English Literature

The theme of double meanings and hidden intentions is common in the four stories I have selected. Each short story presented here has a detail, event, or character that possesses a double standard role in these classical stories.

Edgar Allan Poes The Fall of the House of Usher is a story that revolves around the Usher bloodline and the secrets of their family. The main protagonists of the  story are the unnamed narrator and the last descendants of the Usher family, Roderick and Madeline. The story documents the dreary life of the siblings and the sickness of Madeline that forces Roderick to hide from the people. The narrator is only visiting at that time, keeping his friend company. But eventually, Madeline dies and they are forced to bury her inside the grounds of the mansion. The twist of the story is that a few days after the burial, Madeline rises from her grave. She was not really dead, and she kills her twin brother as revenge for being buried alive. The death of Roderick signals the end for the bloodline of Usher because only one descendant lives each generation and they do not have any relatives outside the direct line anymore.

Overall, the story is very capable of raising your hair to their ends because of its creepy storyline and Poes unique imagination. The beginning of The Fall of the House of Usher describes the House of Usher, a term or label that makes the Usher family line and their family mansion known equivocally as one. The descriptions are from the perspective of the narrators, stating how the estate is filled with a gloomy and mysterious feeling that people who go inside will feel uneasy with the environment of the house. The themes of the story are not easy to decipher because the author embedded them in the events and details that have double meanings. However, if one would analyze the story, the assumed death of Madeline, her breakage from the tomb, and the death of Roderick all symbolize their inner longing for freedom. At one point in the story, Roderick realizes that the house itself is unhealthy for them, and this hints a wish to be free from their family ancestry. The siblings are confined and deprived of the chance to become someone they want to be because they locked themselves voluntarily to their house for a very long time.

Another hair-raising short story of Edgar Allan Poe, entitled Tell-Tale Heart, is about the narrators crime of murder when he kills an old man with blue eyes as a reaction to what he claims his obsessive love. After killing the old man in his own apartment, the narrator even dismembers his body and keeps the remains beneath the floorboards. The narrator obviously has mental and psychological problems and yet, he tries to maintain his composure and belief that he is sane, until this is disproved in the last part of the story when the police arrives to investigate him.

Other than both having unnamed narrators, the first two stories also basically have the same themes, but they each have very unique twists. Tell-Tale Heart is a story of misguided love and paranoia. The beating of the heart that is haunting the narrator has a double meaning because it also represents the guilt that the narrator is feeling over the love-hate relationship that he has towards the old man with piercing blue eyes. The narrators failure to grasp what is real and what is part of his imagination and his obsession of the old man causes him to lose his sanity and commit a grave crime. This thriller story documents how too much of anything lead to ugly ends.

The Birthmark, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, features the story of a young and brilliant scientist named Aylmer who is obsessed with perfection. He sees his wifes birthmark as an imperfection or a flaw and he sets out to remove this. Even though Georgina does not believe in this, she had no choice but to go along with her husbands wish. The story is a tragedy like the two stories before because the elixir that Aylmer created that could successfully remove the birthmark also causes Georginas death.

Hawthornes story is a well-written tale that contains elements that have dual meanings as well. The birthmark of Georgina actually symbolizes her humanity and her essence as a woman, but because of Aylmers narrow-mindedness and selfishness, Georginas life was literally taken away from her. Erasing the birthmark would also equally mean deprivation of Georginas human soul, and this actually led to her early death.

The last story that is part of my collection is Nathaniel Hawthornes story entitled Rappacinis Daughter which centers on the life and experiences of Beatrice in the hands of the different men in her life. Beatrice is the beautiful daughter of Dr. Rappacini, a bright but mad director who experiments with plants and his own daughter. Because of Dr. Rappacinis scientific experimentation, Beatrice develops the power to poison with just her mere breath. The other men in Beatrices life are Giovanni, her lover who wanted to save her but causes her death, and Professor Baglioni, a man who envies her father and feels threatened by her to the point of wanting to see her dead. In the attempt to get rid of the poisons inside Beatrices body, the antidote given to her by Giovanni leads to her death.

The theme of the story revolves around the domination by the male characters over the female character. The men who are part of Beatrices life each have their own personal and selfish intentions over her. Their actions have double meanings and this reality caused Beatrices death towards the end.

These classical stories effectively touch on the imagination of the readers because of their creative twists and the authors capability to write double meanings regarding the details of the story without disrupting the narration of the events.