Nothing to Fear, but Fear Itself Fear can destroy people. Many are driven crazy by fear and are pushed to the brinks of insanity. Those who are put in situations of panic, where even a character’s surroundings are instigating fear, can find themselves in compromising positions. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories “The Black Cat” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” are two prime examples of stories where fear moves the plot along, as it transforms its characters. Poe explores the darkest depths of the human mind and exploits his characters’ fear of themselves, and while these accounts have ready supplies of fear, they convey these apprehensions in different ways.
John Wright may have possibly had mania mental illness, a mood characterized by excessive elation, hyperactivity, agitation and accelerated thinking. This is well supported by the previous mental analysis done on Mr. Wright according to the Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology ‘’Most episodes of mania—elation without reasonable cause or justification—are followed in short order by depression; together they represent the opposites described as bipolar disorder… Expressions of hostility and irritability also are common during manic episodes’’. I propose that Mr. Wright killed the canary by breaking its neck therefore compelling evidence that he possessed mania. Therefore Mr. Wright thought that taking something dear to his wife was a way of controlling her; keeping her the way he wanted. Compelling evidence that it couldn’t have possibly been Mrs. Wright who mutilated the bird; ‘’the cage is severely damaged,’’ (Giaspell 749).
Women as castrators, society’s destruction of natural impulses, and false diagnoses of insanity are some of the themes which are reinforced by the Chief’s madness and hallucinations in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The main weaknesses of using Chief Bromden as the narrator of the novel are due to the fact that the Chief continuously describes his hallucinations as if they were present and constantly has flashbacks of his past which can be confusing. Additionally, his opinions on the events and characters that take place at the ward can be a biased opinion of the Chief. This particularly interferes with our knowledge and understanding about what is actually happening at the ward. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one very confusing thing that interferes with our understanding of reality and fantasy is Chief
The Use of the Doppelganger in "The Fall of the House of Usher" According to Edgar Allan Poe, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” In other words, when terror is incited in a person, it leaves a lasting impression. It was for this reason that the gothic style of literature was so popular during the 19th century; readers were fascinated with the emotions that they experienced while reading this style. As Poe stated, the emotional state of horror incited by his portrayal of reality caused people to realize how chaotic life can be. Identifiable characteristics, such as gothic architecture, lackluster landscape, inexplicable sickness, and split personalities helped portray this warped sense of reality to the reader. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” Poe uses the doppelganger, which literally means "double goer” to portray the two sides of a certain element in a story.
9/19/12 Madness in Literature Several authors utilize the aspect of “madness” to emphasize a point, to warn of a maleficent force, or to simply entertain. Two such examples of this technique being used are “Macbeth,” by William Shakespeare, and “Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Bronte. Within these stories, one main character of each story, Macbeth and Catherine Earnshaw, respectively, undergoes a change in nature to become “mad.” The madness of the characters illustrates an argument for the “unnatural” impetus yielding “unnatural” results. In both of these two works, the impetus that leads to each character’s madness involves a deviation from their natural state or behavior that is never resolved, but instead is allowed to compound, causing
‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ Argues without Argument ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ is a complex short story told though the point of view of a sarcastic and insane protagonist, who has rapidly changing ideas about her surroundings, other characters and even her own psychological state. Because of this, readers may come to a variety of conclusions about major plot points and themes. Puzzled, readers will identify the piece as a horror story—a vivid portrayal of insanity with unsettling realism. This is indeed the conscious conclusion that Charlotte Perkins Gilman intends for her readers to form. However, the piece is so much more than a simple horror story; it is a deceptively hidden but powerful essay on female equality and marriage, two topics about which Gilman wrote frequently.
I dreaded the first glance at objects around me. It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be NOTHING to see. At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed.”(59-64) This is an example of sensualism because the narrator is just waking up and in a groggy state of mind. An example of sensationalism would be when they take the narrator into a torture chamber because its over the top and in a gothic excessive nature.
Montresor is a dangerous and evil person in The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe. In this short story, Montresor is sensitive, trickey, and evil. Montresor is sensitive because he is going to kill Fortunato because he insulted him. In the story, Poe also shows us through the indirect characterization methods of Montresor’s own actions, words, and looks. When Montresor is ready to go to the catacomb with Fortunato, he puts “on a mask of black silk” and wraps himself up in “a roquelaire.” He wears the mask and the roquelaire because it hides his identity.
Each text explores Madness in different ways. Madness in the content of Macbeth is unlike the Madness in Firestorm because the characters in Macbeth have made their own mayhem out of their own insanely chaotic actions but the character in Firestorm is being led to madness because of the environment around him and he had never meant for this to happen. In text 1 Macbeth, Madness is exposed when Lady Macbeth thinks she has a ‘spot’ of Duncan’s blood on her hands, she tries to wash this figment of her imagination off her hands, as she cries
The story does not tell the reader what the nameless narrator and central character of the story has done to deserve the torture that they receive. All the reader knows is that the characters in the story are surrounded by all of this chaos. The tone of the story is dark and mysterious. Edger Alan Poe is trying to set up a vague tone to the Pit and the Pendulum. For example, on page five hundred and sixty-four the tone of this part is ominous because it explains how the candles are faintly seen through the narrators eyes.