(he’s muttering, head dropped, swaying side to side)
• Shield crashed to the ground (echo of clanging heard
through the house)
– Narrator rushes to Usher
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• Usher reveals that he has heard “it” for many
days
– They buried his sister ALIVE!!!!!!
• He has heard her scratching and clawing her way out of
the tomb for days
– Now she is outside the door!
• The door opens to reveal the blood stained
Madeline
– She falls upon Usher and he dies of fright
• The narrator gets out of the house ASAP
• The House of Usher splits along the crack and
disappears into the lake.
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
• The family and the house died together just as
they lived.
“The Raven”
• Symbolism
– Raven symbolizes intense grief over death of Lenore
• Setting
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Midnight – the witching hour
Narrator reading “forgotten lore” – legends & myths
Nearly napping – almost asleep (dreamlike state)
Hears strange tapping
December – winter (symbolizes death)
Fire dying in hearth – creepy shadows
• Seeking relief from sorrow over Lenore
– Grief over her death
“The Raven”
• Narrator sort of freaks himself out
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Curtains rustling
Tells himself it is a visitor – calls aloud to “visitor”
Opens door and nothing but darkness
He whispers to Lenore and gets a freaky echo
• Hears tapping again from window & opens it
• Raven steps in and perches on statue of Athena
(goddess of wisdom)
– Symbolizes grief sitting on your wisdom (thoughts)
• Narrator is glad to see him and asks his name
– Raven responds “Nevermore” – maybe it’s his name
or maybe he is telling the narrator he will never find
out the bird’s name
“The Raven”
• The narrator fears the raven will abandon him like
“other” (Lenore)
– Birds responds “Nevermore” as if telling the narrator
he will never leave him
• Tries to explain the bird’s speech and only word
being nevermore
– Maybe he learned it from a previous owner
• He sits in front of bird
– Is reminded that she will never sit there again
• Narrator hopes the bird has been sent by angels
to relieve his suffering & grief
– Bird says Nevermore – there is no hope for relief from
suffering
“The Raven”
• Is there relief? – raven answers Nevermore
• Asks if he will see her in Eden (heaven)
– Nevermore (he will never see her again)
• Tries to throw the bird out
– Nevermore (bird isn’t leaving)
• Raven still is sitting on the bust of Athena
• Narrator’s soul lives the shadow of the raven
– Raven symbolizes the grief over Lenore’s death
• The grief shadows his soul and will never leave him
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
• Set during the Inquisition
– The Catholic church began to search for people
who had made “false conversions” or committed
acts of heresy against the church
– Torture and violence were common place
• First person narration
– Allows us into narrator’s mind to experience his
thoughts and emotions
– Also allows us to follow him in and out of
consciousness
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
• Symbolism
– The pit is the primary symbol of evil
– Imagery of Hell is very common
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Impenetrable darkness
The pit
The rats
Someone always watching
The pictures of torture scenes painted on the walls
The heated walls
• Fear factors
– Buried alive, darkness, falling, rats, drowning,
dead bodies, being sliced slowly, someone
watching, burned alive…
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
• Rev Hooper puts on a black veil which hides
his eyes.
– His sermon on the first day he wears the veil is
that of secret sin
– His congregation responds with fear and distrust
• No one invites him to Sunday dinner
• Demonstrates the lack of human sympathy when
someone or something changes
• Rev Hooper does nothing differently – he
tends to his flock as always
– Weddings, funerals, etc…
– Becomes a very effective preacher
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
• Elizabeth – Rev Hooper’s fiancé
– She isn’t afraid of it, but she needs to understand
it
– Hooper refuses to explain it other than to say it is
a type and a symbol, and she breaks the
engagement
– She never marries and is with him on his deathbed
• Hooper’s death
– He says he sees “a black veil” on everyone’s face
• Suggests that everyone hides the secrets of his/soul
– Promises to never remove it – dies and is buried
with it
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
• Veil symbolizes secret sin (the darkness and
secrets of the human soul)
• mood/atmosphere of the story
– Mysterious and gloomy, sad and a little scary
• Points out that the human soul is much darker
than Transcendentalists want to believe.
Moby Dick
• Moby Dick is a sperm whale and the ultimate
symbol of nature
– Represents all that is powerful and uncontrollable
in nature
– Indifferent to the human suffering and destruction
he causes
– Unstoppable, just like nature
• “Call me Ishmael” – very famous line
– Narrator who is observing and telling story from
1st person point of view
– He is observant and reflective not just telling us
what he sees, but he also discusses what things
mean
Moby Dick
• “Gold coin speech”
– Fires men up for the hunt for Moby Dick
• Nails coin to mast to remind men of their goal/reward
– Demonstrates Starbuck as a voice of reason and a
rational thinker
• Starbuck points out that MD’s value isn’t that great (very
practical)
• He thinks MD is just a whale without the capacity for the
idea of vengeance or persecution (picking on someone)
• Criticizes Ahab and calls his actions blasphemous (against
God and nature)
• Recognizes Ahab’s madness and the hopelessness of
overcoming it.
• Ceremony
– The harpooners drink from their harpoon sockets
• Much like Christian communion
• Ahab
Moby Dick
– Driven by insane by desire for revenge against nature
– His intelligence in revealed in his clear plan for
revenge
– Pride is his fatal flaw
• He will destroy himself in order to get vengeance on Moby
Dick
– For Ahab, MD represents all that is evil and
destructive in the world
• Themes
– Nature is unstoppable and destructive
– Pride can blind us to the destructiveness of our own
desires
– Humans/Society cannot win when we take on nature