Abstract

The Fall of the House of Usher,as one of Edgar Allen Poe’s most prominent horrible stories, elaborately depicts a typical Gothic environment pervading every corner of that particular space including the outside of the old house, the corridor, the room, the corpse and the stormy night. Allen Poe devotes all his life to exploring beauty which is closely attached to death, horror and mystery and he believes that  “Death becomes poetic when it is associated with beauty”. Though the form of beauty is various and the definition of beauty has not been decided yet, there is no doubt that Allen Poe presents us a new way to define beauty and perceive beauty which is associated with the thrilling excitement and sensational satisfaction caused by sense of terror. This paper will focus on Allen Poe’s creation principles that to some extent can explain why he chooses horrible stories to display beauty, features of the horrible beauty in The Fall of the House of Usher and how the author achieves to create such kind of beauty. The first chapter will briefly introduce the author of the story and the general feature of his works. The second chapter includes the creation principles of Allen Poe that have a huge influence in composing the story of Usher House, the origin and general feature of Gothic novels, the concept of horrible beauty and previous studies of Allen Poe and his works abroad and at home. Chapter 4 will analyze three aspects of the horrible beauty in the story in terms of the form of the beauty, the unique quality of the beauty and the source of the beauty. Furthermore, in the fifth chapter, the means by which Allen Poe creates the horrible beauty will be analyzed carefully from three aspects, namely the description of the environment, the suspense aroused by lady Madeline and the trans-natural scenes. Thus, by the analysis of the above parts, this thesis will provide readers a new perspective to appreciate this work and understand horrible beauty and the author’s creation principles. 

Keywords: Edgar Allen Poe; unity of effect; horrible Gothic beauty; the House of Usher

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

Chapter 1. Introduction-1

Chapter 2. Literature Review-2

2.1 Edgar Allen Poe’s Principles of Creation-2

2.2 Gothic Novels and Horrible Beauty-3

2.3 Previous Studies of Edgar Allen Poe and His Works both at Home and Abroad-4

Chapter 3. Significance of the Study-6

3.1 The Purpose of the Study-6

3.2 The Importance of the Study-6

Chapter 4. The Aspects of the Gothic Horrible Beauty in The Fall of the House of Usher-8

4.1 The Form of the Beauty by Creating Horrible Gothic Atmosphere-8

4.2 The Unique Quality of the Beauty by Shifting from the Conventional Moral Teaching-9

4.3 The Source of the Beauty by Extracting from Real Life and Imaging-10

Chapter 5. Three Ways to Achieve the Horrible Beauty—— An-12

         Elaborately-designed Gothic Horror-12

5.1 The Description of the Environment-12

5.2 The Suspenses Aroused by Lady Madeline-14

5.3 The Trans-natural Scenes-15

Chapter 6. Conclusion-16

References-17