Holly ONeill

The fury of a demon possessed me. (Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat). Explore
the representation of the supernatural in American literature before 1900.

The supernatural seems to play a vital role in the literature of America, and it is
only natural to link these literary manifestations to the Gothic genre, as it is
argued by some critics that the whole of American writing (can be seen) as a
Gothic literature1 and that some element of the supernatural may seem to be an
almost obligatory component of the gothic.2 American gothic seemed to take on
a new form at this time as the ideologies of the nation transformed in accordance
with the changes taking place within the country. It is my intention to explore
the representation of the supernatural in Edgar Allen Poes two short tales of
terror: The Fall of the House of Usher and William Wilson, (both of which were
published in 1839) where the sublime takes prevalence.
It is my opinion that throughout both short stories, two of the main
manifestations of the supernatural are made explicit. I will argue that the
narrator in William Wilson can be interpreted to be a ghost, where as Roderick
Usher and his twin sister, Madeline, may be read as precursors to the most
famous of Vampire legends- that of Bram Stokers Count Dracula and the
victimised Lucy Westenra. Read alongside Sigmund Freuds theories of the
return of the repressed, it seems that Poes attempts to represent the
supernatural in his literature again leads us to an anticipation of Victorian Gothic
that in fact shys away from the typical American Gothic of this century, agreeing
with the ideas of Allan Lloyd-Smith in that American writers were effectively
1

Allan Lloyd-Smith, American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction, (New York: The Continuum
International Publishing Group Inc, 2004), p.4.
2 David Stevens, The Gothic Tradition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p.49.

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still a part of British culture, working in an English language domain and

exposed, both intellectually and in terms of their market place, to British
models.3
With regards to the narrator of William Wilson, Poe makes this
characters ghostly traits explicit throughout the tale so as to represent the
narrator himself as a supernatural being. The first few lines of the text make it
evident that this is a tale of the past- potentially a ghost story: Poe internalised
the Gothic nightmare, claimingmy terror is not of Germany, but of the soul,
thus opening the way for the psychological ghost story.4 Never does the reader
become aware of the narrators real appellation5, which in itself distances the
reader from this character; he is never familiar but instead always part of the
unknown. Towards the middle of the tale, the narrator recalls that One nightI
arose from bed, and, lamp in hand, stole through a wilderness of narrow
passages6. Similarly, at a later stage in the narration, this character again is at
the height of his activities in the middle of the night: We met at a late hour of
night, for our debaucheries were to be faithfully protracted until morning7.
Typically associated with twilight and the witching hour, ghostly apparitions are
supposed to carry out their wanderings at night, just as this narrator appears to
do throughout William Wilson, at times even seeming to haunt his other.
Throughout this unnamed beings narration, he mentions his own soulless

Lloyd-Smith, p.3.
ibid, p.32.
5 Poe, Edgar Allen, William Wilson, in The Fall of the House Usher and Other Writings, (London:
Penguin Classics, 1986), p1.
6 ibid, p.5.
7 ibid, p.6.
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dissipation8 and the fact he was in secret communion with my own spirit9.
Ideas such as these seem to suggest a strong connection to his spiritual existence.
Similarly, Poe himself was also acutely aware of the sublime and perhaps went as
far as to believe in such ghostly visions as the ones portrayed in his work. He
stated, At death, the worm is the butterfly, still material, but of a matter
unrecognised by our organs- recognised occasionally, perhaps, by the sleepwalker directly- without organs- through mesmerist medium. Thus a sleepwalker may see ghosts10. From this then, it is possible to see Poes own beliefs
about ghosts and the supernatural reflected in, and superimposed on, the
narrator of William Wilson. At the very end of the story, it is revealed that when
the narrator stabs his supposed doppelganger, he has simultaneously injured
himself. The doppelganger says to the narrator:
You have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward art thou also dead -dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope! In me didst thou exist -- and, in
my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast
murdered thyself.11
It is only at this point- the denouement of both the story and the narrators own
existence- that the reader questions whether it is possible that this character is
narrating from beyond the grave and is in fact a specter, a ghost.

ibid, p.5.
ibid, p.8.
10 Lloyd-Smith, p.169.
11 Poe, William Wilson, p.9.
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Rene L. Berglands suggestion that the entire dynamic of ghosts and

hauntings, as we understand it today, is a dynamic of unsuccessful repression12,
seems to link Freuds understanding of the return of the repressed inextricably
to Poes representation of the supernatural. The idea that the uncanny proceeds
from repressed infantile complexes, from the castration-complex, wombphantasies, etc13, becomes important as the uncannyas it is depicted in
literatureis a much more fertile province than the uncanny in real life.14
Therefore, both ghostly apparitions of William Wilson could be seen to embody
this return of the repressed in the sense that they are symbolic of the evil that
the other is trying to repress.
This provides another link between the two texts, as in The Fall of the
House of Usher Poe again makes use of supernatural mythology in the form of
the vampire. The first evidence that points towards Roderick Usher as a vampire
is seen when the narrator first enters the house of Usher: Usher arose from a
sofa on which he had been lying at full length15. This seems to evoke the generic
image of a typical vampire, arousing connotations of one at rest in their coffin.
This imagery of the walking dead seems to foreshadow future events that are to
unfold later in this tale of terror. This character of phantasm16 can almost be
seen to have inspired arguably the greatest vampire of all fiction- Bram Stokers
Count Dracula. Published in 1897, Dracula laid the foundations of what a
12

Rene L. Bergland, The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects, (Hanover:
University Press of New England, 2005), p.5.
13

David Sandner, Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader, (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2004),
p.98.
14 ibid.
15 Edgar Allen Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher, in The Fall of the House Usher and Other
Writings, (London: Penguin Classics, 1986), p.2.
16 ibid.

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modern day reader would consider to be the typical characteristics of a vampire.

If we take this to be true, then a side-by-side analysis of the characters of
Roderick Usher and Count Dracula provides further examples of how, in
retrospect, Roderick can be seen to be intrinsically linked to the vampire. The
physical descriptions of both characters are undeniably very similar. Roderick
Usher possesses a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril
unusual in similar formations17 - Dracula has a high bridge of the thin nose and
peculiarly arched nostrils1817. Rodericks silken hair(that) had been suffered
to grow all unheeded17, is reminiscent of Draculas that was growing scantily
round the temples, but profusely elsewhere else.17 The extraordinary pallor17
of Draculas complexion is directly comparative to the now ghastly pallor of the
skin of Usher. Similar traits can also be identified between the two, made
explicit in the lines in The Fall of the House of Usher: He (Roderick) suffered
much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone
endurablethe odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by
even a faint light.19 Upon reading Dracula, the eponymous villain of the novel
also has the power of super-human senses, reminiscent of Ushers cries: Said I
not that my senses were acute?20. Count Dracula too is unable to eat solid food,
bear certain smells, (such as that of garlic), and is extremely sensitive to the light
of day.

17

ibid, p.2.

19

ibid, p.6.
ibid, p.8.

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Madeline Usher also seems to share similar traits with Dracula. Both
seem to be able to take the form of gas- the light of the gas shining like a red
eye21 that is Count Dracula is reminiscent of the unnatural light of a faintly
luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation22 that could be interpreted as
the changed form of Madeleine Usher. It is with another character from Dracula
that Madeline seems to share most characteristics with however- that of Lucy
Westenra. Both young women start the narration alive but meet an untimely
death due to illness. Like Lucy, the disease of Lady Madeline had long baffled the
skill of her physicians23, suggesting the supernatural as the root cause. Madeline
is described as cataleptic, and Lucy as has an awful, waxen pallor24 during their
times of illness but both are restored to their natural beauty after their demisesMadeline has the mockery of a faint blush in death and Lucys lips were
redand on the cheeks a delicate bloom25. Both women rise from the grave
after death, the female embodiments of the anti-Christ: Much influenced by
Romanticism, and particularly by German Romantic irony, (Poe)
demonstratedhis interest in extremes of consciousness, in episodes of neardeath states or dream-like intensities.26 Our final sight of Madeline in The Fall
of the House of Usher is after her resurrection, with blood upon her white
robes27- again linking this desecrated virginal figure in white to the myth of the
vampire. In both English and American literature before 1900, these sorts of
characters can be seen to be the metaphorical embodiment of the threatening
21

Bram Stoker, Dracula, (Dublin: Plain Label Books, 1987), p.411.

Poe, Usher, p.8.
23 ibid, p.3.
24 ibid.
25 Stoker, p.319.
26 Lloyd-Smith, p.31.
27 Poe, Usher, p.9.
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and increasingly powerful woman in society. If the vampire is the enemy of God,
and of human sympathy and conscience28, then both Roderick and Madeline
Usher can be seen to embody the return of the repressed, just as the narrator and
doppelganger of William Wilson also do.
A Freudian reading of the stories leads onto the idea of the doppelganger
effect that is explicit throughout both tales. This effect is used in conjunction
with the supernatural by Poe to heighten the readerships fear of the return of
the repressed. In discussion of doubles within Poes work, the theories of
Freuds successor, Jacques Lacan, become important- specifically those about the
unconscious. Allan Lloyd-Smith states that most attempts to find psychological
explanations- as in identifications of Roderick Usher with the super-ego and his
sister Madeline with the id, or Roderick with the mind and Madeline with the
body-seem wholly unconvincing.29 Opposing this idea, S.T. Joshi argues an idea
that I agree with: rather than have the animalistic side of human nature be
represented in the double, it is the self that is pure id. Here, the double functions
as alter ego and ego, since the self is absent of both30. Roderick and Madeline
Usher are only one example of doubling throughout the texts but are perhaps the
most interesting. According to Lloyd-Smith, among the extremes and taboos
that the Gothic explores(is) incest. This can be interpreted as a dark side of
Enlightenment free-thinking31. Incest does seem to be traceable between the
Usher twins, implied at first through Rodericks grief with which he cries
28

Clemens, Valdine,
(New York: State University of New York Press, 1999), p.168.
29

Lloyd-Smith, p.47.
S. T. Joshi, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares,
(Westport: Greenwood Publishing, 2007), p. 199.
31 Lloyd Smith, p.6.
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passionate tears32 over his tenderly beloved sister- his sole companion for long
years33. The most explicit example of their questionable relationship is at the
end of the narration when Madeline ascends from her coffin to the top of the
mansion in a sort of brides procession in her white dress to her awaiting
groom, Roderick, in a marriage ceremony that reaches its climax when she falls
upon her brother and simultaneously kills him, joining them both in death. This
could be interpreted as a sort of rape of the double and this advantageof the
Gothic form in articulating the concerns of the unvoiced other has meant the
position of the female in a predominantly masculinist culture provided another
important strand in American Gothicism.34 The idea that the supernatural can
take form through incestuous siblings can be found across American literature
before 1900, most explicitly in Herman Melvilles Pierre (1852) where there is a
literal marriage between siblings, which suggests that such social deviations and
perversions are as horrific as the supernatural in some cases. With the
mentioning of Meville, Lloyd-Smith cites that what most closely links the three
great American Gothicists of the period- Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville- is their
exploration of negative Romanticism, the blackness of vision when Romantic
inspiration succumbs to an equally overwhelming but far bleaker subjectivity.35
In 1799, Philadelphian novelist Charles Brockden Brown suggested that if
American writers wanted to scare their readers they didnt need the
supernatural machinery- the puerile superstition- of European gothic

32

Poe, Usher, p.6.

ibid.
34 Lloyd-Smith, p.28.
35 ibid, p.34.
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fiction36. In his preface to Edgar Huntley (1799), he also stated that the incidents
of Indian hostility, and the perils of the western wilderness, are far more
suitable; and for a native of America to overlook these, would admit of no
apology37. After exploring the representation of the supernatural in two of Poes
works, I disagree with Browns assertion in that writers such as Poe, (although
many other American writers before 1900 did of course adhere to the new ideals
of American Gothic), did in fact adapt very European approaches to American
gothic and the supernatural. Instead I agree with critics such as Lloyd-Smith
who argues that Poe turned his back on specifically American settings and
invented an indeterminate quasi-European setting for his Gothic tales.38 Poe
utilises typically Gothic tropes such as the doppelganger effect and archaic
European settings alongside the evocation of supernatural mythology, (such as
the ghost and vampire), to elevate the element of the sublime in his writing to a
definitive status that seems to characterise the large majority of his works. In
this way, the supernatural comes to represent the return of the repressed- social
deviations and what is felt in the unconscious of the human psyche. While the
vampires and ghosts portrayed in his work are terrifying in themselves, what
Poe conveys through his use of the supernatural is that it is what they representthe evil within each of us-is what is in fact truly horrific to any reader.
Bibliography

Bergland, Rene L, The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects,
(Hanover: University Press of New England, 2005).
36Lloyd-Smith, p.79.
37
38

ibid.
ibid, pp.46-7.

Holly ONeill
Clemens, Valdine,
gothic horror from the Castle of
Otranto to
, (New York: State University of New York Press, 1999).
Joshi, S. T, Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst
Nightmares, (Westport: Greenwood Publishing, 2007).
Lloyd-Smith, Allan, American Gothic Fiction: An Introduction, (New York: The
Continuum International Publishing Group Inc, 2004).
Poe, Edgar Allen, The Fall of the House of Usher, in The Fall of the House Usher
and Other Writings, (London: Penguin Classics, 1986).
Poe, Edgar Allen, William Wilson, in The Fall of the House Usher and Other
Writings, (London: Penguin Classics, 1986).
Sandner, David, Fantastic Literature: A Critical Reader, (Westport: Praeger
Publishers, 2004).
Stevens, David, The Gothic Tradition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2000).
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, (Dublin: Plain Label Books, 1987).

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