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Elective English—III

Notes to devise strictly artistic standards in an environment that he thought excessively concerned
with the utilitarian value of literature, a tendency he called the “heresy of the didactic.” While
Poe’s position includes the key fundamentals of pure aestheticism, his importance on literary
formalism was directly associated with his philosophical ideals. Through the calculated use of
language one may express, though always poorly, a vision of truth and the fundamental condition
of human existence.
There is a psychological intensity, which is characteristic of Poe’s writings, particularly the tales
of horror that contains his well-known works. These stories include The Black Cat, The Cask of
Amontillado, and The Tell-Tale Heart. They are told by a first-person narrator and through this
voice Poe explores the workings of a character’s psyche. This method foreshadows the school of
psychological realism and the psychological explorations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

In works such as Von Kempelen and His Discovery and The Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfaall, Poe
took inspiration from the latest science and technology that emerged in the early 19th century to
produce fantastic and speculative stories that anticipate a kind of literature that did not become
popular until 20th century. Likewise, Poe’s three tales of ratiocination–The Mystery of Marie
Roget, The Purloined Letter and The Murders in the Rue Morgue–are recognised examples that
establish the main characters and literary standards of detective fiction. The amateur detective
who solves a crime that has perplexed the authorities and is always accompanied by an admiring
associate.

Task Read The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart by Poe and analyse it.

Poe also composed poems that were meant to be read aloud. He experimented with different
combinations of sound and rhythm and used technical devices like internal rhyme, assonance,
repetition, alliteration and parallelism.

Example: In The Bells, the repetition of the word “bells” in various structures emphasises
the distinctive tone of the various kinds of bells expressed in the poem.

2.3 Critics

Although Poe’s works were not much applauded during his lifetime, he did earn due respect as
a talented poet, man of letters and fiction writer. He earned a remarkable success after the
publishing of the poem The Raven, which is his one of the most popular poems. After his demise,
however, the account of his critical reception becomes one of dramatically unequal interpretations
and judgments. This state of affairs was introduced by Poe’s one-time friend and literary
facilitator R.W. Griswold, who, in a libellous obituary notice in the New York Tribune bearing
the by-line “Ludwig,” accredited the psychological and depravity abnormalities of several of
the characters in Poe’s fiction to Poe himself. In retrospect, Griswold’s disparagements appear
ultimately to have caused as much sympathy as censure with respect to Poe and his work. This
led following biographers of the late 19th century to defend Poe’s name. It was not until the 1941
that the biography of Poe by A.H. Quinn showed a balanced view was of Poe’s life, his work, and
the relationship between his imagination and life. However, the identification of Poe with the
murderers and madmen of his works lived and prospered in the 20th century, most conspicuously
in the form of psychoanalytical studies like those of Joseph Wood Krutch and Marie Bonaparte.

An American journalist, critic and essayist, Paul Elmer More called Poe “the poet of unripe boys
and unsound men.” Therefore, in addition to the controversy over the sanity, or maturity of Poe,
was the question of the significance of Poe’s works as crucial literature. T.S. Eliot, Henry James

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