Analysis of Jonathan Edward’s Sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
I'm sure many will be taken aback by my reaction and analysis of Jonathan Edwards sermon. I will hold that it depends on what frame of mind the reader studies this from. I simply ask that you open your mind to the possibility that this was a loving man.
Jonathan Edward’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is such a beautifully and eloquently spoken sermon of love that many will likely see only as a sermon of God’s displeasure with man.
I don’t think that I’ve ever been quite so glad to have been raised on the King James Version of the Bible as after reading this. This plea to “natural man” to be born again is evidence of Edward’s attempt to address any argument that escape from hell can be earned, purchased or avoided by man, except through Christ.
Edward’s image of God’s hand holding “natural man” by a thin thread out of the path of his wrath is a wonderful accounting of God’s grace. God does not want to let go of that thread.
When Jonathan Edwards refers to “natural man” he is speaking of anyone who has not accepted Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation by being “born again.”
Edward’s first outlines the wrath and vengeance God set against His chosen people the Israelites when they continued to fall away and disobey Him. Then later he shows how that same wrath transfers to the whole world.
Edwards notes that only God’s own desire to keep us from falling into hell is sustaining us from it. It is only through God’s grace. He mentions several times how man has and continues to try to fit God into a mold that will not hold Him. God’s pleasure, His will, is what holds us up, until He knows that a heart is so hard that He will let go and let us slip into the hell we have earned by our own hands. Then the sinner is no more a thought of God, but is something under His feet.
Edwards is careful to point out that only God knows when that point of no return for any one person is.
Edwards backs up every claim with Holy Scripture. He addresses everyone and every excuse. He knows that there are people in the very congregation he is speaking to that will turn their deaf ear to it and be without excuse. He speaks of man’s schemes and man’s wisdom as foolishness before God.
Edwards’ ten points of consideration end with the final blow that God is under no “obligation” to man. He has outlined the covenant of Christ as the mediator man rejects.
My own gut reaction to the message in this sermon is of rejoicing for the power, love and mercy of God, because I have no need to fear death. But, my assurance is only through being born again through Christ. Nothing I did could change me to be righteous before God. Only God could do that for me. And that is what Jonathan Edwards is trying to make visual here.
In the final plea the minister offers yet another chance for anyone there to be born again through Christ. I’m sure his voice was bold and loud, but still he spoke out of love. Sure his message is a fiery one, but that seems to be the point. But, I could almost imagine hearing this man’s voice in a humble and pleading tone, not at all haughty or of a man above his congregation.
Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) preached this sermon in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is meant to be disturbing to the heart of the unrepentant sinner. It is also meant to give hope by offering a way out of the state of “natural man.”
"Rip Van Winkle"
The story of Rip Van Winkle was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman from New York who was especially interested in the histories, customs, and culture of the Dutch settlers in that state. It is set in a small, very old village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, which was founded by some of the earliest Dutch settlers. Rip lived there while America was still a colony of Great Britain.
Rip Van Winkle is descended from gallant soldiers but is a peaceful man himself, known for being a kind and gentle neighbor. His single flaw is an utter inability to do any work that could turn a profit. It is not because he is lazy—in fact, he is perfectly willing to spend all day helping someone else with their labor. He is just incapable of doing anything to help his own household. He also is well-known for being an obedient, henpecked husband, for Dame Van Winkle has no problem shouting insults into the neighborhood and tracking him down in the village to berate him. All the women and children in the village love him and side with him against his wife, and even the dogs do not bark at him.
Indeed, when he tries to console himself and escape from Dame Van Winkle, he often goes to a sort of philosophical or political club that meets on a bench outside of a small inn. Here the more idle men actually gossip and tell sleepy stories about nothing, every once in a while discussing “current” events when they find an old newspaper. Nicholaus Vedder is the landlord of the inn and the leader of the group. He never speaks but makes his opinions clear based on how he smokes his pipe. Even here, Van Winkle cannot escape from his wife, who berates everyone for encouraging his idleness.
His indolence is probably to be blamed for his farm’s bad luck, so Dame Van Winkle has more than a little cause to berate him—which she does, morning, noon, and night. As the years pass, things continue to get worse, and his only recourse is to escape to the outdoors. His one companion in the household is his dog Wolf, who for no good reason is just as badly treated by the petticoat tyrant Dame Van Winkle.
On one trip to the woods, Van Winkle wanders to one of the highest points in the Catskills. Fatigued from the climb, he rests, and soon the sun has started to set. He knows he will not be able to get home before dark. As he gets up, he hears a voice call his name. A shadowy figure seems to be in need of assistance, so he approaches the man, who looks very strange. He is short and square, with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard, dressed in the antique Dutch fashion. He asks Van Winkle for help climbing higher with a keg. They reach an amphitheatre in the woods, where a collection of similarly odd-looking men are bowling, which makes the environs sound like it is thundering. Although they are involved in pleasurable pursuits, they are silent and grim.
The man starts to serve drinks from the keg and gestures to Van Winkle to help. He eventually takes a drink for himself. It tastes delicious, and he goes back for more and more until he is quite drunk and lies down to pass out.
When he wakes up in the morning, he is anxious about what Dame Van Winkle will say about his late return. He reaches for his gun but finds that it is now rusty and worm-eaten—perhaps the men tricked him and replaced his gun. Wolf also is gone and does not respond to Van Winkle’s calls. He gets up and feels quite stiff. When he tries to retrace his steps, the amphitheatre appears to have become an impenetrable wall of rock, and some of the natural features of the area have changed.
Van Winkle returns to the village but recognizes nobody, which is strange for a small village, and he notices that everyone is strangely dressed. They look surprised to see him, too, and he realizes that his beard has grown a foot longer. The children hoot at him and the dogs bark. The village itself has grown larger. He begins to think he must be going crazy, for the natural scenery is the only thing that is recognizable. The flagon must have made him lose his mind.
At his house, he finds it in complete disrepair and abandoned. His wife and children are not there. The inn where he used to meet his friends has disappeared, and where there used to be a picture of George III there is now one of a certain George Washington. The new group of people at the new hotel there is full of completely different people, and their discussions are more argumentative than he remembers. The crowd asks him questions, especially about what political party he belongs to. He is confused and says he is still a loyal subject of the king. They declare him a traitor and a Tory. When he says he has just come looking for his friends, they tell him that Nicholaus Vedder has been dead for eighteen years and Van Bummel is now in Congress.
Rip Van Winkle becomes still more distressed and confused when he asks if they know Rip Van Winkle and the townspeople point out a different lazy-looking man. He begins to think he is crazy. A familiar woman approaches, and he finds out enough to decide that she is his daughter. She explains that her father went out with his gun one day twenty years ago and was never heard from since. Rip Van Winkle tells everyone that for him it has only been one night, which makes them think he is crazy, too. The one piece of good news is that Dame Van Winkle recently passed away.
Peter Vanderdonk, the town’s oldest inhabitant, vouches for Rip Van Winkle and says that he has heard tales passed down about the ghosts of Hendrick Hudson and his men appearing once every twenty years; they bowl and keep a guardian eye on the region that Hudson explored. The tale seems to fit with Rip’s experience. Rip goes to live with his daughter, who is married to a cheerful farmer. He lives much happier than he ever was with Dame Van Winkle. Also, he is now old enough for his idleness to be socially acceptable, and he returns to the hotel and is again well-loved in the village. He eventually learns about the Revolutionary War and everything else that has passed, but the only yoke of government that he cares about having thrown off is that of Dame Van Winkle.
Knickerbocker closes the story with an impassioned declaration of its veracity on personal examination. He also gives a brief history of the magic and fables associated with the Catskills, suggesting that even the Indians tell of similar experiences in the area in their own stories and myths.
Analysis
“Rip Van Winkle” is one of the most famous stories of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon. It is one of the few that take place in America, although it is believed to be a retelling of an Old World folktale. The setting of the tale, in the Catskills by the Hudson, gives the story a fairly precise location that grounds it in America.
The passages that begin and end the story frame it to separate it from the other sketches. Here our narrator is no longer Crayon but Diedrich Knickerbocker, who is quite adamant in vouching for the authenticity of the tale, which serves not to satisfy the reader but instead to make the reliability of the tale and its narrator even more ambiguous. This distance of Crayon from the tale touches on the theme of veracity in storytelling and its importance.
The story itself is an escapist fantasy; Rip Van Winkle is an ineffectual male hero who cannot support his farm or family. Instead of facing the consequences of his idleness and facing his wife, who certainly makes the problem worse instead of better, he sleeps for twenty years. Finally, he is of such an age that his idleness is excusable and allowed. This makes him an antithesis to the American dream. He has no ambition, he does not work hard for himself, and he does not rise above where he began. He just likes to chat and have friends.
He also sleeps through what was the defining moment of American history, and upon waking, he does not even care. This develops him as the American anti-hero, for he takes no part in the country’s founding or history. His story makes sense as more of an Old World story, one that the Dutch settlers, in their relatively old village, can retell. The story also shows that great historical events are often less important than the daily happenings in an individual’s life. The only oppressor Rip Van Winkle cares about having overcome is his wife.
Dame Van Winkle is certainly the antagonist in this story. She is constantly berating Rip Van Winkle, whom everyone else in the neighborhood adores. She is a completely flat character—we only ever see her worst side, except for the one comment made after she has died that she always kept the house in good order. Her criticism of her husband, if far too strong, is nevertheless deserved. He has completely failed in his role as husband, father, and breadwinner, leaving his family in near ruin. The husband is an extreme form of deadbeat and the wife an extreme form of nagging and henpecking, a state of affairs which appears to be a lesson and warning for Irving’s male and female readers alike. The husbands should learn to be more industrious and attentive, and the wives should learn to be less antagonistic and more understanding lest they drive their husbands further away.
Rip’s night in the woods symbolizes the fantasy of escape through one’s imagination, which is in itself a form of storytelling. Once he is freed of his duties to his family, he becomes the town storyteller, and it is this story which has freed him from his domestic duties—he literally and figuratively dreamed them away. In this way the imagination, or one’s creative life, is presented as a way to deal with the less pleasing duties of everyday life. At the same time, it is not without its dangers. Although Van Winkle finds a happy ending, he is very close to being labeled insane or dangerous and being thrust out of the town.
The Birthmark
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The narrator introduces Aylmer as a brilliant scientist and natural philosopher who has abandoned his experiments for a while to marry the beautiful Georgiana. One day, Aylmer asks his wife whether she has ever thought about removing the birthmark on her cheek. She cheerfully says no but grows serious when she sees that he asked the question seriously. Many people, she says, have told her the mark is a charm, and she has always thought maybe they were right. Aylmer says that because her face is almost perfect, any mark is shocking. Georgiana is angry at first, and then she weeps, asking how he can love her if she is shocking to him.
The narrator explains that the birthmark in question is a red mark in the shape of a tiny hand on Georgiana’s left cheek. The mark disappears when she blushes. Georgiana’s male admirers love the birthmark, and many would risk their lives just to kiss it. Some women think the mark ruins her beauty, but the narrator says this is nonsense.
Aylmer obsesses about the birthmark. For him, it symbolizes mortality and sin and comes to tower over Georgiana’s beauty in his mind. He can think of nothing else. One night she reminds him of a dream he had. He spoke in his sleep, saying they must take out her heart. Aylmer remembers dreaming that he had removed the birthmark with a knife, plunging down until he had reached his wife’s heart, which he decided to cut out. Georgiana says that she will risk her life to have the birthmark erased. Thrilled, Aylmer agrees to try. He professes complete confidence in his own abilities, likening himself to Pygmalion. He kisses his wife’s unmarked cheek.
They decide to move to the apartments where Aylmer has his laboratory. He has already made stunning discoveries about volcanoes, fountains, mines, and other natural wonders. Now he will resume his studies of the creation of life. As the couple enters the laboratory, Aylmer shudders at the sight of Georgiana, and she faints. Aminadab, Aylmer’s grotesque assistant, comes out to help. He says he would not remove the birthmark if Georgiana were his wife.
Georgiana wakes up in sweet-smelling rooms that have been made beautiful for her. Aylmer comforts her with some of his more magical creations: “airy figures, absolute bodiless ideas, and forms of unsubstantial beauty.” He shows her moving scenes that mimic real life. Then he gives her a fast-growing flower that dies as soon as she touches it. Next he tries to create a portrait of her with a metal plate, but when the plate shows a hand, he throws it into acid.
Between experiments, Aylmer tells Georgiana about alchemy. He believes that he could turn base metal into gold and create a potion that would grant eternal life if he wanted to, even though he says he knows that doing so would be wrong. He disappears for hours and then shows her his cabinet of wonders. One such wonder is a vial that holds a powerful perfume. Another is a poison that, depending on the dose, would allow Aylmer to kill someone instantly or after a long period of time. Georgiana is appalled, but Aylmer says the poison is more good than bad. He shows her another potion that can wipe away freckles, but he says her birthmark needs a much deeper cure.
Georgiana realizes that Aylmer has been doctoring her food or making her inhale something in the air. Her body feels strange. She reads the books in his scientific library, as well as his accounts of his own experiments. She realizes that his achievements always fall short of the goals he originally sets. Still, the accounts of his studies make her worship him. Aylmer catches her crying over his journals, and although his words are kind, he is angry. She sings to him, restoring his spirits.
A few hours later, Georgiana goes to the laboratory to find Aylmer. When he sees her, he grows angry, accuses her of prying, and tells her to go away. She stands her ground and refuses, saying he should trust her and not try to hide his fears. She promises to drink whatever he tells her to drink. Moved, Aylmer says the mark goes deep into her body, and its removal will be dangerous. In her room, Georgiana thinks about how noble it is that Aylmer refuses to love her as she is, insisting instead to create his ideal version of her.
He brings her a potion that he says cannot fail. He shows her how it cures a geranium of blots. She drinks the liquid and sleeps. Aylmer watches her with tenderness but also as if he is watching a scientific experiment unfold. Gradually the birthmark fades. Aminadab laughs. Georgiana wakes, sees herself in the mirror, and tells Aylmer not to feel bad about rejecting “the best the earth could offer.” Then she dies.
Analysis and Plot Summary of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The beginning of the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces us to Young Goodman Brown as he says goodbye to his wife of three months. He tells her that he must go on this journey (although we still do not know where he is going or what he’s doing) and that he will be back by the morning. It is clear that he knows he is up to something and he feels a tinge of guilt because his wife, a woman named Faith who wears a pink ribbon in her hair (both of these are important details and comprise important quotes from “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne for almost anything you might write on this story) begs him not to go.
Goodman Brown finally parts with faith (the name Faith is symbolic for obvious reasons here) and sets out into the forest where he meets a man. Although he was expecting to find this man, who is described as looking much like Goodman Brown except older, he is frightened when he sees his figure looming in the dark forest ahead of him. The story by Nathaniel Hawthorne is still shrouded in mystery as the two men move through forest together, talking about Goodman’s family. Goodman finds it hard to believe this man knew his father or grandfather because he is clearly not a good character. The mysterious stranger also talks on about how is close to Christians and all good people, even though by this point we’re getting the feeling that the man is evil.
As the two approach their destination, Goodman wants to turn back because of his wife (or in other words, his “Faith) but the two keep moving until they come across an old woman named Goody Cloyse. Goodman recognizes her as a teacher and a spiritual guide but begins to realize she is part of the evil that surrounds him. The same is true with Deacon Gookin and the Minister who come riding along and Goodman realizes that these men are both in league with evil. As he moves out of the darkness, a pink ribbon blows down next to him and he sees that Faith is part of the “communion” that is taking place in the woods.
As the story by Nathaniel Hawthorne progresses, in a clearing, there is a large fire and what appears to be a Satanic or demonic ritual taking place and Goodman Brown thinks he sees his dead father. The leader of the evil (perhaps the Devil himself) discusses how everyone is evil and as Goodman Brown listens, he sees that the woman on the altar next to his deceased father is actually Faith. He yells at he to resist the evil, but as he does so the entire scene disappears and he is left alone, wondering what happened. The narrator of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne asks the reader if it really happened or if it was simply a dream and concludes the story with the details of the rest of Goodman’s life. We are told that the day after this event, Goodman Brow walks back to Salem and runs across many of the “godly” people he met during his experience/dream. He is disturbed and shuns all of them, including his wife, whom he once treasured. The rest of his life is spent in misery as he thinks everyone is part of a secret evil and sin (another recurring theme in the works of Hawthore) and when he dies, few are saddened
In terms of offering an analysis of “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, while there is no definitive answer to the question of whether or not this “really” happened to Goodman Brown, one must assume that this was simply a dream that came from Goodman’s subconscious. He lives in Salem, a location where the fervent witch trials occurred and one must wonder if he is feeling that piousness and witchcraft surround him in equal parts. If these are imaginings from Goodman, we can glean a few details about his character, such as the fact that he is suspicious to begin with as well as curious about others in the community. It also might reveal that he feels everyone is capable of some evil, even if they appear to be the most pious in the community. If one is considering a character analysis of Goodman Brown, it should be noted that in many ways Goodman Brown is a rather flat character. The reader of this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne is not told much about his background (although we do learn a few things about his family history via the old man) and the narrator focuses more on telling the reader what happened to him as opposed to what he was thinking. He can be described as an “everyman” because he, like many people” is vulnerable to suspicion and self-doubt. He does not posses any typically heroic traits and instead simply reacts to the situation.
There are many instances of symbolism in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne that function in differing ways. For instance, the symbols of sunset and night, which reflect the two opposing forces of good and evil in the text. This is especially apparent when we consider that the light of late day allows him to see Faith with love whereas when he sees her in darkness, he is suspicious and afraid. The walking stick is another symbol in this story by Nathaniel Hawthorne that demonstrates how nothing is as it seems in the text. At one moment it is a withered and twisted stick while at another it changes into a slithering serpent. It is thus symbolically speaking something that has the potential to harm or to help, much like the religious figures Goodman Brown encounters in the dark. It is also worth noting that the serpent that the stick becomes is representative of the devil and evil. One of the most obvious symbols in “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the concept of Goodman being both literally and metaphorically married to Faith. His faith is what he most treasures and after his experience it is what he is most afraid of losing. It is also worth mentioning that pink ribbon is symbolic of the purity of faith. The fact it floats away on a breeze represents shattered innocence and a loss of purity, a theme that is present in many works by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In many ways, much of this tale is allegorical in nature, partly because of the mutability of all of the symbols. If this were an allegory it could be summarized by stating that this is one man’s realization that he is surrounded by opposing forces without ever knowing which of them are good or which are evil. Faith (in both senses of the word) is the light in the story, the only way one can be saved, yet by walking into the forest (which is a symbol for that which is dark and mysterious) with a man who literally clings to the serpent (an allegorical image for the Devil or evil incarnate) Goodman is leaving behind his Faith and asking for the truth about who (or what) is good or evil.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839)
A striking similitude between the brother and the sister now first arrested my attention. . . .
Summary
An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a “dull, dark, and soundless day.” This house—the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and mysterious. The narrator observes that the house seems to have absorbed an evil and diseased atmosphere from the decaying trees and murky ponds around it. He notes that although the house is decaying in places—individual stones are disintegrating, for example—the structure itself is fairly solid. There is only a small crack from the roof to the ground in the front of the building. He has come to the house because his friend Roderick sent him a letter earnestly requesting his company. Roderick wrote that he was feeling physically and emotionally ill, so the narrator is rushing to his assistance. The narrator mentions that the Usher family, though an ancient clan, has never flourished. Only one member of the Usher family has survived from generation to generation, thereby forming a direct line of descent without any outside branches. The Usher family has become so identified with its estate that the peasantry confuses the inhabitants with their home.
The narrator finds the inside of the house just as spooky as the outside. He makes his way through the long passages to the room where Roderick is waiting. He notes that Roderick is paler and less energetic than he once was. Roderick tells the narrator that he suffers from nerves and fear and that his senses are heightened. The narrator also notes that Roderick seems afraid of his own house. Roderick’s sister, Madeline, has taken ill with a mysterious sickness—perhaps catalepsy, the loss of control of one’s limbs—that the doctors cannot reverse. The narrator spends several days trying to cheer up Roderick. He listens to Roderick play the guitar and make up words for his songs, and he reads him stories, but he cannot lift Roderick’s spirit. Soon, Roderick posits his theory that the house itself is unhealthy, just as the narrator supposes at the beginning of the story.
Madeline soon dies, and Roderick decides to bury her temporarily in the tombs below the house. He wants to keep her in the house because he fears that the doctors might dig up her body for scientific examination, since her disease was so strange to them. The narrator helps Roderick put the body in the tomb, and he notes that Madeline has rosy cheeks, as some do after death. The narrator also realizes suddenly that Roderick and Madeline were twins. Over the next few days, Roderick becomes even more uneasy. One night, the narrator cannot sleep either. Roderick knocks on his door, apparently hysterical. He leads the narrator to the window, from which they see a bright-looking gas surrounding the house. The narrator tells Roderick that the gas is a natural phenomenon, not altogether uncommon.
The narrator decides to read to Roderick in order to pass the night away. He reads “Mad Trist” by Sir Launcelot Canning, a medieval romance. As he reads, he hears noises that correspond to the descriptions in the story. At first, he ignores these sounds as the vagaries of his imagination. Soon, however, they become more distinct and he can no longer ignore them. He also notices that Roderick has slumped over in his chair and is muttering to himself. The narrator approaches Roderick and listens to what he is saying. Roderick reveals that he has been hearing these sounds for days, and believes that they have buried Madeline alive and that she is trying to escape. He yells that she is standing behind the door. The wind blows open the door and confirms Roderick’s fears: Madeline stands in white robes bloodied from her struggle. She attacks Roderick as the life drains from her, and he dies of fear. The narrator flees the house. As he escapes, the entire house cracks along the break in the frame and crumbles to the ground.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” possesses the quintessential -features of the Gothic tale: a haunted house, dreary landscape, mysterious sickness, and doubled personality. For all its easily identifiable Gothic elements, however, part of the terror of this story is its vagueness. We cannot say for sure where in the world or exactly when the story takes place. Instead of standard narrative markers of place and time, Poe uses traditional Gothic elements such as inclement weather and a barren landscape. We are alone with the narrator in this haunted space, and neither we nor the -narrator know why. Although he is Roderick’s most intimate boyhood friend, the narrator apparently does not know much about him—like the basic fact that Roderick has a twin sister. Poe asks us to question the reasons both for Roderick’s decision to contact the narrator in this time of need and the bizarre tenacity of narrator’s response. While Poe provides the recognizable building blocks of the Gothic tale, he contrasts this standard form with a plot that is inexplicable, sudden, and full of unexpected disruptions. The story begins without complete explanation of the narrator’s motives for arriving at the house of Usher, and this ambiguity sets the tone for a plot that continually blurs the real and the fantastic.
Poe creates a sensation of claustrophobia in this story. The narrator is mysteriously trapped by the lure of Roderick’s attraction, and he cannot escape until the house of Usher collapses completely. Characters cannot move and act freely in the house because of its structure, so it assumes a monstrous character of its own—the Gothic mastermind that controls the fate of its inhabitants. Poe, creates confusion between the living things and inanimate objects by doubling the physical house of Usher with the genetic family line of the Usher family, which he refers to as the house of Usher. Poe employs the word “house” metaphorically, but he also describes a real house. Not only does the narrator get trapped inside the mansion, but we learn also that this confinement describes the biological fate of the Usher family. The family has no enduring branches, so all genetic transmission has occurred incestuously within the domain of the house. The peasantry confuses the mansion with the family because the physical structure has effectively dictated the genetic patterns of the family.
The claustrophobia of the mansion affects the relations among characters. For example, the narrator realizes late in the game that Roderick and Madeline are twins, and this realization occurs as the two men prepare to entomb Madeline. The cramped and confined setting of the burial tomb metaphorically spreads to the features of the characters. Because the twins are so similar, they cannot develop as free individuals. Madeline is buried before she has actually died because her similarity to Roderick is like a coffin that holds her identity. Madeline also suffers from problems typical for women in -nineteenth--century literature. She invests all of her identity in her body, whereas Roderick possesses the powers of intellect. In spite of this disadvantage, Madeline possesses the power in the story, almost superhuman at times, as when she breaks out of her tomb. She thus counteracts Roderick’s weak, nervous, and immobile disposition. Some scholars have argued that Madeline does not even exist, reducing her to a shared figment Roderick’s and the narrator’s imaginations. But Madeline proves central to the symmetrical and claustrophobic logic of the tale. Madeline stifles Roderick by preventing him from seeing himself as essentially different from her. She completes this attack when she kills him at the end of the story.
Doubling spreads throughout the story. The tale highlights the Gothic feature of the doppelganger, or character double, and portrays doubling in inanimate structures and literary forms. The narrator, for example, first witnesses the mansion as a reflection in the tarn, or shallow pool, that abuts the front of the house. The mirror image in the tarn doubles the house, but upside down—an inversely symmetrical relationship that also characterizes the relationship between Roderick and Madeline.
The story features numerous allusions to other works of literature, including the poems “The Haunted Palace” and “Mad Trist” by Sir Launcelot Canning. Poe composed them himself and then fictitiously attributed them to other sources. Both poems parallel and thus predict the plot line of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” “Mad Trist,” which is about the forceful entrance of Ethelred into the dwelling of a hermit, mirrors the simultaneous escape of Madeline from her tomb. “Mad Trist” spookily crosses literary borders, as though Roderick’s obsession with these poems ushers their narratives into his own domain and brings them to life.
The crossing of borders pertains vitally to the Gothic horror of the tale. We know from Poe’s experience in the magazine industry that he was obsessed with codes and word games, and this story amplifies his obsessive interest in naming. “Usher” refers not only to the mansion and the family, but also to the act of crossing a -threshold that brings the narrator into the perverse world of Roderick and Madeline. Roderick’s letter ushers the narrator into a world he does not know, and the presence of this outsider might be the factor that destroys the house. The narrator is the lone exception to the Ushers’ fear of outsiders, a fear that accentuates the claustrophobic nature of the tale. By undermining this fear of the outside, the narrator unwittingly brings down the whole structure. A similar, though strangely playful crossing of a boundary transpires both in “Mad Trist” and during the climactic burial escape, when Madeline breaks out from death to meet her mad brother in a “tryst,” or meeting, of death. Poe thus buries, in the fictitious gravity of a medieval romance, the puns that garnered him popularity in America’s magazines.
The Cask of Amontillado
As the narrator, Montresor explains to an unknown audience that because Fortunato has mortally insulted him, he has vowed vengeance. However, he has hidden his animosity towards Fortunato because he wants to fulfill his vow without placing himself at risk, since the vengeance would not be complete if ...
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