Horror and beauty in Poe’s horror novels英语论文.doc

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1、Horror and beauty in Poes horror novels恐怖与美丽浅谈爱伦坡的恐怖小说【关键词】恐怖美丽爱伦.坡恐怖小说1. IntroductionIn American literature history, Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who had a unique status, but was beyond the mainstream of American literature. Poe was a writer brimming with talent, an outstanding poetic and critic, h

2、is short stories made a great contribution to America literature. During Poes life, he made more than 70 short stories, and created a precedent for reasoning novels. And horror novels were thought to be Poes most important works. So Poe was thought to be the greatest writer on horror novels. His hor

3、ror novels included The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia, The Cast of Amontillado and so on. However, at that time, people didnt attach importance to Poes works. Because whether these novels styles or contents were strange to readersthey often had

4、a close relationship with death, horror, mystery, and the heavyhearted, weird flavor made people feel worried so that suspect his works.Poes horror novels inherited 18-century Gothic novels tradition, from which absorb horror artistic conception: ghostly castle which was full of declining, head atmo

5、sphere, deserted, de pressed countries, and strange, eccentric people. And at that time the horror novels, which were published in popular magazine Bulikwud, took a lot influence on Edgar Alan Poe, Poes most horror novels took first-person narrate, and most stories happened in foreign countries. How

6、ever, Poe wasnt satisfied with the present condition. While profitably sharing the experience of tradition, Poe blazed a trail and development on horror novelsPoe began to put psychology into horror novels. In 1838, the publishment of Poes most famous horror novelThe Fall of the House of Usher., sym

7、bolized Poe had understood psychology of horror deeply. Poes values were refund and accepted after he died; He had a good reputation in France and Russia all the time. On American writers, such as Fokna, the influence becomes visible gradually.On the basis of studying Poes horror novels and predeces

8、sors achievements, this thesis intents to explore horror and beauty in Poes horror novels.2. Horror in Poes Horror NovelsMost readers, maybe, have such questions: why Poe chose horror and monstrous subject matter? Why he could make bloodcurdling atmosphere? Was there any relationship with his own ex

9、periences? Edgar Allan Poe lived in the times when capitalism developed in a high speed. However, Poe, as a man who had the classical class, would have an art in contravention of the development of capitalism. The irreversible old system and all kinds of misfortune made him have a horror and vanish

10、psychology. This kind of psychology played a leading role in his theory of producing literature, and embodied his literature directly.Edgar Allan Poes latter novels were full of horror and monstrous, while reading, someone is just having a nightmare. In fact, there was a close relationship with his

11、own life. Poes life almost never got rid of the poorshadow. He once indulged in excessive drinking. Later, he smoked opium. Some critics once doubted Poes bloodcurdling horror and scene and stories were based on his imagine, after smoking opium. Even the loyal love couldnt help him get rid of his sh

12、adow melancholia, alone. And the death of wife put him on the edge of collapse, and then wine and drug took the room of his miserable life. Even someone said that Poe performed his tense of mental disease in his horror novels from beginning to end. The most obvious works were The Fall of House of Us

13、her, The Masque of the Red Death. The narrator of these stories was changed from third-person narrator to first-person narrator. The plot was more and more ghastly, the feeling was more and more frightening, the atmosphere of text was more and more horror, the rhythm was more and more expressing 1.

14、The upsurge was just readers edge of horror, which made people feel that Poe not only was extremely high-strung, but also was somewhat abnormal. With the description of subjects of death, revenge and reincarnation willfully, these works were full of obvious decadent moods. However, the literature cr

15、itics of America thought this was Poes genius manifest of writing.If Poes works were influenced by his own experiences, his authentic purpose of writing was not limited to this: what Poe wanted to perform in his novels were the most genuine and primitive humanity. What Poe wanted to perform in his n

16、ovels were the most genuine and primitive humanity. What appealed to him were those subconscious, unconscious energetic activities. And just these activities influenced our lives all the time 2. Most leading protagonists of Poes horror novels were somewhat nervousness. Maybe they were far from peopl

17、e and society, and they didnt have background or name; maybe they were alone people who were confirmed to live by killing others. Or maybe they were those people who lived in rich material life but in poor spirit, and who had had to yield to evil. Most of Poes horror novels indicate his idea: in his

18、 opinion, mans fatal weakness was that they had the ability of their own unique thoughts and self-examination. And just this kind of ability destroyed their normal thinking activity and mental tense, and made man take the road to self-destruct.3. Beauty in Poes Horror Novels3.1 Beauties of Contents

19、in Poes Short Novels3.1.1 Beauties of DepressionLigeia was a story, which was filled with beauties of depression. Ligeia is a beautiful woman who had a angel appearance and a slender figure. And she had a queenly carriage. But when she walked, she looked graceful just like a female immortal. Her ski

20、n looked as white as the teeth of elephants. And she had a full forehead and a fine head of thick and fluffy hair her lips were red and soft.Her rose was pure white, her eyes were not only bright but also beautiful. When she said some words in a low voice, the sound was just like someone was singing

21、 merrily. In addition to external beauty, Ligeia had internal beauties. Ligiea is learned and versatile, and was good at classical languages, European modern dialects.She was proficient in Psychology Physics and Math.She not only patiently instructed“my” study, but also fell in love with“me” deeply.

22、 However, just as the says: beauty fades like followers, she got incurable disease in a short time, and would say goodbye to“me” forever.“I” couldnt get up with the fact that Ligiea would die.“I” was very depressed and all my thoughts were blasted.“I” lived in the dream of opium smoke and“I” lived i

23、n the dream of soul of thinking of“my” dead wife. From this, its not difficult to say, Ligeias death is one kind of regretting distressed beauties for which Edgar Allan Poe took great pains.3.1.2 Beauties of ArcaneEdgar Allan Poes most works was full of horror and mystery from scene to atmosphere. S

24、uch as: The Black Cat, The Masque of the red Death, The Fall of House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cast of Amontillado and so on. This kind of Poes works usually is attached with Gothic art.He portrayed the splendid life of the times of the Renaissance. Of Poes works, The Masque of the Red Dea

25、th is a horror story, in which the dance of death symbolized death. The red death is very rampant out of imperial palace; the masks are grotesque in appearance; the fire lighted up the dark bed-curtain. It felt very gloomy, whether the men or women, who were dancing, looked ghastly pale, but they ha

26、d a crazy dance in the dark. Among the crowd, a silhouette in a“red death” mask and corpse cloths, suddenly became a piece of corpse cloth and a piece of mask. This kind of Horror gave someones impression is a kind of throb with terror. Story of the Black Cat and Wife gave someone impression was the

27、 hearts horror:“I”, a man who is famous for kind and compliant, to someones asunder, killed“my” dear black cat and wife. In this tale, Edgar Allan Poe emphasized horror step by step with the development of the tale plot. In the first time,“I” excluded one eye of the black cat and with a small knife,

28、 then hang it. At that night,“my” house was burnt down into debris by a big fire. Its strange that the wall in which the sculpture of the black cat still exact. Later“I” got another cat, one of whose eyes was excluded. In the cellar,“I” wanted to kill the black cat with a hatched in my hand angrily,

29、 I failed, but I killed my wife. When“I” put my wife into the inside of cellar wall, the cat disappeared. For the influence of devils, I let policemen find my wifes dead body, and then found that cat sit down on the head of my wife dead body with a fiercylooking mouth. All this gave readers the impr

30、essions of mystery and horror, and gave readers the feelings of bloodcurdling yells.3.1.3 Beauties of Romantic and Illusion“Death” is one happy thing. Poe said the praises of the death and pure dream love in his works. He once said:“happy was their death-to themselves, death was in happy life; death

31、 made themselves be emotionally over- whelmed. Both Eleonora and the Oval Portrait talked about mens death. Although this kind of death was not full of sorrowful moods, pessimistic thoughts and horror atmosphere, looked like a romantic and lyric poem. The former story talked about a people recountin

32、g her twice of love stories in her own words, though some parts of plots looked same as Legeia, the final results were different. The specters in Eleonora also reappearing after the talkers marriage, she didnt find reincarnation in another corpse just as horror as Legeia, but she forgave him and wis

33、hed him to have a good life. Because love could dominate everything. The Oval Portrait talked about a tale, in which the talker gave a supplement by displaying a introduction about how to make the picture. The leading protagonists were both the people in the picture and drawers. They had many differ

34、ences in thoughts and temperament. The husband was very interested in drawing but always kept silent. His wife was a beautiful woman just as naught as little deer, and free from care forever; however, she hated art, regarded it as rival in love, and she was afraid that those colorings and painters p

35、araphernalia would deprive him of lovers beautiful face. But when bride put forward drawing for bridegroom, she not only didnt resist it, but also stayed in that gloomy drawing room for several weeks. At the first time, it seemed they didnt understand each other. In fact, they were the husband and w

36、ife who knew about each other deeply. Finally, wife devoted her life to her husbands career, and bride reserved his wifes beautiful appearance in mans world. Compared with other Poes novels, which were filled with horror and depressed atmosphere, here“death” was a kind of“sleep” with laugh, and was

37、a piece of romantic oil painting with inextricable feelings.3.1.4Beauties of Desire and SurmountEdgar Allan Poe showed the desire of surmount life. In Poes opinion, death was not a natural fact, an accidental thing. Also in Poes view, we shouldnt regard death as the end of life. Death meant new life

38、, meant surmount, and had the mean of metaphysics. Poe told people the fact death not only meant the existence of body, but also had the mean of living, and death can help people find the light of truth by his works. The pleasing feeling in peoples hearts when they faced death and the ecstasy of del

39、ight in peoples hearts when they got rid of life revealed that man as a finite individual, whether his existent was absurd or not, death could make him to be a whole one. Death could help soul get rid of the noose of body; finally soul could reach to the most pure and beautiful state. So Poe once sa

40、id: every body dreams death. From this point, its not difficult to find that Edgar Allan Poe hated this hateful perceptual but he didnt have the ability to destroy it. So he placed the hope to human bodies death to make soul gets rid of bodies noose, to help soul reach the most pure and beautiful st

41、ate. In order to surpass the real cold society, Edgar Allan Poe regarded horror death as a subject and sang praise of it, dreamed of a soul kingdom, which was full of beauties and freedom.Beauties of desire and surmount in Poes thoughts and his works could also get further annotate from photosphere

42、existentialism. Yasbers thought that death was not devoid of content nihility, but was permeated with real lifes plentiful inner meaning, and only death could entrust the real deep inner meaning to life. Frank thought that death was the basic propel power when people wanted to live by themselves. De

43、ath belonged to life completely. These philosophers of existentialism had the same idea that the faces of dead man were more beautiful and soft than their faces when they lived. According to the description of desolate and horror death, and according to the distain of real cold world by Edgar Allan

44、Poe, we could find that he had been longing for beautiful life. Although his works were filled with depression, alienation, coldness, misery, forlorn and horrors, he dreamed of the desire of happy, warm and love in his inner heart.3.2 Beauties of Languages in Poes Short NovelsIn Edgar Alan Poes nove

45、ls, therere many beauties of languages, which includes lexical devices, syntactic devices and tone, and all of this are added to attach readers attention and the description of horror in his novels.3.2.1Lexical DevicesIn Poes works, in order to get the result of horror, Lexical foregrounding is a us

46、ually way. Edgar Alan Poe liked to use adjectives. When adjective as attribute, though its not the necessary trunk of a sentence, it could make the mean of sentences more bright, integrated. Sometimes if there are no attribute sentences, the mean of sentences is changed into absurd.For example: Mary

47、 lives in pace. As there is no necessary of messages, so this sentence is mean less. Attribute often is to be the information point of a sentence. In Ligeia, Poe described Leading Protagonist like this: In stature she was tall, somewhat slender, and in her latter days, even emaciated.In Poes works,

48、the frequency of emerge adjective is very high. Poe is inclined to use adjective of describing visual impressions and dim to exaggerate gloomy atmosphere, and he used these adjective words of unusually feelings and moods, in order to emphasize the effectiveness of horror. At the same time, all of th

49、is would give readers a beautiful impression. Take The Fall of the House of Usher as a example, the first paragraph has about 400 words, the above two kinds of describing adjective words are more than 40, which not including natural adjective words. The words of exaggerating gloomy atmosphere and scene are: dark, low, dreary, vacant, eye-like, rank, bleak, white, decayed, shadowy, black, lurid, gray, ghastly, dull, unruffled, soundless, and so on. The word