| Symbols and allegory in Poes stories. |
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During his short life Edgar Allan Poe wrote over 70 short stories. His best short stories deal with either terror or logical reasoning. In his review of Nathaniel Hawthornes Twice-Told Tales Poe gives his view of the short story. He asserts that everything in a story or tale every incident, every combination of events and even every word must aid the author in achieving a particular emotional effect. He felt that the writer of short stories should conceive his stories with deliberate care in order to reach a certain unique or single effect upon the reader, beginning with the initial sentence of the story. Poe uses a lot of symbols and allegories that contribute toward the single effect of horror or suspense which his stories convey.
In The Cask of Amontillado there are several significant symbols. The unfortunate Fortunato was said to be wearing motley: a parti-striped dress and a conical cap and bells. The costume by itself and the fact that Fortunato was wearing it symbolises his frivolous, light-minded attitude towards life. It is not by chance that a man of motley is often called a fool. Fortunato did not consider Montresors behaviour as something unusual or his words as a warning, it seems that he hastened the coming of his death himself. Fortunatos wish to satisfy Montresors doubts about the authenticity of the Amontillado, or rather his enthusiasm to boast about his connoisseurship in wine, guided him to the end of his days. Thus, the object of his desire (the Amontillado) became the cause of his death. The jingle of bells is generally associated with joy and merry-making, but in the story the faltering jingle of bells on Fortunatos cap can be treated as a symbol of his forthcoming death. The main setting of the story is in Montresors vaults which is not simply a large wine-cellar, but also the catacombs of the family. The darkness of the place, the insufferable dampness, mould on the ground, nitre on the walls, piles of human bones and torches that become dim and give only wan light - all these can be regarded as symbols foreboding death. Another horror story by Edgar Poe is MS. Found in a Bottle. In concordance with his principles of short story writing the symbols that Poe employs serve to produce a single effect of terror and fright. One evening the hero of the story observed a very singular isolated cloud. This is a symbol of many meanings. For instance, it can be regarded as a symbol of the loneliness of the individual in the world (an association arises - Lermontovs lonesome white sail). In this sense the symbol of the cloud foretells the development of the heros fate: not one person on the ship paid attention to his presentiment of evil and when the tempest proved him right he was left completely alone by some unaccountable power. On board the gigantic stranger ship he was also the only living soul; the captain and the crew seemed unconscious of his presence. On the other hand, the solitary cloud betokened danger, misfortune. Likewise the unconceivable calm of the air does not give a sense of calm to the reader, on the contrary it stirs a feeling of fear. Why? Calm is associated in our mind with rest, repose, peace, silence, stillness which, taken in their absolute form, are connected to the comprehension of death. The other symbols used in the story are for the most part specific colours and light (to read more about it click here): the dusky-red appearance of the moon , the sickly yellow lustre colour of the sun, the deep dingy black hull of the ship. These symbolic images contribute to the increasingly mysterious and nightmare-like atmosphere which deprives the reader of his serenity and absorbs him. The whole story is an allegory of the idea that people are unable to control their lives or what happens to them. Poe believes that the life of a human being is in the hands of mysterious evil powers that lead him to the destruction of his life, the ruin of his soul and often to death. In the opening of the story the hero confesses that the only reason why he sailed on the ill-fated ship was a nervous, unaccountable restlessness which haunted him as a fiend. Man cannot even find a proper explanation for the accidents and tragedies of his life (Are such things the operation of ungoverned chance?), and scientific investigations are weak to disclose the mystery. The hero of the story describes the crew of the enchanted ship as people whose knees trembled with infirmity, shoulders were bent double with decrepitude, voices were low, tremulous. Likewise any person is helpless before the unknown forces, he appears infirm and frail. Sometimes a man possesses a great desire to survive and the ability to adapt to the most horrendous situations. Thus, the hero started a journal on the terrible ship and was going to make the endeavour of transmitting it to the world. Nevertheless the end of the story shows that he could not somehow improve his horrifying fate. |
