Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher Essay

The Gothic tradition has played a central role in creating architecture, poetry, literature, film and even art, such as Henry Fuselis’ 1781 painting, â€Å"The Nightmare†. Oscar Wilde borrowed heavily from the gothic tradition when creating his 1890s novel, â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† and in this essay I am going to be looking at certain gothic sections of Oscar Wildes’ novel where he utilizes the fundamental aspects of the Gothic tradition. I will be looking into â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† and how Wilde plays on the horror, the horrific, the suspense and the supernatural that all contribute to a Gothic mood. The term Gothic commands a vast semantic field of varied terrain; a range of meanings, definitions and associations. It is therefore very hard to define because it covers such a broad portfolio of different aspects. Historically the Goths were one of the several Germanic tribes who were one of the peoples who freed Europe from the clutches of the Roman Empire, culminating in its collapse in 476 AD. History itself has manipulated the term Gothic to be associated with the idea of freedom. One of the reasons the Gothic genre is so arduous to define is that it is constantly evolving and so after being associated with freedom it began to be linked with dreams. The rigid hierarchy of the Victorian era meant that the only place you could explore true freedom was in your dreams. And so again the idea evolved once more to nightmares where you could explore the dark side of human nature. The Gothic novel first became popular in England during the late 1700s and the early 1800s. At the end of the eighteenth century, England found itself in the midst of a social upheaval and it was out of this that the gothic genre emerged. The Gothic novel was invented almost single handledly by Horace Walpole, whose 1764 novel â€Å"The Castle of Otranto† contains essentially all the elements that constitute the genre. Walpole’s novel was imitated not only in the 18th century and not only in novel form but also in poetry, art and even later films. Poe’s, 1839, novel â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, also possesses the innate features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness and doubled personality (which will be discussed in a later paragraph). A mysterious family or past is a very popular theme throughout the Gothic genre and this is clearly evident in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, where Poe likens the house to the genetic family line of the Usher family, which he refers to as the house of Usher. In the novel the building is described as â€Å"neglected†¦crumbling†¦old†¦discoloured1† which refers not only to the mansion itself but is a potent metaphor for the Usher family itself. Furthermore in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† we see that Dorian’s past is exactly this. His typical Gothic family history includes duels to the death, suicide, young brides and romantic marriages. This also shows the obvious link between the Romantic Movement and the Gothic. One could say that the Gothic genre is Romanticism gone wrong. For example they both have castles but in the Gothic the castles tend to be derelict or haunted and, damsels in distress are seen in both genres as well. Throughout the Victorian era women were thought of as always being virtuous even though the expected behaviour of a husband was the complete opposite. The Gothic genre was an escape from reality and so in the genre emerged the controversial use of women not as pure, chaste people but as monsters and seductresses. Such examples of this could be the tragic death of Dorian Gray’s lover, Sibyl Vain: â€Å"she had swallowed something†¦some dreadful thing they use at theatres†¦either prussic acid or white lead†¦2† The girl’s death is typically gothic through the sheer horrifying nature of the death, swallowing acid, and highlights the waste of tangible life. In addition the women at the opium den is primal gothic, where she asks James Vain: â€Å"why didn’t you kill him [Dorian Gray]3†, which is a horrific question in itself. It is said that she: â€Å"hissed out† these words, which is a potent onomatopoeia, as if she is a snake; a typically frightening and monstrous creature to some. Also her face is described as â€Å"haggard4†, and is perhaps used by Wilde as if to liken her to a witch, only adds to the gothic aura. When James Vain looks back: â€Å"the women had vanished5†, making the women seem in a way, supernatural, another crucial theme in a gothic piece of literature. This was very effective to the Victoria audience as it was totally out of the normal and something that many would never dream of seeing. Furthermore writers in the Victorian era used many contempory issues as a basis of their works in order to bring the horror more to life. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†, the horrific murder of Sir Carew was linked to the similar murders by the infamous Jack the Ripper. This theme is very common, and recurrent in many gothic art forms. In Francis Ford Coppola’s, 1992 film, â€Å"Bram Stoker’s Dracula† Lucy after being bitten by Dracula, starts to become mysteriously sick and evil. Soon after there is a scene where she is about to feed on a baby, demonstrating how the damsel in distress has became evil. Women in Dracula are made into characters to fear rather than the embodiment of purity and goodness. Damsels in distress are also in Poe’s story where Roderick’s sister, Madeline is entombed before she has actually died. This idea is evident in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† as well, where the damsel is Sibyl Vane who dies early on in the novel however one could also say that Basil, the artist who painted the portrait, is the damsel in distress too. The Gothic genre allowed you to escape from reality, to explore freedom elsewhere and in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† Dorian tries to find a freedom that takes him away from his reality and his ever-growing sins. The opium dens offer him this release from his memory which are depicted â€Å"like a horrible malady, [that] was eating his soul away6†. This is proven by the fact that Dorian Gray flees to one of these dens, after murdering Basil Hallward; to presumably forget about the awfulness of his actions by losing conciseness in a drug induced languor. The dens located in the most derelict sites of London, maybe represent the squalid state of Dorian Gray’s mind and the actual dens described with words as: â€Å"tattered†¦dulled†¦distorted†¦greasy†¦ochre-coloured saw dust†¦spilt liquor7†, perhaps reflect his mortification of his soul. Drugs seem to give a new tempry freedom for Dorian to experience. Drugs seem to give a freedom which is what the Gothic represents in its entirety. One of the elements of the Gothic is the horrific and this is very vividly brought to life in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† where Sible Vane kills herself with prussic acid and also when Alan Campbell graphically destroys Basil Hallward body in Dorian’s attic which is almost like Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel, â€Å"Frankenstein† reversed. The main idea of a Gothic novel was the frightening and so in Wilde’s novel this is used frequently. The use of far off lands terrifying to the Victorian audience, is a key effect, and one relating to the original idea of the Gothic, although the Victorian Gothic novel found little need for ruins, rugged landscapes and derelict castles, the new landscape was the city as a source for menace and the dark. For example on Dorian’s way to the opium dens one day Wilde describes the route with prime Gothic vocabulary: â€Å"dimly-lit streets, past gaunt black-shadowed archways and evil-looking houses†¦ grotesque children†¦monstrous apes8.† For the upper classes reading the book, would never have been to the dark east end of London so they were left feeling as though they were in some desolate wild place. Another effect Wilde utilizes to scare the audience is how he likens inanimate objects to living things such as when he describes shadows as if they were alive. For example the way that Wilde likens shadows to living things: â€Å"†¦fantastic shadows were silhouetted against some lamp-lit blind†¦ they moved like monstrous marionettes, and made gestures like living things9.† Wilde is also able to make shadows frightening, by personifying the darkness: â€Å"the evening darkened in the room. Noiselessly, and with silver feet, the shadows crept in from the garden. The colours faded wearily out of things10†. From these extracts Wilde creates a typical Gothic mood that is dark and scary. There are some sections of Wilde’s book that seem as though they are describing certain Gothic works of art namely Henry Fusel’s, 1781, â€Å"The Nightmare† where he exploits all the original Gothic traits into a painting showing a women lying on a bed with a grotesque creature on her chest. Also it has many shadows and an ere horse in the background. The picture has all the elements that make the Gothic genre: dark setting, full of shadows, odd creatures, a damsel in distress and the unnatural. The Gothic theme is also represented in the painting, â€Å"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters† by Goya, 1799. They both have in the paintings a person sleeping and Gothic images around them suggesting that they are in the persons’ dreams. Double personalities, or doppelganger is used a lot among Gothic writers and is demonstrated in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher†, with Roderick and Madeline, the mansion and the genetic Usher family and this element occurs also in â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† with Dorian. In the novel the double personality is Dorian and his painting, Dorian representing the physical and the painting representing the â€Å"inside† or the soul of Dorian. However the theme is much more widely spread and is in other Gothic works such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde†. As in â€Å"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde† where one character, transforms in to another, when Dorian Gray has the idea to kill Basil Hallward, his urge is described in the book as: â€Å"the mad passions of a hunted animal [that] stirred within him11†. This particularly animalistic description, perhaps serves to highlight the gothic genre even more by making a comparison between animals, that are not restricted in society to act in a certain way, and are thus free to act as they please. By stark contrast, Dorian Gray as a human is restricted to act in a certain way, that is considered morally correct. His act of killing, in human society is considered as a sin. The supernatural is key in increasing the horror of a gothic novel, such as the fact that Dracula does not have reflection in the mirror. In addition when Harker describes how Dracula left the castle: â€Å"†¦I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and began to crawl down the castle wall†¦12† from this extract we can see that Dracula is a supernatural character as his actions are unexplainable. However the supernatural theme running through the book, reaches a dramatic zenith with Dorian’s end. His fatal error is absolutely supernatural with the description of the unrecognisable wrinkly old man where there had recently been a vibrant youth adding to both the awful moral and supernatural effect of the novel. Above all the most gothic and supernatural thing in the book is the portrait of Dorian Gray himself. The painting acts as a guidance to Dorian and almost becomes a moral barometer. After murdering Basil Hallward, the portrait reveals the sin by changing. The portrait is described as a canvas that had: â€Å"sweated blood13†, a blood that is expressed as a: â€Å"loathsome red dew that gleamed14†. Dorian grows increasingly uncomfortable over the course of novel with what the disfigured portrait signifies about himself. And as the novel progresses and the painting continues to register the effects of time and dissipation, and we start to see the degree to which Dorian is undone by the sins that his portrait reflects and the degree to which he suffers for allowing the painting to act as a â€Å"Visible emblem of conscience†. This in itself is a very gothic idea living a life without consequences and letting the portrait bear the sins and this is exactly what Dorian did until his sins caught up with him. The Victorian era was very difficult to live in because of its rigid structured social hierarchy that allowed no â€Å"impurities† or non ethnical or righteous ideas. However the Gothic genre allowed you to do all these things and to explore irrational fantasies and social taboos. This is probably why Wilde liked the genre because being a homosexual he could not explore his own freedom in his own life but instead he possibly explored this through the homoerotic theme of novel. He managed to escape and explore another freedom through the gothic genre. â€Å"The Picture of Dorian Gray† is not an entire gothic novel but a fair amount is and I think that with the gothic sections Wilde has successfully created a primo piece of Gothic literature. 1 The Picture of Dorian Gray, By Oscar Wilde, Published by Penguin.