An Analysis of the Horrible Gothic Beauty in the story of The Fall of the House of Usher

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. 46812

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

分析《厄舍府的倒塌》中的哥特式恐怖之美

摘  要作为埃德加·爱伦·坡最著名的短篇小说之一，《厄舍府的倒塌》精心描绘了一幕幕哥特式的恐怖画面。阴森压抑的氛围弥漫在小说中那特定的时空的每一个角落：厄舍府的外部环境，内部的长廊，书房，地牢，尸体和暴风雨的夜晚。坡终其一生都在追求美，这种艺术美与死亡，恐怖和神秘息息相关。尽管美的表现形式多种多样，古往今来对美的定义也是众说纷纭，但毫无疑问坡给我们打开了一条欣赏美的独特之路，悬疑和恐怖带给人感官上的冲击和情感上的紧张激动，使读者获得审美上的快感。本文的第一章主要简明介绍作者及《厄舍府的倒塌》的主要故事内容和艺术特点。第二章包括三部分，首先详细阐述坡的创作理论，原因在于他的美学观点，效果论对其构思创作《厄舍府的倒塌》有重要影响，其次介绍哥特小说这一小说流派的起源和主要特点，恐怖与美的联系，最后是对国内外相关研究进行总结的简要评述，第三章指出本文的研究意义。第四章在结合坡的美学观点上分析《厄舍府的倒塌》所体现的恐怖之美的特征，包括美的形式，美的特点和美的来源。最后一章从环境描写，女主人公引起的悬念以及超自然场景描述这三个方面来分析作者实现恐怖之美的手段。因此，通过以上各部分的分析，本文将提供给读者一个全新的视角来鉴赏坡的这部经典之作，加深读者对美的理解并帮助读者更好地理解爱伦·坡独特的的创作理念。

毕业论文关键词：埃德加·爱伦·坡；效果论；哥特式恐怖之美；《厄舍府的倒塌》 《厄舍府的倒塌》中的哥特式恐怖之美:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_48622.html