The short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” is one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular and most interpreted texts. Up to today, literary scholars argue about the proper meaning of the story. The text has been interpreted as a story of the supernatural, a tale of insanity, as a representation of romantic art, as a vampire story or as a text about incestuous love. Most interpretations aim at finding answers to the major questions raised in the short story. Scholars have tried to find reasons for the crash of the mansion, for Roderick’s disease, for Madeline’s death, for the supernatural vapour around the house, and many other issues that the story leaves open. However, a general answer to all the questions has not yet been found. In the following, I will prove that it is not necessary to find an answer to the inexplicable elements of the text, because they are part of the story’s message. The chaotic, nonsatisfying ending of “The Fall of the House of Usher” is intended, because the story is about the difficulty or even impossibility of explaining the world. That is why Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” can be interpreted as part of what Hagenbüchle termed “the epistemological crisis in nineteenth-century American thought”. Using the example of Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland, Hagenbüchle argues that at the beginning of the 19th century the foundations of human knowledge were questioned and fell apart. This thesis can be applied to other American authors besides Brockden Brown who also challenged established epistemological assumptions. In the following, I will argue that Edgar Allan Poe shows the limits of epistemology by creating characters who try to acquire knowledge through different approaches, but fail in the end. By doing this, he responds to his cultural and historical background and presents a rather pessimistic view of the American nation. In order to place the short story in its cultural context, the following text will first deal with Poe’s role in the post-Enlightenment era and the influence of the American context on his writings. In a second step, I will describe the most important characteristics of different theories of epistemology up to the beginning of the 19th century so as to locate Poe within these theories of knowledge. In order to do so, the role of different epistemological approaches in the short story will be examined.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Cultural and Epistemological Background of “The Fall of the House of Usher”
2.1 Historical and Cultural Background
2.2 Concepts of Epistemology in the 17th and 18th Century
3. The Quest for Knowledge in “The Fall of the House of Usher”
3.1 The Failure of Rationalism
3.2 The Failure of Anti-Rationalism
3.3 Poe’s Version of the Sublime
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
Objectives & Core Topics
The primary objective of this term paper is to analyze Edgar Allan Poe’s short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" through the lens of epistemology. The work aims to demonstrate how the story serves as an embodiment of the 19th-century epistemological crisis, illustrating that the protagonists' attempts to gain knowledge through either rationalism or empiricism are fundamentally doomed to failure.
- The epistemological crisis in 19th-century American literature.
- The failure of rationalist attempts to explain the world in Poe’s narrative.
- The limitations of empiricism and sensory perception as demonstrated by Roderick Usher.
- A critical examination of the sublime as a failed means of explaining terror and natural phenomena.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1 The Failure of Rationalism
In numerous analyses, Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” has been interpreted as a statement against the power of reason. David Ketterer claims that Poe mistrusted reason due to “the belief that man’s reason clouds his perception” (1979: 221) and Michael Hoffman is convinced that “[t]he stories of Poe are full of characters who have completely ceased to believe in any rationally constituted universe or society and who continually experience the absurd nothingness of the human will” (Hoffman 1972: 9). A detailed character analysis will help to understand and reassess these claims.
According to most scholars, the narrator in “The Fall of the House of Usher” is the most rational character in the story. However, he undergoes a change in the course of the narration. John Gruesser argues that “the narrator’s account […] seems to suggest that he has been converted from a strict rationalist position to the belief that supernatural events do occur” (2004: 81-82). Jack Voller states that the narrator tries to explain things rationally in the beginning of the story, but is then overpowered by the terror of the mansion, so he “can offer only a superficial rationality” (1996: 166). In order to comprehend this thesis about a narrator changing from a convinced rationalist to an anti-rationalist, one has to examine the narrator’s development throughout the entire text.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the short story as an embodiment of the 19th-century epistemological crisis, setting the stage for an analysis of how characters fail to acquire knowledge.
2. Cultural and Epistemological Background of “The Fall of the House of Usher”: This section contextualizes Poe’s work within the Gothic and Romantic movements, while providing a foundation in the philosophical debates between rationalism and empiricism.
3. The Quest for Knowledge in “The Fall of the House of Usher”: This chapter examines the specific failures of the narrator (rationalism) and Roderick Usher (empiricism), while also exploring the insufficiency of the sublime.
4. Conclusion: The concluding chapter summarizes that the story reflects a dark, skeptical worldview, suggesting that all traditional human attempts to fully understand reality through these epistemological methods remain futile.
5. Bibliography: This section lists the primary and secondary literature consulted for the research and analysis.
Keywords
Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, Epistemology, Rationalism, Empiricism, Gothicism, Romanticism, Sublime, Skepticism, Narrator, Roderick Usher, 19th-Century Thought, Knowledge, Perception, Crisis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central focus of this research paper?
The paper examines Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Fall of the House of Usher" from an epistemological perspective, exploring how the story reflects a crisis of knowledge in the 19th century.
What are the key thematic areas addressed?
The primary themes include the failure of rationalism, the collapse of empiricist methods, the function of the sublime, and the overall skeptical worldview presented by the author.
What is the main research question or goal?
The goal is to prove that the inexplicable elements in the story are not puzzles to be solved, but central components of a narrative message that emphasizes the impossibility of fully explaining the world.
Which scientific or analytical methods are employed?
The author uses a close reading approach, interpreting the text through the lens of established epistemological theories and existing literary scholarship to analyze character development.
What is covered in the main body of the paper?
The main body investigates the narrator's attempt to maintain a rationalist viewpoint, Roderick Usher’s failed attempt to rely on sensory perception, and the inability of the sublime to provide meaningful relief from terror.
Which keywords best characterize the work?
Key terms include epistemology, skepticism, Gothicism, rationalism, empiricism, and the epistemological crisis of the 19th century.
How does the narrator's approach evolve throughout the story?
The narrator begins as a character attempting to rationalize his surroundings but gradually realizes that his rational framework is insufficient to account for the horrific events, leading to a loss of confidence in his logical approach.
In what way does the paper describe Roderick Usher's failure?
Roderick is depicted as a failed empiricist; his "morbid acuteness of the senses" causes his perceptions to overwhelm him rather than providing him with reliable knowledge, ultimately driving him into madness.
What does the author conclude about the ending of the story?
The conclusion states that the chaotic ending—the collapse of the mansion—serves as a final realization that neither rationalism, empiricism, nor the sublime can offer the characters true knowledge or safety.
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- Anna Poppen (Autor:in), 2012, A Hopeless Endeavor: The Quest for Knowledge in “The Fall of the House of Usher”, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/278563
