A Study Of Illness Narratives In Poe’s Gothic Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe holds a unique position in the history of American literature. His excellent artistic skills and techniques and magnificent imaginations characterize his writings, in which his Gothic horror tales succeed in creating a terrifying atmosphere and presenting the profound psychology of his character. Illness serves as a significant element in Poe’s tales; it also provides an important viewpoint to examine Poe’s stories to achieve a more comprehensive understanding. Based on the investigation of the relation between Poe’s life and illness and the social and cultural background of Poe’s time, the present thesis aims to discuss the emergence and embodiment of illness narratives in Poe’s tales in order to explore the aesthetic values and cultural connotations.To study the illness narratives of Poe’s tales, the relation between illness and literature should be examined initially. Since the18th century, tuberculosis, a deadly infectious disease, had spread over the western world and resulted in killing millions of people. However, in the19th century tuberculosis was embellished as an elegant and sentimental disease in literature. Moreover, illness is considered to be related to the creative power and intelligence of the writer. As a member of the American Romantic movement, Poe follows the19th century literary tradition of romanticizing illness; in the meantime his personal experiences with illness have also contributed to his writing. In Poe’s Gothic horror tales, illness narratives are employed to present themes of death and madness. Poe is famous for his obsession with the theme of death of a beautiful woman, which is deeply influenced by the loss of almost all his beloved women in his short and miserable life. In his stories about women, such as "Berenice","Morella", and "Ligeia", Poe tends to depict their appearances destroyed by bodily diseases. Thus in these stories, the employment of illness narratives helps to represent the beauty of death and arouse the reader’s sentimental feelings.Illness not only brings death to beautiful women in Poe’s stories, it also causes loss of sanity in men in his tales about madness, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat". Poe’s personal experiences of various mental disorders also contribute to his creation of characters; he even realized that his writing is affected by his mental illness. Through the first person narrative Poe deeply explores the inner world of his narrator and vividly represents the process of mental collapse, thus revealing the dilemma of the modern man.Like his theory in poetry, the creative ideas of Poe’s short stories put emphasis on effect rather than plausibility and morality. However, illness narratives in Poe’s stories reflect his careful observation of the society at his time. The early19th century was a period when the European Industrial Revolution was crossing the Atlantic and transforming the technological landscape of the eastern America. Poe’s writing reveals the potential problems of the rapidly developing America. He was able to recognize the subtle changes of the human mind in the period of cultural crisis, and present these changes in his fictional, irrational yet apocalyptical writings. In Poe’s stories, illness narratives not only describe the personal disease and madness, but also reveal the illness of the modern man in the industrial age. Poe’s humanistic concerns can also be seen in his seemingly unrealistic stories, which in return achieve his immortality.In general, the present thesis will be divided into three chapters. Chapter one aims to investigate the relation between illness and literature and the emergence and development of illness as metaphor in literary works. Chapter two will examine illness narratives in Poe’s gothic stories about death of a beautiful woman, especially in "Berenice","Morella", and "Ligeia". Chapter three intends to discuss madness and insanity represented through illness narratives in Poe’s horror tales, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat". All these stories reflect Poe’s aesthetic views of illness, his understandings of the cultural crisis and his concern about the dilemma of human existence.