As a prose narrative, the short story is defined in numerous ways by several scholars-as a result, there is no one universal definition of the term that cut-across. Yet, the definitions given by Edgar Allan Poe and Gordon and Kuehner do not negate and misrepresent what the short story is. According to Gordon and Kuehner quoted by bookbyte.com, a short story is ‘a short prose narrative if it contains some 5000 words it is usually characterized as short story, if its length reaches 15000 words it could be characterized as a novel.’ Allan Poe on his part as quoted by William Boyd in Prospect Magazine says it is, ‘a short prose narrative requiring from a half hour to two hours of perusal.’ In his review of Nathaniel Hawthome’s collection of stories titled Twice Told Tales, poe states that ‘we allude to the short prose narrative, requiring from a half to one or two hours in its perusal. The ordinary novel is objectionable, from its length, it can not be read at one sitting, it deprives itself of course of the immense force derivable from totality’. These two perspectives by Gordon and Kuehner and Allan Poe looked at the short story in terms of its length and duration of reading. Essentially therefore, what they have succeeded in doing is presenting a presenting a prescriptive meaning of what the short story is perceived to be today.
However, the short story discusses a wide range of subject from historical, to topical, political to socio-economic and cultural. For example, O’ Henry’s The Gift of the Maggi deals with the issues of unconditional love and sacrifice. Alice Walker’s ‘Every day Use’ handles issues related to cultural heritages. While Zainab Alkali’s ‘Saltless Ash’ and ‘The Vagabond’ exposes the social ills in a patriarchal society engineered and manipulated by the men folks. The domain of the short story is hence not; limited to the number of subject it can discuss-it is open to all forms of discuss. Its only limitation lies in the number of ideas that can be discuss at a time, usually it makes room for a considerable few ideas at a time.
The statement, ‘A short story should have a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out’ was made in The Theory of the Short Story (1842) by one of America Hawthorne
“A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thought to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents and then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing his preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tends not to be out bringing this effect, then he has failed this first step. In the whole composition, there should be no word written of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design.”
The whole notion of Poe’s unity of mood or singleness of effect implies that the short story concentrates on a particular mood, sober, hopeful, optimistic, horror or pessimistic. This is because the milieu of the short story is limited in space, length, setting, themes and characters-so that there is no space to deal with varied moods. One mood usually predominates in the story. As Eric affirms, “a great short story is generally about one thing, one situation, one feeling-which it introduces then gradually builds it to climax”. Each choice made in the construction of the narrative must contribute to the dominant and pre-conceived effect so as to lend the story a sense of consequence. The complete purpose of this Poe remarks, is to “evoke Excessive” emotions at the story’s climax. He stresses that, “only then can we get the satisfaction of ‘totality’ or enjoying a work in its totality”. “When we read something of this length, we are less likely to become distracted” (brainstorm).
The Fall of the House of Usher is considered by most critics to be the best example of Poe’s ‘totality’, where every element and detail is related and relevant. Eric Rosenfield states that the notion of the “certain unique or single effect to be wrought out informs Poe’s own story which generally follow a straight forward path to a definite climax and then are finished”
The Fall of the House of Usher (1839) is a gothic horror story, written in the first person by Poe. It encompasses this notion of singularity of effect as the entire story revolves around Roderick Usher, Lady Madeline, his twin sister and the unnamed narrator revealed as Usher’s friend. It focuses on the generational malaise and terror and subsequent annihilation of the Usher’s family.
In this story, Poe harmonizes and synthesizes all or each element of the short story to contribute to the overall effect of the work. He makes every word, every phrase and every sentence part of the organic whole. Together, they develop and buttress the major theme of horror that characterize not only the setting, but the characters and the situations surrounding them. For example, words, phrases and sentences like, dull, dark, soundless autumn, clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, insufferable gloom, alone, sorrow, melancholy and singularly dreary all establish the one single mood of this masterpiece which is horror accompanied by gloom.
From his arrival, the narrator notices a gloomy vicinity surrounding the fungus covered Usher’s house. When the narrator arrives by horseback one autumn evening at the House of Usher, the sight of its bleak walls and desolate grounds fills him with gloom. Everything from inception gives the signal of terror and fear. His contact with Roderick Usher and later glimpse of Lady Madeline feels him with woe which he describes as ‘insufferable gloom’. At the denouement of the story, the narrator continues to come into constant touch with yet another picture of terrific doom as lady Madeline apparently demise now resurrect and collapses on her brother, Usher- and then the colossal ruin of the Usher’s house which split into two. This very act signals the utter annihilation of the Usher’s family.
In this terrifying gothic tale finally, Poe’s ingenuity with symmetrical coherence of elements that synthesized to produced a unifying work heavy laden with intrigue and meaning presents itself. Right from the beginning Poe develops one p0articular effect, horror and continues to build on it till the end. Each detail, each atmosphere and each picture depicted obviously in one way or the other correlates to the overwhelming effect of horror in the story. The intention as stated earlier is to achieve what Poe calls ‘excessive’ emotion at the story’s climax. This conscious arrangement has bestowed on The Fall of the House of Usher a classical paradigm of a short story at least to Poe’s standard. It puts aside every element that is not related to the single effect and utilizes every other thing within reach that will succor in the success of the effort.
WORKS CITED.
Brainstorm. Approaching the Art of Fiction. As appeared in http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2005/pdf/authors-define-fiction.pdf.
Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher. (1839)
Eric, Rosenfield. The Nature of the Short Story. As appeared in http:www.wetasphalt.com/?q=node/221. Retrieved 26th march, 2011.
Martin. Fiction (2002). As appeared in www.bookbyte.com/1/1/112900.fiction. Retrieved 20th january, 2011.
Michael. Theory of the Short Story:An analysis. As appeared in www.arts.ualberta.ca/~d miall/project-la htm.
Michael J Cunnings. Analysis of The-Fall-of –the-House-of Usher. As appeared in http://www.cunnings studyguides.net/Guides/usher.html. Retrieved 21st January, 2011.
William, Boyd. The Short Story(2006). As appeared in http://www.prospect magazine.co.uk/2006/07. Retrieved 12th February, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment