Poe and Psychoanalytic Criticism Essay - 1041 Words

The School of Psychoanalytic Criticism â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† and its author Edgar Allan Poe are excellent references for applying psychoanalytic interpretations to an author and his work. Psychoanalytic criticism uses a Freudian theory of a three level psyche, the ego, the super-ego, and the id to gain a better understanding of the deeper or hidden meaning within literature and an understanding of the psychological identity of the author, the characters or the reader. Freud theorized that our psyche has three levels. The ego is the rational part of our psyche known as the consciousness. The super-ego is the part of our psyche that is dictated by the values of first our parents and then later society known as the conscience. The†¦show more content†¦Poe lost his mother at a young age and then was abandoned by his father. He then was adopted by a wealthy merchant with an iron fist. Taking this into account critics might theorize that his inner competition to please his father but also be a writer was repressed and then manifested itself in this short story, where his father is Fortunato, walled away leaving him free to pursue his literary career. This could also be a metaphor for when he broke all ties to his adopted father. Freudian theory deals with the premise that some of our desires, wishes, fears and memories may be hard to cope with and so we eliminate it from our conscious mind through repression. â€Å"But this doesn’t make it go away: it remains alive in the unconscious, like radioactive matter buried beneath the ocean† (Barry 96). Fortunato is buried alive deep in the catacombs beneath the river where poisonous nitre grows. This is a clever use of symbolism and metaphors to demonstrate the burying of our darkest human motives, walling them up to hide from our ego or conscious being, hence repression is born. â€Å"My heart grew sick-on account of the dampness of the catacombs. I hastened to make an end of m y labour. I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I reerected the old ramport of bones. For half a century no mortal has disturbed them† (Poe 62) Infantile sexuality is a Freudian conceptShow MoreRelatedThe Fall Of The House Of Usher1285 Words   |  6 Pagescomfort Roderick and alleviate his melancholy by reading a story that appears to foreshadow later events. In this story, Poe provides his audience with classic themes such as fear, madness, and most important, identity. Through psychoanalytical criticism the reader can explore and gather a deeper understanding of the literary work. A comprehensive analysis of psychoanalytical criticism and the characters mental state in â€Å"The Fall of the House of Usher† will provide an in-depth interpretation of the charactersRead MorePsychological Criticism Of The Cask Of Amontillado1286 Words   |  6 PagesResearch Paper Edgar Allan Poe: The Cask of Amontillado Psychoanalysis is the search for evidence for unresolved emotions, psychological conflicts, and whatever else may be hidden in perplexing literary works. Psychoanalytic criticism showcases what has been suppressed by the author’s conscious mind. The author’s sexual conflicts, family life, childhood traumas will be camouflaged in symbolism. One story that lends itself particularly well to this form of criticism is The Cask of Amontillado andRead MoreMy Psychoanalytic Views of Two Short Stories1454 Words   |  6 Pagessituations they actually make perfect sense. Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism refers to literary criticism or literary theory which, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalytic literary criticism is a very common method of analyzing stories such as The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett, Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe. Sylvia, a shy girl, who is rather naive andRead MoreSeminar: Literary Theory Applied to H.P. Lovecraft-Notably â€Å"the Beast in the Cave†6821 Words   |  28 Pageswritten when he was around fifteen years old. I will explore its meanings and context through the lenses of reader response, deconstructionism, new historicism, and psychoanalytic analysis. Through these lenses of literary theory I hope to derive further meaning and understanding of this favored story as well as dismiss some criticism that has been leveled against H.P. Lovecraft. Each theoretical view has been defined by personal opinion and expert testimony and broken into separate sections; eachRead MoreNathaniel Hawthorne s The Mind1900 Words   |  8 Pagesunconscious mind. He believed that all writers must treat the work of literature as a dream. Using this technique was said to reveal hidden motivations within the writer. It was an amazing thing that allowed authors to repressed desires by applying ps ychoanalytic techniques. For example in the famous story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses symbols and feeling throughout the whole story, and things like this really draw in the reader s attention. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sigmund FreudRead MoreCleanth Brookss Essay Irony as a Principle of Structure9125 Words   |  37 Pagesdramatic forms also seems somewhat irrelevant to the contemporary Roman literary scene of his day. However, the lively autobiographical approach of the â€Å"Ars Poetica† and its expression of personal standards in literature make it unique as a work of criticism in the ancient world.A few quotes in particular from the work have passed into common literary parlance, including: â€Å"in medias res† (literally, â€Å"in the middle of things†, describing a popular narrative technique that appears frequently in ancientRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagestheir settings as a means of arousing the reader’s expectations and establishing an appropriate state of mind for events to come. No author is more adept in this respect that Edgar Allan Poe. In the following passage from The Fall of the House of Usher, the narrator first enters Roderick Usher’s room. Notice how Poe not only provides the details of setting, but tells the reader just how to respond to them: The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and