Poe’s Devices for Heightening the Effect of Terror and Horror in Short Stories Essay

Edgar Allan Poe, an Ameri bottom poet, critic and writer of the XIX-th century, is a world- recognised master of the aversion genre. Poes Tales of Arabesque clearly demonstrate his talent for polish of riddle, holy terror, and macabre. The process of this abuse cultivation is very subtle and complicated. Poe, handle an artist of arabesque who intertwines and interlaces flowers into an elaborate pattern, weaves a clams of mystery and abuse and entangles the indorser in it. Poe starts any work with condition of the center it would have on the referee.All other stages of romance founding and literary devices employ for it depend on that main effect. then, the genre of Poes works, their plot structure, subject of narration, word choice, and imagery argon the devices, with the alleviate of which Poe creates and heightens the effect of terror and villainy. Such works as The Cask of Amontillado, MS run aground in a Bottle, and The Fall of the crime syndicate of door guard answer as vivid examples of Poes sophisticated exactly very good plague creating technique. The effect produced by the work on its proof subscriber for the most part depends on the genre of this work.It is no mere chance that Poe chooses the genre of a improvident study for his works of horror. On the one hand, a myopic story provides the writer with enough space to intrigue the reader, to rouse his historicalime in the plot. MS Found in a Bottle, for example, invites the reader to pay back part in a fantastic adventure in the midst of the stormy maritime. On the other hand, the plot unfolds very quickly, divergence no time for reasoning and meditation, keeping the senses heightened and sharp. Thus the perception of horror deepens and strengthens.Short forms of a short story bind the reader to deliver closer attention to every word, to every comma and exclamation mark. lyric poem used to create the atmosphere of terror and mystery become much colourful, more s ignifi orduret and profound metaphors grow into symbols, symbols to allegories. In The Cask of Amontillado, for example, the scruple of something terrible increases with every step Fortunato makes into the depth of the Montresors catacombs, with his every cough, with every design of Montresor to come back. only if the effect of horror is heightened non only by length of a story, but also by its plot structure. A very short introduction or its complete absence and the confoundedness placed at the very beginning of the story put the reader into the coarse of events at once. The events ar mostly proleptic universe unaw ar of their implication readers start experiencing nervousness and alarm, they feel that some dark, arcane mystery is to the highest degree to uncover. The reversal in a short story comes to the end and it endlessly comes unexpectedly.With the help of this device the writer coldcocks the reader, greatly intensifying his horror. Thus, terrified with the no-ac count atmosphere of the Rodericks castle and the constant sensation of trouble, the reader gets sincerely yours horrified at the sight of Rodericks dead sister, lady Madeline, suddenly revived to life. The absence of a resolution prolongs the shock from the terrible mystery uncovered or, as it is in MS Found in a Bottle, the mystery that can never be resolved. The manner in which the story is narrated is no less important for heightening the effect of horror than its very plot.Though all the terce stories proposed for this study be narrated in the first person, they are told in various types of the first person. These types differ by 4 main aspects. The first one is the part that the cashier plays in the story and his influence on the course of events. The narrator of the The Cask of Amontillado is the rally figure of the plot, moreover, he is its moving force. The reality of the story is revealed to us done Montresors eyes and is estimated by him. The reader is perpetual ly with the narrator and as the narrator is a murderer the reader becomes his unwilling accomplice to murder.The horror of being a murderer is absolute. The narrator of MS Found in a Bottle is also the central figure of the plot, all the events die to him and are set forth by him. Being al ports together with the narrator, the reader embarks on a dangerous, perilous, h dividing line-rising adventure, which ends as unexpectedly as it begins. Unlike the earlier two stories, The Fall of the polarity of Usher is not a story about the narrator. It is Roderick Usher who is in the centre of the plot, it is his mind and his life that we are interested in.But as we are with the narrator, who is an observer and estimator of events, we can only feel the dark mystery of the House of Usher, but can not penetrate into. There is no greater horror than that of mystery and no greater terror than that of the unknown. The second aspect in which the trinity first person narrations differ is the us e of tenses. Poe intentionally tells The Cask of Amontillado in the past and yields all the events in chronological order. This device helps the writer to press out the mind and actions of an insane person, who carefully plans a murder and methodically carries it out.Because of such step- by-step development of the plot the feeling of horror progressively grows higher and sensations of terror deposit. In MS Found in a Bottle the writer builds up the narration in a way to bring the story closer to the reality and to the reader. Thats why he makes use not only of the past tense, but also of the present and even the present never-ending. By describing the mysterious ship in the present the writer transports the reader on its deck, makes him feel the tossing of the ship, inhale the salty air.The use of the present continuous in the very end of the story heightens the horror and despair of being amid a roaring, and bellowing, and thundering of ocean and of tempest. The syntactic stru cture of the utmost passage short abrupt sentences separated by dashes creates the effect of the well out of consciousness and makes the reader not only the witness, but a histrion of the final scene. The three main tenses of The Fall of the House of Usher- past perfect, past, and future expand the borders of the events narrated.The past tense helps the writer to describe Roderick Usher as a reserved, mysterious, gloomy, melancholic, and abnormally sensitive person. The flash back make into Rodericks childhood with the help of the past perfect shows that he has always been that kind of person and all his ancestors were like him. The future shows that though the House of Usher fell the mystery of it will never be solved. Thus the sense of insufferable gloom and FEAR, which Roderick and his fireside provoke in the reader, grow in the ancient past and prolongs itself into the future.The final aspect that makes each of the three stories unique is the structure of the narration. The Cask of Amontillado is formed of a combination of dialog, monologue, and description. These are the dialogues here that are of particular interest to the study. Dialogues of The Cask are short and abrupt. Answers given to the questions are brief and concrete ( Nitre? he asked, at length. Nitre, I replied. ). This device makes every single word symbolic. Dialogues here are the part of the imagery that helps to draw the picture of horror and expectation of threat. Dialogues of The House of Usher differ from those of The Cask.They are long, descriptive, and complicated. Some dialogues between the narrator and his friend grow into the monologues of Roderick. The final monologue of Roderick composed of broken and disconnected sentences shows the shock of horror Roderick experienced when he felt that Madeline was back from her tomb. This shock extends to the narrator and to the reader. MS Found in a Bottle consists of a single monologue. The changing speech of the narrator reflects his mood and influences the mood of the reader. But the main function of this monologue is to create the hostile, tense, and gloomy atmosphere of the confuse reality.The main thing that influences the way in which the story effects the reader is the setting. Poe uses various stylistic devices to create a sinister setting and and so heighten the effect of horror and terror in his short stories. metaphor is one of the most important stylistic devices. It enables the writer to describe implicitly the thing or notion for which there is no name in the common language, or a feeling which will admit to no analysis. Thus, for example, the supernatural wild ocean is named watery hell or chaos of water. Simile helps to describe the indescribable in a more explicit form.Such similes as waters rear heads like demons of the deep, or crew glide like the ghosts of the buried centuries arouse associations with death, mystery, and myth. And the comparison of the windows of the house of Usher with blind eyes inspires us to take the house as a living creature, strange and dangerous. Another device, used to animate inanimate goals is personification. Whatever Poe personifies the wind (breath of wind), privacy (obstinate silence), tempest (bellow of the tempest), or air (wild air) -it becomes sparklyer and more profound.Epithets carry out a headsman function in creating the main images of the stories and drawing their sinister and horrifying settings. Thus, the ocean in MS Found in a Bottle is described as unfathomable, terrible and thundering the ship is gigantic and supernatural the house of Usher is melancholy and ancient, it has bleak walls, dark intricate passages, Gothic archways, overleap ceilings, and it inspires a sense of insufferable gloom and unredeemed dreariness the vaults of the Montresors are dark, damp and sombre. Poe frequently uses epithets that show the extreme quality, power, or size of an object described.Such epithets as intolerably hot wind, extrem e fury, immense pressure, grand breakers, and colossal supports form the fantastic reality of Poes works. An immense repair on our senses and feelings is made by colour and light words. Poe paints his gloomy settings with four main colours black, red, grey, and lily-livered. These colours, however, never repeat those that we are used to, they are always unique and special. Poe sees every subtle hue of the colour and observes the way it behaves. carmine, for example, is presented in two main hues dusky-red and blood-red it glares, streams down, or gleams in encrimsoned light.Red is the colour of blood and is therefore associated with pain and murder. Black, ebony black, and deep unforgiving black are the colours of eternal night and pitchy wickedness. They symbolise death, burial, fear, horror, and misfortune. Grey and leaden-hued arouse associations with ghosts, shadows, something elusive, mysterious, and imperceptible. Yellow or sickly yellow is traditionally regarded as the colour of disease, sickness, and insanity. The light in the stories is never bright but is always indiscrete, feeble, sluggish, faintly discernible, ghastly and mystic.And the gloomy setting created with the help of these hues of light can arouse in the reader nothing but the sensation of growing fear. In the conclusion it would be necessary to mention, that Edgar Allan Poe is an unexceeded master of the horror creating technique. He uses such devices as genre, structure of the plot, type and structure of narration, vivid imagery, settings, colour, and light to heighten the effect of terror and horror in his short stories. The contribution he made into the development of the horror genre can not be overestimated.