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Amy Morrison
Tammy Frailly
ENG 231 2W1
14 November 2013
Edgar Allan Poe: King of Comedy?
Edgar Allan Poe has long been known as the king of the gothic genre, scaring people
with the settings and tone of his stories. His tales have the ability to strike terror into the heart of
his readers. Many people have read the suspense filled short stories: The Fall of the House of
Usher; The Tell-Tale Heart; and Ligeia. These three short stories involve death and the
effects of it on those around them. Despite the topic of these three stories, there is a subtle thread
of humor running throughout them. Brett Zimmerman pointed out that scholars have also
discovered that within another group of [Poes] tales, specifically the Gothic ones, humour also
exists but is secondary or covert (64). Poes use of subtle humor is an attempt to nullify the
dread of the unknown, and at times he almost seems to be mocking the idea of death. Poes
characters throughout these tales have overblown emotions and responses to the events around
them, so much so that the stories cease to be frightening and become more comical in nature.
Throughout these short stories, Poe lightens the mood with a comedy born out of his
exploitation of the more frightening aspects of setting, dialogue and characterization through
exaggeration.
Within Poes tales, the settings often are so overdone, as to add a semblance of humor to
the story. In The Fall of the House of Usher the opening scene is rife with dark descriptive
words, whose overuse leaves the reader with the impression, that the scary nature of the setting is
being heightened merely to appear frightening. The narrator describes the House of Usher as
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melancholy with bleak walls...vacant eye-like windows...a few rank sedges...a few white
trunks of decayed trees (The Fall of the House of Usher 654). This gives the reader an image
that is almost cartoonish in nature; the dark dreary house surrounded by dead or dying trees and
hedges. Its just a bit contrived and negates the supposed frightening aspect of the setting. Brian
Stableford states in his article about the setting of The Fall of the House of Usher, that the
atmosphere above and around the house has been poisoned by the exudations of the tarn,
becoming eerie and pestilential. His allusion to the setting as being scary and frightening is as
exaggerated as the setting Poe set down for the house. Poe uses such phrases like insufferable
gloom, and utter depression of soul to describe the narrators feelings upon getting his first
look at the House of Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher 654). It seems a bit overdone for
someone to express this depth of feeling from the mere sight of a place, with no previous
knowledge of it. Interestingly enough, the narrator stays on and stares into the pond on the
premises in order to cement his first impression of place. This not only seems odd, but has a
certain sense of irony, lending itself to a more satirical form of comedy. It seems that Poe is
trying to reveal his comedy here by making the narrator act against human nature. His first
reaction to being greeted with this eerie and pestilential (Stableford) place is to approach the
house to see someone that is admittedly only a school acquaintance. Most people that came
upon a place of insufferable gloom wouldnt stay, they would turn around and vacate the
premises quickly especially if they are coming to see someone they dont know well. So while
Stableford asserts that this setting is frightening, the setting and the narrators reaction to it are
perceived as a comical caricature of horror.
As in The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe continues to use his overstated scene setting
to sketch an almost laughable description in his short story The Tell-Tale Heart. Once the
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narrator decides to kill his employer, he begins going into the owners bedroom at midnight, the
witching hour. The clich image of a man skulking about in the dark at precisely midnight with
an eye towards murder borders on trite, not scary and keeps the reader interested if only to see
what harebrained thing the narrator will attempt next. A reader can envision a character stealing
down a dark corridor, almost like the cartoon characters that dart from pole to pole when
following someone. Lewis also cites the argument that the biu-lesque [burlesque] element
makes its presence felt at the heart of Poes tales of terror, (James M. Cox quoted by Paul
Lewis 533). This critic also realized the use of the burlesque type comedy. Its found in the tone
set by the overtly overdone scene depictions Poe uses to draw his readers in. At one point, the
narrator goes to his employers room and stands frozen in the doorway. He describes his
entrance to the masters bedroom; there I was, opening the door, little by little and the old man
not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea (The Tell-Tale
Heart 692). This setting leaves the reader the impression of a door opening stiltedly, and
provides a little chuckle at the amplified nature of the scene. Its an almost vaudevillian
escapade, with the narrator tiptoeing down the hallway and then slowly opening the door to peer
at his prey.
In addition to larger-than-life scene setting, Poe uses overtly dramatic language to add a
comedic flair to his writing. Throughout Ligeia," the narrator is so obsessed with his first wife,
that she pervades his every thought even after her death. Taking up so much of his thoughts, that
even on the deathbed of his second wife, he is pining for his lost love. So much so that the final
words uttered from the narrator bring the reader back to his previous obsessions and tendency
toward the hyperbolic. He says Here then at least, I shrieked aloud, can I never-can I never
be mistaken-these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes of the lady-of the lady Ligeia!
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(Ligeia" 653). He is noted to have shrieked aloud despite being in a room alone with the
corpse of his dead wife. The reader gets the impression that the scene is unreal, and comically
overdone for the benefit of the audience. His exclamations of here then at least makes it seem
as if he has just been waiting for his dead wife to appear before him. The absurdity of that
notion is palpable. Some readers would call it madness, others opiate induced hallucinations, but
either way the reader is left at the end with a sense of the dark humor related throughout the tale.
This is reminiscent of the scene in the movie, Young Frankenstein, a parody on a horror story,
where the lead character screams at the top of his lungs Its Alive! That character is seen
shaking his hands above his head and shouting for all hes worth. The reader is lead to believe
that Poe is trying to make fun of the gothic nature of the story, not actually scare anyone.
In the final death scene of Madeline, Poe draws on several exclamatory sentences to
emphasize the ridiculousness of the scenario. He speaks about the breaking of the hermits
door, and the death-cry of the dragon (666). This language is somewhat over the top, and adds
to the unreal quality of the prose. Usher is so distraught by having entombed his sister alive, that
he is speaking in an overstated fashion. The reader can almost see him running about like a
dervish, pulling at his hair, and yelling at the top of his lungs. Despite the circumstances, this
response seems a bit overdone and lends more to a comedic air than a scary one. Usher is said to
have sprung violently to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables as if in the effort he were giving
up his soul (Poe 666). This exclamation seems to have had a gut wrenching effect on the
narrator; however, the reader is left feeling as if its a bit contrived. After all, Usher knowingly
put his sister still alive into her tomb. He has no reason to feel such grief at realizing she is just
outside the room, and Poes portrayal of him strikes a chord of irony with those observing the
scene.
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Furthermore, Poe overdoes the characterizations in his short stories to such an extent that
any hint of terror left in the tale is cancelled out. From the beginning of Ligeia when she is
described, to the end and her apparent resurrection, the narrators descriptions are so over the top
as to be funny. In one instance he describes his wife in an attempt to ascertain what made her
beautiful. The depictions of her hair and face are so extensive, that they actually comprise ten
percent of the entire work. Paul Lewis actually cites the descriptive portion of this story as
causing the audience to blink[ing] back the laughter (537). Lewis is explaining that the
descriptiveness of the narrator when attempting to explain the beauty of his lady love is so
overblown that its humorous to the audience. The comedic nature of this is revealed in that the
narrator is attempting to find the strangeness of Ligeias beauty, which he finally discovers in
her eyes. He describes them as being far fuller than the fullest of the Gazelle eyes of the tribe
of the valley of Nourjahad (Ligeia 645). Gazelles have large black eyes considering the size
of their heads (Gazelle), thus using them to describe Ligeias eyes is an example of hyperbole.
Saying that her eyes were disproportionate for her face leaves the reader with an image of an
otherwise lovely face completely overtaken by these large eyes. Although this is not laugh out
loud funny, there is a humor to envisioning this girl with larger than life eyes, and then
attributing to this feature the quality that makes her beautiful.
Throughout Poes stories, there is an undeniable thread of suspense; however, he
contrives to include a comic element in even the most unlikely stories. Paul Lewis article, "Poe's
Humor: A Psychological Analysis," cites David Galloway argues that Poe subjected even the
formulas of his own serious fictionto the corrective force of parody and goes on to say that
in the comic tales, he exaggerates superficial elements of the narrative (Lewis 532). Despite
some critics protestations, several literary critics see the humor in Poes works. Many of these
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same critics even cite him as having a formula to his composition that includes a thread of humor
and steers the reader away from the more frightening aspects of his short stories. As a person
reads through the texts of Poes short stories, there is an undeniable if subtle thread of humor.
Although the humor is darker in nature it is no less funny for that darkness. Poe uses irony and
amazingly enough even a little bit of vaudevillian comedy to enhance the Gothic nature of his
stories. His use of these techniques leaves the reader wanting to read more, and takes away the
more frightening aspects of the stories.


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Works Cited
Gazelle. Animal Planet. Discovery.com. 2013. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Lewis, Paul. "Poe's Humor: A Psychological Analysis." Studies In Short Fiction 26.4 (1989):
531. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. (Page 537)
Poe, Edgar Allan. Ligeia. Eds. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine The Norton Anthology of
American Literature. New York: Norton & Company, 2012. 644-653. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. Eds. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine The
Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: Norton & Company, 2012. 654-
667. Print.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. Eds. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine The Norton
Anthology of American Literature. New York: Norton & Company, 2012. 691-695. Print.
Stableford, Brian. "The Fall of the House of Usher." Cyclopedia Of Literary Places (2003): 1.
Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.
Zimmerman, Brett. Edgar Allan Poe : Rhetoric And Style. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University
Press, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 6 Nov. 2013.

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